Texas Rescue Dogs Reunited During Random Walk in New York City
Jason Hellerstein and Mattie Kahn were walking their new rescue Marvin in the Upper West Side when their dog began to recognize another pet.
The other dog’s owner, Tara Derington, also noticed the dogs being extremely friendly with one another.
“They recognized each other. My dog, Leo, was still pretty new to the city and apprehensive about almost everything, and he greeted Marvin like he knew him,” Derington told The Post. “They were very excited, very affectionate.”
The owners began talking which led to the discovery that both dogs were adopted from a Texas rescue.
“I was freaking out,” Derington recalled on that January day. “My brain was connecting the dots: This was Leo’s dad.”
“We didn’t know that much,” Kahn said when adopting Marvin. “Certainly not that he was a father of two.” They later found out Marvin was only ten months when his puppies were conceived. “We joke that he’s a teenage father,” said Derington.
To make the world even smaller, Derington’s friend Anne Sachs adopted Leo’s brother/Marvin’s son Murray a week before. Now the three Texas dogs live within a mile of each other in New York City.
After exchanging phone numbers, Derington called Sachs to fill her in on the family reunion.
Last month, all three dogs were able to reunite at the dog run near the Museum of Natural History. “All three love to run around the dog park and chase each other, and I firmly believe that Marvin, as a parent, would never have a favorite,” said Kahn.
The dogs now hang out together in the neighborhood and are set to attend the same day care. Marvin will be attending his boy’s first birthday party in June.
Their parents have benefited from the experience as well. “There have been so many strokes of bad fortune over the past year, but this was a happy coincidence,” said Kahn.
“They walk glued to each other, suctioned side by side. They’re sweet little pals,” Sachs said on the dogs special bond. “They were meant to be family, no matter how far they go.”
