Badly abused puppy from Tennessee finds forever family in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- An abused puppy from Tennessee that was stuck at a shelter with 400 other dogs made an unlikely journey to San Francisco overnight where she was greeted by her new forever family. This is a tale of an incredibly generous adoption story on social media, where the community stepped up quickly to help.

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Mika is a new San Francisco resident. Marina Krueger made a long distance adoption and met the 11-month-old puppy for the first time at San Francisco International Airport Wednesday night, fresh off the plane from Chattanooga, Tenn.

"As I saw them coming out of gate, I just was like 'oh my gosh, oh my gosh,'" she said. "I actually started crying, I got really choked up."

Mika had a rough start in life. At three months, she was stabbed in the face and lost her left eye. She was then shuttled from a home to shelters in Tennessee, until a humane society volunteer realized San Francisco might be a perfect home.

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"I think it's a great place for a dog to live!" said Alexia Johannes, who recently moved from San Francisco to Chattanooga where she volunteers for the Humane Educational Society of Chattanooga. She had a trip planned to San Francisco this week, so she posted Mika's story on Nextdoor Monday night, hoping to find her a home.

"It was amazing how quickly people rallied for her," she said.

Less than 24 hours later, Krueger signed adoption papers and dozens of people chipped in on a GoFundMe page to buy a plane ticket for another volunteer to help escort Mika on the plane.

"It is amazing, but it doesn't surprise me coming out of San Francisco," said Johannes. "I think there's a lot of awareness here and really big hearts."

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Mika is loving her new backyard and first taste of San Francisco life.

Johannes says dogs often stay in shelters for more than a year in Tennessee, so this was an opportunity to save a life. And a small San Francisco community agreed.

She is working with the SPCA in San Francisco to help her shelter in Tennessee, which takes care of hundreds of dogs at a time with very limited resources.

If you would like to help the Humane Educational Society of Chattanooga, click here.

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