He didn’t hesitate for a second. Seeing a young cachectic dog abandoned in a truck parking lot, a truck driver immediately decided to come to her aid. A few months later, his employer honored him.
For anyone who has followed this story, Rich Difronzo is a true hero. Indeed, thanks to him, a neglected and abandoned dog was given a new start, reported Erie News Now on Monday, November 21.
Rich Difronzo, nicknamed Fonzi, is now a “Highway Angel”, or “angel of the highway”. This is what is written on the sticker offered to him on Monday by his employer and the association of carriers TCA (Truckload Carriers Association), on the occasion of a small ceremony organized in his honor.
This trucker works for the trucking company Barnhart Transportation, based in North East, Pennsylvania. A few months earlier, he was making a delivery for which he was passing through New Jersey. It was in a highway rest area in this state that he had made the sad discovery of an extremely thin dog tied to a tree.
“I was there for a little while and kept asking people if they knew the dog, because no one was coming near her,” the man told Erie News Now. People inside said someone tried to sell her on Saturday and they didn’t know she was tied to the tree there. So I cut her leash and took her home.”
For 3 months, Rich Difronzo and his wife took care of the animal. The dog gradually regained a normal weight, recovered her health and relearned to trust humans.
He’s also found a loving family for the one who now responds to the name of Roxy-Lynn. She was, in fact, adopted by a friend of Rich Difronzo and now leads a happy life in Kentucky. Even though Roxy-Lynn is no longer by his side, Fonzi will treasure his memory forever. His new sticker, which appears prominently on his truck, is there to remind him.
