Bailey is moving to the country, where his rehab will continue before he is placed with a forever family.
They say cats have nine lives, but this dog must have quite a few, too, after an odyssey that found him traveling across New York City and all the way to New Jersey before he was brought to safety.
The 8-month-old Akita-German Shepherd mix named Bailey caused complete chaos when he ran away from home in Brooklyn and tried to swim across the East River last month.
Tom Gilman Chevchick spotted the dog and went after him on a paddle board.
“I was out there with him probably for about 45 minutes just trying to move him into shore. He was so big. I mean, his head is just gigantic, but you could also tell he was very young and very scared,” Chevchick said.
It worked, and Bailey was forced to the rocky shoreline.
“He was so tired when he got out of the water, he literally couldn’t stand up straight and the weight of his own body was collapsing him down,” Chevchick said.
But then, Bailey ran away and made his way into the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. He emerged unscathed on the other end in Lower Manhattan.
Bailey’s adventure wasn’t done yet. Somehow he wound up in a second tunnel — the Holland Tunnel, which leads to New Jersey.
The puppy ended up on the upper level of a parking garage in Jersey City.
When he was finally captured, Red Hook Dog Rescue brought him to the emergency veterinary hospital with a nasty leg wound. Apparently, Bailey's fundamental problem is that he doesn't like people.
“I can pet him now. I just started petting him this week,” a rescue worker said.
Now, Bailey is moving to the country, where his rehab will continue before he is placed with a forever family.
