In March of 2017, I found a chained-up puppy engulfed in flames in the tent of a homeless man in downtown Los Angeles. Upon rescuing this poor doggie and nursing it back to health, my South Bay community came together to help with her healing. Thanks to everyone and anyone who reached out, donated, and helped care for this doggie. This doggie, who eventually became known as Phoenix, was the puppy who rose out of the fire. And boy has she rose! It has been a long journey for both of us over this last year, but I cannot imagine my life without her. My Monkey Cat would argue otherwise!
After this situation happened, I realized that so many animals out there still desperately need help. Thankfully, there are many animal charities hard at work trying to help and home countless helpless animals. Therefore, I have pledged to donate a percentage of every commission I receive to an animal charity of my client's choice. So should any of you wish to sell or buy a home, please know that having me represent you as an agent will go a lot further than just mutually benefiting the both of us. Not only will you get top professional service and negotiating skills from my team and I, but we will also come together to help our furry friends in need.
Please call me today should you wish to lease, buy or sell your home! Thank you for taking the time to read our story (see below). Additionally, Thank you to everyone who reached out and showed you care about this little doggie on fire!
If you see us walking, please stop and introduce yourself! If you know of any charities out there that could use the help, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to call, text, or email me with your suggestions.
If you would like to donate money directly to any animal charities, I have provided links to a few of them below.
My live Facebook video of finding Nix
Video of Phoenix right after she leaped out of the fire
Video of the fireman/firewomen helping Phoenix & I
It was a cold and stormy night on March 23rd of 2017. Lightning in the sky and frost in the air. I was in downtown Los Angeles trying to preregister for a Tony Robbins event that started the following morning. Upon arriving at USC's Galen Center, much to my surprise, there were about 9000 other people there to preregister for the event as well. Though this situation left me with absolutely zero convenient parking, I did manage to find a spot a couple of blocks away under the 110 freeway pass right past the metro station at the DMV, which was not the safest thing to do at 7:30 at night. While walking towards USC's campus to register for the event, I ran into a homeless camp of makeshift tents all tied together. At that moment, a man walked out of the tents and started screaming at me while he cut off his dreads and threw them at me. Luckily there was a 3-inch cement freeway barrier between us, so I quickly scurried past him and made my way out of the dark and across the intersection to the Galen Center.
An hour and a half later, I left the Galen Center out and gained enough courage to make my way into the dark abyss back to my car. Luckily, no one was lingering about the tents, and I made it safely back to my vehicle. I quickly got in the car and pulled down the alleyway that was directly behind the tents. Upon approaching the tents, I see that the center tent, the one that had the man had walked out of earlier, was engulfed in flames. My instant reaction was to keep on driving and to stay out of endangering myself. But my consciousness would not let me live with myself if I found out later that someone had perished in this fire. So I put my car in park and jumped into action. I jumped over the cement barrier the tents were backed up against and ran to the tent on fire. The flames went from 7 feet to about 50 feet in a matter of a minute. With billows of black smoke filling the air, I got close enough to the tent and stuck my head inside as far as I could and looked around and shouted to see if anyone was inside the tents. I felt helpless and was afraid that something was about to blow up. I decided to move onto the other two tents that were next to the one on fire. The tent to my left had no one in it, so I ran to the tent to the right of it and shook the tent to get the inhabitants out of danger. Not knowing what else I could do, I just stood there and kept shaking that tent and screamed for anyone to hear me. What had to have been about 5 minutes of me standing at this tent shaking it, suddenly a man pops his head out, disoriented and not having a clue as to what was going on. Luckily he got out O.K.!
At that point, I figured everyone was safe but then realized that all the cars behind the tents were catching on fire right where I had parked my car. So I ran back out and jumped in the BMW and pulled it down to the end of the alley about 500 yards away. At that time, I called 911, snapped a photo of the fire, and started running back to the tents. It was at that point where something happened that forever changed my life. I see, what appeared to be, a dog leaping out of the inferno, over the burning cars, and running straight towards me completely blind, choking, on fire, and scared to death! I could not believe what I was seeing. I was in complete shock! THINGS JUST GOT REAL, REAL FAST! All I could see was this poor dog's face on fire, along with her feet, her hind legs, and the nylon handles of the chain leash to which she was attached. Knowing that the 110 freeway onramp was directly behind me, I knew that if I could not catch this dog, she would have likely got hit by a car or would have run away somewhere safe to die alone. Not knowing what kind of temper this dog had, I also knew I was risking hurting myself. But luckily, my body reacted faster than the scary thoughts in my head. So I ran at her and managed to grab her burning chain and patted the fire out, and pulled her into the tall wet grass so she could cool off, calm down, and give me a chance to assess her. Her poor nose and muzzle looked torched, her skin was hanging off her nose, and her hair looked cinched. It was then when the police and firefighters arrived. I WAS SO INCREDIBLY HEARTBROKEN FOR THIS POOR DOGGIE. After much begging and pleading, I finally got the fireman to give this dog some water and to at least try to spray her down. She was so freaked out, in pain, and scared, she was not very receptive to the water.
After the fire got put out, the fireman and police said their goodbyes and went to walk away, leaving me sitting in the dark, under a freeway pass with a burnt-up pit bull. I asked the police officer what I should do with the dog, and he said he would call animal control for me and that I should hear from them within a couple of hours. The last firefighter getting into the truck had overheard what the police officer said, reached into the firetruck, and started walking back towards me. She handed me one of her fire blankets and told me not to let animal control take her. He said that because she is an injured pit bull, she would most likely get euthanized by the shelter. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't take her home because I was subleasing a house until the summer to purchase a home for myself. I also had a dog-hating, 16 pounds, 8-year-old cat at home that would rip this poor dog to shreds. Bringing this dog home was not an option. I loved that darn cat way too much to cause such havoc in our time house! But I felt so helpless and discouraged as I did not know what to do. But I was determined not to give up on this sweet little pup. I decided the longer I sat there, the more likely I was putting myself, as well as the doggie, in a dangerous situation. I put the seats down to my BMW and threw this wet/burnt dog that was still in a panic into the car and drove to the VCA emergency vet in Hawthorne, where they treated her burns and gave her some good medicine. After the vet visit, I took her home and set her up in the garage. I knew I wanted to be well-rested for the event, so I tried my best to get some sleep. All I could hear from my bedroom was the sounds of her whining and whimpering all night. I felt so bad for her, so I went into the garage, where I slept by her side all night. I WAS A MESS.
Then the real journey began! Over the next six weeks, I tried my hardest to get her adopted and nursed her back to good health. At this time, I decided to name her Phoenix, the dog who rose from the fire. It was a long road back to recovery, and after the first three days, I realized she was burnt all over her body. The pad of her food was peeling off, blisters started to rise through her fur, and her nose and muzzle scabbed over with a black crust. I moved her into my house the first day and gated her in my kitchen, so my cat would not lose its mind. I quickly learned that this little doggie had the sweetest demeanor and was full of love and appreciation. She has to be the happiest dog I have ever met! My plea to help find her a home in my South Bay community did not go unnoticed. The night I rescued her, my dear friend Julie set up a GOFUNDME Phoenix account where she raised the exact amount of money need to cover the vet bills and medical supplies. Other friends, clients, and strangers were dropping by to visit her and donated food, toys, and a bed. I was overwhelmed by the kindness that so many people showed. It made me have faith in humanity and the love we all have for our animals.
Then, my landlord tried to evict and sue me for taking the dog in, even though dogs were allowed at the property. Desperately searching for a new home, the universe provided me with a chance, meeting a wonderful man down the street from where I was living who just happened to be finishing the renovations of his adorable 1923 Historic home. Being the president of Labrador Rescue, he was very sympathetic to my situation and even put a rush on finishing the home so we could get out of my place asap. We count our lucky stars every day to have met such a wonderful man and to have found such a great South Redondo Beach single-family home! Finding a home, I decided to keep my little Phoenix, and my life has never been the same since. She has blessed my life in many different ways that I am wondering who saved who.
Since taking Phoenix in, she has managed to get herself into some trouble. She got away from me at the break wall in Redondo Beach and took off running for the birds on the outside of the break wall. Luckily, she slipped in a bunch of moss, where she fell backward, butt first, into the huge rocks. But then, a large set of waves was about to crash into her and drown her. I managed to get there just in time and rushed her away from the waves. Another time was when I came home around 11 pm. Right as I reached the door, I heard an awful noise coming from inside the house. I open the door to discover she was choking on a wooden dowel button that she pulled off one of my beach bags. I had to give her mouth to mouth to get her airway open and dislodged the dowel. The third time she almost died, we were hiking on Rattlesnake Trail in Palos Verdes. On our ascent back up the mountain, she stopped ahead of me, where I realized she was standing directly over a coiled-up rattlesnake. Luckily I had her on a leash, and I managed to yank her back to get her out of danger, finding out afterward that the snake must have been just coming out of hibernation because it slowly just slithered away. She also managed to break her back right toe, break out in hives, and most recently just recovered from having TPLO surgery on her back right knee due to snapping a tendon and a slight tear in her meniscus. Saying this little doggie has kept me on my toes would be an understatement. Now estimating that she is two years old, I hope she is past all her mischievous ways, and Monkey cat will start to be a little nicer to her and her calmer ways.
Since rescuing Phoenix, I realized there are so many animals out there that desperately still need help. Thankfully, there are many animal charities hard at work trying to help and home countless helpless animals.
Therefore, I have pledged to donate a percentage of each commission I receive to an animal charity of my client's choice. So should any of you wish to sell or buy a home, please know that having me represent you will go a lot further than just mutually benefiting the both of us. Not only will you get top professional service and negotiating skills from my team and me, but we will also come together to help our furry friends in need. Please call me today should you wish to lease, buy or sell your home! Thank you for taking the time to read our story. Also, I thank everyone who reached out and showed you care about this little doggie on fire!
If you see us walking, please stop and introduce yourself! If you know of any charities out there that could use the help, I would love to hear from you.
Feel free to call, text, or email me with your suggestions! Cell: 310-428-8958 Email: LisaMoule7@gmail.com To continue to follow Phoenix's journey, please find us on any of our social media sites! FB: https://www.facebook.com/LisaMouleRealty/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/lisamoulerealty/
All the best,
Lisa, Monkey, and Phoenix
