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A 3-month-old pit bull puppy who had a poor start to life will never want for anything after being adopted by actor Dave Bautista.
The former wrestler has a soft spot for pit bulls and as soon as he heard Sage’s story, he contacted the shelter to help.
Sage arrived at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay (HSTB) after a Good Samaritan spotted her eating garbage in a local cemetery.
The friendly puppy ran up to the woman and that is when she noticed a metal chain was embedded in her neck. She rushed the puppy to the HSTB for help.
The medical team examined Sage, who wagged her tail the entire time, and prepared her for surgery to remove the chain embedded around her neck.
“In addition to the chain, we noticed that Sage has skin issues and overgrown nails. We can’t imagine who would do this to her,” wrote the shelter.
Dozens of people offered to foster or showed interest in adopting the sweet girl once she recovered – and one of those people was Dave Bautista.
Dave was infuriated that someone could mistreat the innocent puppy and said he would personally hand $5,000 cash to the person who gave information that led to an arrest and conviction. His reward is in addition to the $1,500 reward offered by HSTB and another $5,000 offered by Alvarez Injury Law to find the cruel individual.
While Dave looks like a tough guy, he melted at the sight of the little puppy running towards him. He sported a huge smile and laughed as the Sage headed straight for him.
He reached down and softly patted the dog’s head and they were instant best friends. But Dave isn’t the only one thrilled about his new addition to the family.
Sage is the picture of happiness cradled in the arms of her new dad.
The shelter posted the great news on Facebook letting their fans know that Sage had been adopted.
“Dave saw Sage’s story and knew that she belonged with him! We are so excited for Sage!”
The little pup has been renamed Penny by Dave and will join his other two rescue pitties. He shared a video on Instagram introducing Penny to his fans and said as he hugged his new pup, “She’s about to live her best puppy life ever.”
Be like Dave and adopt!