A dog who made national headlines this month after being abandoned by his owners for being “gay” has been adopted by a same-sex couple.
Last week, WCCB-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina, reported that 5-year-old Fezco was surrendered to Stanly County Animal Protective Services by his owners after the pup “humped another male dog.” The shelter shared the unfortunate news on its Facebook page. Fezco’s story quickly made national headlines and caught the attention of Steve Nichols and his husband, John Winn, who live just outside Charlotte, not far from the shelter.“I was in shock,” Nichols said of first reading about Fezco in the news. “I flipped through and passed to the next story, and then something snapped inside of me.”No, it’s not just to make themselves look adorable. Dogs curl up in a ball when they sleep due to an age-old instinct to keep themselves warm and protect their abdomen and vital organs from predators.
“We’ve been together for 33 years, and in 33 years, we’ve faced the same ignorance, bigotry, but we talked about it, and we thought, ‘This time we’re going to do something about it.’”
Nichols called the TV station, and the reporter who covered the story helped put him in touch with the shelter. The couple signed adoption papers for Fezco less than 48 hours later.Is it a duck…or a dog? The Newfoundland breed has a water resistant coat and webbed feet. This dog was originally bred to help haul nets for fishermen and rescuing people at risk of drowning.
But it wasn’t long before Nichols noticed the pup needed medical attention.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com.