Dog’s odyssey ends in Vegas

In his nine months or so of life, Snickers the cocker spaniel has been shipwrecked, abandoned and a castaway.

Now, he's finally home.

The scrawny pooch spent the past several months fending for himself on tiny Fanning Island in the Pacific, about 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, where the sailboat of his previous owners had run aground.

The owners hitched a ride out of there on a cargo vessel, leaving behind Snickers and their pet parrot, Gulliver.

"They left the bird with an islander, but nobody was taking care of the puppy," said Jack Joslin, Snickers' new owner. "He was in bad shape, the skinniest thing, and his hair was a mess."

Snickers traveled thousands of miles, via cruise ship, plane and car, to his new home with Joslin in a gated Las Vegas neighborhood near west Tropicana Avenue and the Las Vegas Beltway.

Joslin, a 60-year-old retiree, had read about the two stranded animals in a boating journal and decided to step in before they were destroyed.

"I read the story and thought, 'Somebody's got to do something,'" Joslin said as he played fetch with Snickers inside his home on Monday afternoon. "I thought, 'I can do something.'"

Joslin already had Missy, a 12-year-old mixed breed dog, and Henry, a 19-year-old parrot. Another dog, 15-year-old Tucker, had died just days before Joslin became aware of the abandoned animals.

Joslin heard about them "at a very vulnerable, emotional time," he said.

He began to orchestrate a long-distance rescue of the two animals from Fanning, one of 33 scattered coral atolls that make up the remote island nation of Kiribati.

He had to negotiate with the Kiribati government and get help from the Norwegian Cruise Line, Hawaiian Airlines and the Hawaiian Humane Society, all of whom agreed to aid in the rescue.

Snickers boarded a cruise ship April 9, wearing a badge labelled "castaway." He sailed to Oahu, Hawaii, served a short stint in quarantine and then flew to Los Angeles. A volunteer drove him to Joslin's home, where he arrived late Sunday afternoon.

Gulliver's removal from the island has proven more difficult because he is an endangered exotic bird, Joslin said. He hopes to eventually win custody of the macaw.

In the meantime, Snickers is rapidly bonding with Joslin, if not so much with his other pets.

"Snickers has issues," Joslin said as the puppy barked madly and snapped at a reporter. "It's going to take him a long time to get along with anybody."

Joslin has had to keep Snickers mostly separated from his other pets.

"He doesn't trust other animals or people," Joslin said. "I'm sure he learned the hard way that the first thing to do is be tough and offensive. You can always be sweet later."

He added: "The changes he's gone through, my god. He had to fight for his life."

But Joslin said he's always been good with dogs, and "it's just going to take some time" for Snickers to adjust to his new life.

"There's a sweet little puppy in there," he said. "Getting the wild beast part to go dormant is going to take a while."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.