It’s estimated that as many as 70,000 stray dogs, known as “boonie dogs,” live on the U.S. island territory of Guam.
That’s tens of thousands of stray dogs on a 212-square-mile Micronesian island only one-quarter the size of Jacksonville with a population of about 173,000 people.
One of those dogs -- a pup named Socks -- captured the heart of Master Sgt. Becky Smith during an Air Force Reserves deployment to Guam.
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Smith, 36, needed help to get the beloved pup 8,100 miles to her forever home in Valdosta, Georgia.
And our News4JAX audience responded (more on that later).
This is Socks’ journey.
Born in the wild
Boonie dogs are descended from dogs left behind or lost on the island after World War II, abandoned on the island since, or released from closed racing tracks.
They are considered super mutts and are a mix of everything from German Shepherds, Beagles and Labs to Greyhounds, Corgis and Chihuahuas.
That means they vary greatly in size and shape, but according to Boonie Flight Project, they are adorable, indestructible and have “hearts of gold.”
They are also resourceful.
Socks, who was likely born in the wild, had been hanging around a local community college on the island since she was a puppy. She earned her name from her white paws.
When a group from the Air Force Reserves showed up at the college in August as part of a humanitarian medical mission, Socks showed up every day to wait in lines with those receiving free health and dental care.
“She was by herself at the community college. Most boonie dogs can sometimes be in a pack. She didn’t really seem to have one,” Smith said.
Smith, who was active duty for 12 years and served as a surgery tech before transferring to the Reserves, was a lead planner for the Innovative Readiness Training mission to Guam.
That meant she was also out at the college every day.
But, she said, she tried to avoid the adorable pup her group had adopted as their mascot.
She was afraid of falling in love.
Later, she realized she had just been postponing the inevitable.
Population problem
Having 70,000 strays on a relatively small island -- you can drive the entire coast in 90 minutes at 35 mph -- is not ideal.
Part of the issue stems from a lack of education, affordability and availability of spay and neuter programs.
Officials have been working to increase awareness of the need to have all dogs spayed or neutered and even have a government-subsidized program, called SNIP (Spay and Neuter Island Pets), that helps keep the cost at only $50 per animal.
But even that can be out of reach for some families, said Katie Kopania, who works in public health on Guam.
Kopania, who helped Smith coordinate the medical mission, has adopted two boonie dogs herself in her short time on the island. Their names are Benny and Fred.
Kopania explained that there is only one animal shelter on the island and veterinary services are limited -- so is the population of those willing and able to adopt dogs.
That means when dogs are brought to the shelter after nuisance complaints or for other reasons, staff have to be selective about which animals are even put up for adoption. The others are euthanized.
Saving Socks
While working in Guam, Smith learned enough about the boonie dog issue that when she found out someone had made a complaint about Socks hanging around the college, she knew the risks.
Socks would be trapped by animal control and taken to the shelter, where her chances of being euthanized were fairly high.
Smith couldn’t let that happen.
At first, she tried to see if Kopania could take her in. But Benny and Fred are skittish around strange pups, so Kopania knew it wasn’t a good long-term solution.
Kopania said she has friends on the island who care for seven or eight dogs each just to keep them off the streets.
And the truth was, by then, Smith had fallen in love with Socks.
She needed to find a way to bring her home.
For Smith, home is Valdosta, Georgia, where she already had three adopted dogs: 6-year-old pit mix Jasmine, 5-year-old lab mix Austin and 2-year-old pit mix Milo.
Adding a fourth pup to their pack wasn’t going to be easy, but Smith just couldn’t leave Socks behind to an uncertain fate.
The adoption part was actually the easiest. The basic rules on Guam are that if you take care of a dog with food and water for three days, it’s considered yours, Kopania said.
Smith was able to take Socks back to her hotel, where they got to know each other better, and Smith solidified her decision to save Socks.
Making it happen
But getting Socks from Guam to Georgia would prove a challenge.
The first obstacle was that United Airlines, the only domestic airline that serves the Micronesian region, discontinued its pet shipping program, Kopania said.
The airline will make exceptions for military personnel, but because Smith didn’t have a permanent change of station order, she didn’t qualify for the exception.
Kopania then tried to get Socks on a flight she already had planned for herself to Japan because the rules to fly there are more lax than to fly to the mainland U.S.
No dice.
Kopania didn’t have the right military paperwork either, so that left them with one option: a private charter flight.
“At the end of the day, after I exhausted all means to get her home with me on a flight, that’s when we decided, ‘Well, let’s see what the pet charters will do,’” Smith said. But it wouldn’t be cheap.
Smith did some research and opted for Pet Shippers Guam, which quoted her a price of about $5,000 altogether to fly Socks from Guam to Hawaii to Seattle to Tampa, where Smith could pick her up and drive her home.
Smith and Kopania put the word out to family and friends who were willing to pitch in, but when Kopania saw the full price tag, she knew $25 here and there from people they knew probably wouldn’t cut it.
Smith was willing to wait and save up the money with Kopania acting as Socks’ temporary foster mom on the island.
But a few weeks in, Kopania convinced her to share her story more widely. Kopania started her first ever GoFundMe, telling Socks’ story and then shared that GoFundMe and the story details with as many media outlets as she could.
That’s how Socks’ story ended up in the News4JAX Help Center inbox.
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Kopania said we were the only media outlet to respond.
But because of the generosity of our incredible dog-loving audience, we were all they needed.
After we posted our first story in August about Socks and Sgt. Smith’s efforts to get her home to Georgia, the entire $4,465 was funded in six days, Kopania said.
“I’m very, very grateful,” Smith said of the generosity of the News4JAX community. “It’s made me realize how blessed I am.”
As soon as they hit their goal, Kopania closed the GoFundMe, but she continued to provide updates and even shared receipts showing how all of the money was being spent for Socks’ flight and for the required vaccinations, exams, etc. ahead of the trip.
“We would never have been able to do it without you,” Kopania told News4JAX. “We were so lucky when you guys answered our email and were able to help us share the story because without that it would not have been possible. We would probably still have her here with me (on the island).”
Kopania said having all the money in place up front for the trip was important because logistically, certain things -- like vet checks and vaccines -- have to be done within a specific timeframe, and they all cost money.
“I’m really grateful to you and to everybody that donated or just even shared our story because, like I said, it would not have been possible without you and without everybody that made a donation, no matter how small or large,” Kopania said.
After GoFundMe’s fee, they received $4,308.73 to help fund Socks’ travels, and that covered almost everything! Kopania broke it down for us:
- Flight Cost: $3,975
- Health Certificate: $100
- Required Microchip: $67
- Preventative Med Simparico Trio: $40.68
- Medication for Flight: $22
- Vaccines: $326.47
- Remaining GoFundMe Balance: $0
Once all the logistics were set, Socks got a special send-off with her foster family that included an incredible doggie cake.
And then her multi-day journey began.
She flew from Guam to Hawaii to Seattle and Pet Shippers Guam shared updates of the trip and how Socks was doing with Kopania and Smith through a special app.
When Socks reached Tampa, Smith was waiting for her.
“I was really, really excited. I was also very nervous going to Socks. I was very nervous because I was scared that she probably wouldn’t recognize me right away or something,” Smith said. “As soon as she recognized me, it was like, that was it. It was done. It was over with.”
Smith admitted the hours-long ride home to Georgia in the car was rough on Socks after her long journey, but knowing she was taking her home for good made everything worth it.
A thank you visit
In late October, Smith brought Socks and her human family to the News4JAX studios for a visit to let us meet the sweet pup in person.
Socks and the family enjoyed a tour of the newsroom and a moment in the spotlight on our set.
She got lots of love and pets from our News4JAX family.
Smith, who works with a pararescue squadron on Moody Air Force Base in Lowndes County, gave us an update and said Socks was settling in with her adopted siblings and was learning some commands.
“She loves to be held. She definitely loves treats. Her personality, it’s still coming out,” Smith said. “She wants to know what’s going on. If you keep watching her head, she’ll have her ears up and she’ll keep moving her head around to figure out, ‘What is that?’ She’s still curious.”
Smith said Socks is a cuddler who was shy at first but loves to play now that she feels comfortable and safe.
“I realized she actually hops when she runs, which is the best thing ever,” Smith said with a laugh. “So I’m trying to get that on video.”
There’s some debate about Socks’ age. When Smith first met Socks in August, she was told the pup was maybe 8 months old, but when Socks got her pre-flight checkups in September, the vet said she was probably closer to 1 year old.
“Surprisingly, she’s a very healthy dog for being pretty much out in the wild,” Smith said.
During her visit to our studios, Smith shared that Guam has special meaning for her family because her father served in the Air Force for about 10 years and was stationed on Guam -- it’s where her younger brother, Wiliam, was born.
How you can help
Smith told us some raised questions about her bringing a dog home from Guam, saying she could rescue dogs at home. (Her other three dogs were rescued locally.)
“At the end of the day, if a dog deserves a good home, no matter where they’re at, I’m going to try … to do what I can to get them a good home,” Smith said.
Kopania said it would help the animals on Guam if they could get more volunteer vets to visit the island. And she encouraged folks to lobby United Airlines to reinstate its pet shipping program so folks moving off the island won’t have to choose between costly charters and leaving their pets behind. Here’s a petition you can sign.
In the meantime, if you’d like to help with the boonie dog situation in Guam, there are several organizations you can connect with.
Guam Animals In Need or GAIN is the island’s lone animal shelter, which runs the SNIP clinics. They can take donations via their PayPal account: donations@guamanimals.org.
Boonie Flight Project has flown dogs off the island but now is concentrating on local solutions, like supporting the SNIP program to get the dogs on the island spayed or neutered.
“The SNIP clinic and the spay/neuter program is really big because that will help us reduce our stray population,” Kopania said. “By getting donations, they can have people that are unable to afford it get those for free.”
Kopania shared a GoFundMe campaign to help three boonie dogs get flights to their forever homes.
The nearby island of Saipan also has an overpopulation of boonie dogs and has several ways you can help: