Our hero, Moose, has found a home on a farm in Franklin with his new, forever family. His adoptive parents, Ciara and Darrel Hill, feel he deserves it.
The 8-year-old Great Pyrenees lives on 5 acres bordered by woods, a creek to splash through and expansive corn fields. He’ll never be alone again.
Around him in the fenced-in yard, four goats bleat and 18 turkeys and more than 20 chickens peck at the grass. Tim, an African spurred tortoise, moseys near the rabbit hutch. A deck extends from the house to an above-ground dog-friendly pool. Moose also has seven canine siblings — a mess of terriers; Suzie, the big great Dane; and even one suspected Chinese crested and Maltese mix — and has become fast friends with Buddha, a Labrador retriever. The buds eat meals together.
According to the American Kennel Club, a full-grown male Great Pyrenees averages over 100 pounds. Moose weighs about 85 and, like many newly rescued dogs, is visibly thin. He’s fed high-protein wet food in the morning, two cans of dry kibble to graze on throughout the day, and a second can of high-protein in the evening.
“We’re trying to help put that little bit of weight back on him,” Ciara Hill said.
While a resident at the Portsmouth Humane Society shelter, Moose’s life changed on Aug. 4.
That Friday, Chris Cushna and Sheila Janes, stopped by the facility. Janes’ granddaughter, Luna, 8, and Cushna’s children — Anya, 10, and Logan, 12 — were staying for the weekend on the couple’s 1983, 42-foot Gibson houseboat docked at the Tidewater Yacht Marina. Pondering ways to entertain the children, Janes remembered that the humane society allows people to check out dogs for the day.
“We walked past a lot of dogs that were very loud about wanting somebody to take them,” Janes said. “But Moose was at the very back and just had this sort of gentle giant, calm, chill demeanor about him.”
The family had such a good time with Moose they decided to keep him for another day. He slept with the kids.
Around 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Anya woke up when Moose started softly whining. Anya woke her father, and the two took Moose onto the deck, thinking he may need to relieve himself. But they saw a massive fire overtaking the neighboring boat. Cushna ran back inside, waking the rest of the family and getting them to the deck. Within minutes, flames leaped to their houseboat.
Cushna said, “The dog alerting us, as early as he did, was crucial in terms of everyone getting out safely.”
With their home destroyed, the couple couldn’t adopt Moose.
Ciara Hill was lounging on her back porch, reading on her phone about Moose’s deed on the humane society’s Facebook page as her husband worked the grill.
“That dog, the one who rescued the people from the fire,” she said to her husband.
“Yeah?”
“He’s been returned to the shelter!”
“Well, go get him,” Darrel Hill said.
She drove to Portsmouth and took Moose back to the farm the next morning.
“A dog like that, that rescued people, that’s a hero, doesn’t need to be in a cage,” Darrel Hill said. “And we have all this space.
“He’s home now.”
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