While conducting a routine inspection of containers at the Bayport Container Terminal in Seabrook, Texas, on Jan. 31, Coast Guard members heard barking and scratching.
Finally, they realized the noise was coming from a container stacked about 25 feet in the air. The sounds alerted the four marine inspectors to a container that was bound for Dubai, where they found a dog that had been trapped for at least eight days.
“That was our moment of ‘Oh no, we should probably do something about this,’” Reyes said.
The Coast Guard members alerted port officials, who brought in a crane to start moving containers.
When the container with the dog was lowered, the barking got louder along with the sound of scratching against metal. When the container door was opened, Connie’s nose poked out.
The crew —nicknaming her Connie the Container Dog— sprang into action, rescuing the pup, feeding and bathing her.
Connie was taken to an animal rescue so that she could put on some weight.
Today, the marine science technicians –Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Bryan Wainscott, Petty Officer 1st Class Lucas Loe, Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan McMahon and Petty Officer 3rd Class Jose Reyes –assigned to Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston reunited with Connie at the David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport in Texas, before she headed to the Washington, D.C., area to be adopted.
The moment Andrea Deoudes laid eyes on Connie, she resolved to help find her a forever home.
Deoudes first saw photos of the 2-year-old fluffy brown dog during a late-night Facebook scroll. The pup had been dubbed “Connie the Container Dog” by U.S. Coast Guard members who last week found her trapped inside a shipping container stacked high in the air at the Port of Houston.
Deoudes, the founder of the Maryland-based Forever Changed Animal Rescue, figured offers to help Connie would be flooding in after the Coast Guard’s now-viral rescue posts. But she and her colleagues still tried, and on Tuesday, Connie arrived by plane to Virginia, where she is now staying with Deoudes.
Now, her goal is to find Connie a safe home in the D.C. area.
“I thought, ‘What a survivor to make it through all of that,’” said Deoudes, who also works as a veterinarian.
Staff treated Connie like a celebrity when she arrived at Deoudes’s office Tuesday. Everyone wanted to greet the “Container Dog” and snap photos with her.
During an initial exam, Deoudes found that Connie’s thick fur coat had hidden her malnourishment. There was another surprise, too: An ultrasound revealed that the dog was pregnant.
“While it seems like a really happy thing, it’s also tough because let’s say she has five puppies — those are five dogs that will be adopted into homes,” Deoudes said. “And there’s already five puppies alive somewhere else that may be euthanized because they’re not going to be get adopted.”
Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Jose Reyes, who helped rescue Connie, said the dog’s barking might’ve saved her from being shipped overseas.
“She walked out on her own immediately,” Reyes said. “She was very, very happy to see all of us.”
The shipping container was full of totaled vehicles and car parts, Chief Petty Officer Corinne Zilnicki, a Coast Guard spokeswoman, said in a statement. It’s not clear how Connie ended up in the container, Zilnicki said, adding that she may have been living in a junkyard and was accidentally loaded into the container.
On the way to an animal shelter in Pasadena, Tex., after the rescue, Reyes said Connie was in someone’s lap the whole ride.
“She just wanted to be pet the entire time,” he said.
Johana Murillo, the assistant manager of the Pasadena Animal Shelter, said Connie had no microchip and needed to be treated for heartworm. They gave her vaccinations and flea- and tick-prevention medication but realized she required more care, Murillo said.
Forever Changed Animal Rescue will care for Connie until her heartworm treatment is complete and she gives birth to her litter, which will also be closely monitored in the coming weeks.
Then the dogs will all be put up for adoption in the DC/MD/VA area, barring major health concerns.
“We know we will find her an amazing home,” Deoudes said. “It’s going to be tough because we’re going to receive a million applications.”
