Sacramento firefighter adopts Chunk, the dog he rescued

Chunk, a dog who was rescued after being found tied up and abandoned in October, was permanently adopted by Sacramento firefighter Mike Thawley on Friday morning at the Front Street Animal Shelter.

Chunk was nearly hairless with scabby, swollen legs, and was shivering in the cold rain near 12th and North B streets on Oct. 16 when Thawley and the Sacramento Fire Department Engine No. 14 crew drove by en route to a job.

The crew doubled back after their job was done to help Chunk. Back at the fire station, Chunk was bathed and cared for before taken to the Front Street Animal Shelter in Sacramento.

Thawley, his wife Carla, and three daughters, decided unanimously to foster Chunk during her rounds of treatment for a noncontagious form of mange and permanently adopt her afterward.

“We all just kind of fell in love with her,” Thawley said.

Friday morning, Thawley, with a rambuctious Chunk in tow, signed adoption papers at the shelter after Chunk’s final rounds of treatment for a noncontagious form of mange.

Thawley said the family knew from the start of her foster care that Chunk was part of the family. Over the holidays, Chunk was dressed up in Christmas sweaters.

“My wife likes to dress Chunk up,” Thawley said.

This story was originally published February 3, 2017 at 10:38 AM with the headline "Sacramento firefighter adopts Chunk, the dog he rescued."