The worst criminals are always willing to take advantage of a natural disaster.
Sometimes, things work out in the most unexpected ways.
And a sick criminal who committed an awful act during the hurricane hated this twist ending.
Viral dog left tied up in water during Hurricane Milton
Hurricane Milton was a category five storm in the Gulf of America while it was headed for Florida last fall.
Meteorologists warned that Milton could make a direct hit on Tampa Bay, which caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee ahead of the storm making landfall.
Giovanni Aldama Garcia, 23-years-old, left his white bull terrier tied up on the median on I-75 during the evacuation.
The dog was left tied to a fence in a pool of water that had risen to his chest as the heavy rain from the storm came down.
Florida Highway Patrol officers found the bull terrier by the highway and rescued him.
FHP Troopers rescued a dog left tied to a pole on I-75 near Bruce B Downs Blvd this morning. Do NOT do this to your pets please… pic.twitter.com/8cZJOfkJL2
— FHP Tampa (@FHPTampa) October 9, 2024
The Highway Patrol officers named the dog “Trooper.”
Authorities took the dog to an animal shelter in Tallahassee, where he recovered from the mistreatment and injuries he suffered under his previous owner.
Garcia was charged with felony animal cruelty for leaving Trooper to drown in the storm.
Trooper overcomes a battle with cancer after being adopted
Frank and Karla Spina adopted Trooper after he recovered from his brush with death.
But that was just the beginning of the fight for the bull terrier.
The Spinas noticed several lumps on Trooper just weeks after they adopted him.
A veterinarian identified the lumps as cancer.
“The doctor immediately said, ‘Oh no, these are mass cell tumors. These are cancer.’ So we were in a complete meltdown,” Frank Spina recalled.
The veterinarian performed surgery to remove the cancer from Trooper.
“We don’t have children. These are our children,” Frank Spina said about Trooper and his other dog, Dallas. “And then we got that good news and . . . when we left the doctor’s office that day after he got his stitches out, the doctor said he’s done, he’s cancer free. We were literally in tears, just walking to the car, happy tears.”
The brave dog was not out of the woods yet.
“He was out and walking and he just started putting his head down,” Frank Spina said. “I went under him and he vomited and a piece of rubber came out of his mouth.”
The veterinarian noticed something in Trooper’s stomach before his cancer surgery and told the Spinas to watch for anything unusual.
Trooper was getting sick so they took him back to the veterinarian.
A freezer bag of trash that weighed two pounds ended up in his stomach after the dog ate it.
It was time for another surgery for Trooper.
The veterinarian called it a “once in a lifetime career case.”
After four years, the bag containing rubber and metal was removed from Trooper’s stomach.
“Could you imagine how starved he had to be to ingest a piece of metal or, or pieces of rubber that are the size of quarters?” Frank Spina asked.
It was suspected that Trooper ate the bag looking for food before he was adopted by the Spinas.
Frank Spina vowed that he would be at every hearing for Trooper’s former owner, Giovanny Garcia.
“Every single hearing, a trial, a sentencing, we will be there,” Spina said. “He’s going to have to look at this dog and account for what he did to him.”
Trooper overcame incredible odds to finally find a loving home.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
