Puerto Rican dogs brought to Parma Animal Shelter for adoption, rescued by woman on vacation

PARMA, Ohio - Kathleen Rivera of Cleveland travels to Puerto Rico with her son every year during the Christmas holiday to visit family and friends.

"It's quite obvious when you first visit the island that there's a dog problem," said Rivera. "None of them are spayed or neutered. Most of them are missing their fur from mange."

In December, after being in Puerto Rico for only three days, Kathleen found Tony, a 1-year-old white and tan mixed breed dog while on the beach.

"He came right up to me and just put his paws on my chest and was looking me right in the eye with that sweet little look saying 'help me please,'" shared Rivera.

That's when she decided she had to do something to help these dogs.

With the assistance of a dog rescue group in Puerto Rico bringing them back to health, Rivera brought Tony, his mother Tina, and sibling puppies, Diego and Claudia, back to northeast Ohio to Parma Animal Shelter to help find them loving families.

Since their move to Parma, Diego and Claudia found new homes.

Dave and Carol Iosue of Cleveland's Old Brooklyn neighborhood adopted Claudia and picked her up Sunday. They came up with a new name for her that will have special meaning to them.

"Corazon is the Spanish word for heart, so we are going to call her Cory," said Carol.

Mark West of Parma and his family adopted Diego. The West's dog Alex passed away recently, so the addition of Diego will help the family's healing process.

"I've had pets from shelters all my life and I wouldn't pass it up, passing this little guy up for the world," said Mark.

Tina and Tony, however, are still waiting to become a part of a new local family. For more information on adopting them log onto http://www.parmashelter.org.

Rivera paid for the dogs' airfare back to Ohio out of her own pocket and said she will bring back more dogs from Puerto Rico in the future.

"I can't save them all, but I can make a difference for a few of them."