Luna the stray dog showed up in Kendall, scared and growling. Could she find a home?

A couple of days after a county worker picked her up from a backyard in Kendall, Luna the stray dog wasn’t adjusting well to life in the county animal shelter.

One video showed the graying black Lab mix trembling during a daily outing in the Doral facility’s play area, walking in the other direction with her tail tucked between her legs when someone off camera beckoned with a friendly sound.

In the kennel, as surrounding dogs barked and yelped, another video showed Luna with four paws on the floor, looking wide-eyed at whoever was filming.

READ MORE: Miami-Dade’s stray dog problem: full kennels and a plea to keep them in the neighborhood

The 73-pound dog’s journey to the overcrowded Miami-Dade County pet shelter began a week earlier when Angel Medina III’s doorbell camera was activated by movement on his front porch on a Sunday morning. There he found Luna and another dog, with a third wandering nearby in his Hammocks neighborhood.

Wearing harnesses and seemingly well fed, the dogs looked lost. But with no implanted microchips to help them get home, and zero response to Medina’s lost-dog posts, they increasingly appeared to be the latest dogs abandoned to the streets in Miami-Dade.

Miami-Dade’s pet problem: dumped dogs with shelters full

“I mean, look at this. How does somebody dump them?” Medina, a mortgage broker, said as the two younger dogs sat by his feet, looking up from the family’s pool deck. Ten feet away, Luna, later estimated to be in her sixth year by county staff, stared and growled under the tiki hut.

“I think she’s protective of them,” Medina said. “I don’t know if she’s their mother.”

The Medinas named the dog “Miss Lady,” given her apparent status as the matriarch of the canine trio that had been in their backyard five days since their arrival early on Jan. 22. The skinny one with an orangish tint to his brown coat now went by “Tigger,” and a younger, stout Lab mix got nicknamed “Gordo.”

That Sunday was supposed to be devoted to a son’s 15th birthday party, but the Medina family shuffled the gathering to a grandparent’s pool in order to give the new dogs space.

The Medinas already had two dogs of their own, and the pair suddenly were confined to a life indoors while the new canines lived outdoors. “Everybody is barking at everybody,” Medina said.

Five days after the dogs arrived, Medina said he was running out of hope to find them new homes.

“I’ve called every pet rescue from Pompano Beach down to the Keys,” Medina said as Tigger chewed on a dried palm frond pulled from the shrubbery. “I even did dog fliers. I printed out 100 fliers. Put them all over the place. Nothing.”

Local rescue groups say this is the bleakest time they can remember for homeless dogs, with municipal shelters full and nonprofit sanctuaries also at capacity.

Suffering from aftershocks of the pandemic — including disruptions in the sterilization services that would reduce dog births, and soaring rents that let landlords be less welcoming to tenants with pets — organizations say they’re getting more calls than ever from people like Medina eager to find homes for found canines.

‘I’ve never seen anything like it’

“It’s 10 to 15 calls a day,” said Chelsea Palermo, an accountant in Kendall who serves as an unpaid rescue “networker” in her spare time, trying to pair homeless animals with homes. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Near Pinecrest, Carol Caridad said she can’t keep up with the demand for kennel space in her nonprofit rescue, Paws 4 You. She blames the housing market, with an uptick in people trying to give away their pets. “These dogs are coming in left and right,” she said. “People just can’t keep them.”

“Mostly it’s because they’re moving,” said Caridad, who added she’s amazed at how many people give up in finding a new home that will take pets. “These are dogs that have been with people for 10 years, and you can’t take your dog with you?”

At Miami-Dade’s Animal Shelter in Doral, kennels got so full at the end of 2022 the agency warned police officers there may not be room for strays they encountered on neighborhood patrols.

The facility’s policy is to discourage people like Medina from bringing in found dogs, instead encouraging them to temporarily care for the animals at home in hopes the owner is nearby and will spot the lost pet on a walk.

If that fails, shelter administrators say an abandoned dog is more likely to find a new home when under someone’s care, who can vouch for the animal to friends and family or wind up keeping it long-term.

Medina ran head on into that policy when he visited the shelter two days after the dogs arrived and tried to turn them over to the county. He said the intake worker refused, leading him dumbfounded. “I said: ‘You have to do something,’ ” Medina recalled. “He said: ‘There’s nothing we can do for you.’ ”

An Animal Services spokesperson said Medina was offered dog food and gear to temporarily care for the dogs as part of the agency’s effort to keep homeless pets close to where they were found.

“Independent of shelter capacity, this ‘best way home’ approach increases the chances for reunification of lost pets,” spokesperson Flora Beal said in a statement. “We are appreciative of Mr. Medina’s care and consideration for the lost pets.”

Pet rescue groups swamped in Miami

An extended stay at the Medinas did move the two young dogs closer to finding new owners.

A neighbor who had taken in a fourth stray found the same day as the other three had a brother-in-law who saw a photo of Gordo and was reportedly interested. The Medinas were starting to see Tigger as docile enough to make them a three-dog family.

“I’m thinking I can have him around my dogs and not have an issue,” Medina said.

But no solution presented itself for the older dog. When a reporter asked Medina if he had called the county’s 311 helpline to report the homeless dogs, he said he would give it a try. “You’re literally my last resort,” Medina told the operator.

While Animal Services says it can’t respond to all stray-dog reports, the county came to Medina’s house after the Miami Herald inquired about his 311 request. On Jan. 31, the dog entered the shelter as Animal Number A2433413, with the new name Luna.

At roughly the same time, Stacie Binder, another networker who helps pair homeless dogs with rescue groups from her home in Boca Raton, heard about Luna’s situation and asked for a photo. “Oh my gosh, she looks so scared,” Binder said.

A few days later, Binder texted with an update: ”I believe we have a rescue.”

Binder was in touch with Helping Paws22, a network of people willing to take in dogs that Melanie Agnello coordinates out of her home in Cape Coral. One of the group’s volunteers in Punta Gorda raised his hand as a possible caretaker for Luna.

“He said, ‘I’ve got three already, but I’ll make room,’ ” Agnello said.

From Miss Lady to Luna, a stressful shelter stay

A Paws22 board member, Roni Tanenbaum, left her home in Coral Springs on Feb. 4, stopped at a McDonald’s for a plain hamburger as a doggie “Freedom” snack, then finished the 40-mile trip to Doral to pick up Luna.

“She was just standing in her kennel,” Tanenbaum recalled. “The other dogs around her were barking. She just stood there, quiet.”

About two hours later, Tanenbaum handed over the dog to Kip Murphy in a Cracker Barrel parking lot in Naples. The retired pro sports fisherman now sells RVs and said he has a habit of agreeing to temporarily take in dogs that don’t leave.

“I don’t know if I’m a good foster,” he said. “But I’m a good adopter.”

Luna arrived fearful, but Murphy said she soon dropped her guard. A squeaky shark toy is a favorite pastime, and the growling on display in Medina’s yard gave way to Luna’s wanting more attention. “She loves to be upside down and let me rub her chest,” Murphy said. “If I stop, she’ll use her paw to move my hand back.”

“Every now and then,” Murphy said, “I’ll catch her with a spurt of energy, and she’ll be running around with the other dogs. And her tail is up.”

Her two former companions found homes, too. Gordo did end up with the brother-in-law of Medina’s neighbor. “He’s doing great — huge yard, has a pool and a sibling,” Medina said. “He’s in heaven.”

On a recent weekday, Medina shared a photo of Tigger sleeping in a dog bed next to a wingback chair in his office.

“Brought my guy to work yesterday,” he said. “Happy ending for all.”

This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 3:56 PM.