Irwin is simply the bravest little sato I have ever met and I am so inspired by his resilience and strength. I hope you are inspired too. It has been a long road with this little puppy and I am so proud of how far he has come. Irwin could not have won his battle without our #satostrong community behind him. Thank you for being a part of Irwin's journey and the journeys of all our satos this month.

More satos have flown to new lives! On October 2nd, our team in Puerto Rico loaded up a small airplane with 35 rescue dogs in San Juan. The plane took off in the afternoon and landed in Westchester, New York right at sunset. Among the 35 satos on board, we had two entire families of mums and their puppies, a bonded pair, seniors, and even two tripods who were rescued with such serious injuries that they needed to have a leg amputated - like Mistic, who was rescued from Dead Dog Beach, and Irwin, who was found on the side of the road (keep reading to the end for this sato’s exciting news!)

Most of these Puerto Rican treasures went right into the arms of their new families at the airport. Now, three weeks later, all of them are happily enjoying their new lives of loving comfort. This is the magic that our community makes possible! Thank you so much to each one of our supporters for making these 35 dreams come true this month. 

We are so also grateful to our Freedom Flight partner, Wings of Rescue, and for all of our amazing volunteers in both Puerto Rico and New York. Our volunteers never fail to surround our dogs with so much love, compassion, and patience along every step of their life-changing journey. We are honored to have each one of you as a member of our team. And congratulations to all our new families! 

On October 2nd, 35 satos landed in Westchester! Most of them went right into the arms of their new adoptive families at the airport. Top row from left are Oliver (rescued from Dead Dog Beach), and Mario and Luigi (rescued from the streets as tiny babies with their mum). Bottom row is Shawn (also rescued from the streets with his mum and siblings), and Mistic, who was found with a serious injury and had to get a leg amputated. All of these satos are now happily settled in their new homes!

The Sato Project has a very strict six to eight week veterinary protocol that every rescue dog is required to complete before they can fly off the island. When our October 2nd Freedom Flight arrived, we had nine puppies who were unfortunately just a week or two shy of completing their protocols. Our team was disappointed having to make them wait. They all had families lined up and we did not have another transport scheduled yet. However, our vetting protocol is an essential part of our process to ensure each dog’s health and safety. Sadly, our pups and their families would have to wait. 

Last week, as final tests were completed and each pup was cleared to fly one by one, we decided to put a call out on social media to see if we could find nine people who were flying from San Juan to New York and might be willing to escort a puppy with them in-cabin. Our community completely delivered! Within hours, our email and social media inboxes became packed with messages from many kind people sending their itineraries and offering to escort. Within 24 hours of our original post, we were able to match all nine puppies with an in-cabin escort leaving by the end of the week. 

Top Row: Cooper, Dot, Hope, and Sienna along their journey flying in-cabin with volunteer escorts. Bottom Row: Ashley, India, and Hope now happily in the arms of their new families!

From left to right: Joseph, Suvana and Lulu are three recently rescued satos who are now available for adoption! Meet them here or click on the image above. 

Every time a dog takes its Freedom Flight to the mainland, it means that a space is left empty, either in our veterinary clinic or one of our foster homes. Our rescue team wastes no time filling that space up with another life saved from the streets. So as more dogs fly off the island, this also means that more are rescued and become available for adoption! 

Click here to see all of our dogs currently available for adoption. Don’t see a face that makes your heart flutter yet? Check back in a few days. Our adoption team is regularly adding more dogs as soon as they become available. 

Or, don’t forget, you can also submit a general application at anytime to be matched to a sato as well (this is how most of our dogs are placed).

Every sato we rescue leaves a mark in our teams' hearts. Every once in awhile, though, there is a Puerto Rican treasure who leaves an extra big one. One such treasure is Irwin.

Irwin was hit by a car, severely injured, and left on the side of the road to die. Unfortunately, thousands of stray dogs in Puerto Rico suffer this same fate. Fortunately for Irwin, he had a guardian angel who witnessed him get hit and immediately took action by calling us for help. We rushed Irwin to our veterinarian and assessed his injuries. His right rear leg was catastrophically broken and needed to be amputated. His entire body was covered in sores, mange, and fleas and ticks from trying to survive in the streets. He was also anemic and would not be strong enough to undergo an amputation surgery right away. To add even more pain to misery, Irwin was very shut down and terribly frightened of any human contact. Sadly, in the few months he had been alive, life had not been kind to him.

However, Irwin quickly proved that he was indeed a fighter. He ate like a champ and became strong enough to undergo his surgery a few weeks later. With the painful leg finally gone, Irwin happily embraced life with three legs and didn't even seem to notice that a leg was missing. Thanks to our amazing vetting team, and Irwin being fostered directly by our founder, Chrissy Beckles, he also finally started to learn that not all humans are bad. In fact, some humans could actually be pretty wonderful.

Jeffrey is not a newcomer to the plight of satos. While filming a movie in Puerto Rico several years ago, he even rescued his own sato, Bandit, who he took home to his family. Jeffrey was already following our work on Twitter, when he saw us post a photo of Irwin shortly after he was rescued. Jeffrey immediately decided it was time to add a second sato to their family. His wife, fellow actress Hilarie Burton, and their children, all agreed that they wanted to show Irwin just how amazing life can truly get.

After three months of rehabilitation, Irwin officially went to his new home on Monday. We can't wait to watch him continue to grow up and flourish surrounded by the love of such an incredible family, who we know will truly cherish him like he deserves.

We are so proud of you, Irwin. You fought your fight and you won. Now, you get to spend your entire life enjoying all of the rewards.