Five years ago, Victoria Martinez and her partner, Brian Fair, were walking back from a day at the beach when they decided to cut through the woods. The couple, who were on vacation in Puerto Rico, thought they were in for a pleasant hike — instead, they ended up saving a life.
“He’s with us all the time, everywhere we go,” Martinez told The Dodo. “Right after we rescued him, I had to be on a work trip in Vegas, and he came with me.”
With his adopted family, Taíno has also traveled up and down the east and west coasts of the U.S. He’s hiked through most of the state parks in Florida and even learned to paddleboard and Jet Ski. He also regularly travels back to Puerto Rico with Martinez to visit her grandparents.
“My mom had sewed a little suit for him to wear that matched the groomsmen,” Fair told The Dodo. “He was so proud walking down [the aisle], and he did great. Then he sat there the whole time like a good boy while the ceremony went on.”
Fair and Martinez wrapped Taíno in a towel and took him back to Martinez’s grandparents’ home. They washed and fed the puppy but weren’t sure if they would keep him. But they quickly fell in love with him and realized they couldn’t return to the U.S. without him.
It appeared that Taíno felt the same way. As Fair and Martinez celebrated Thanksgiving with Martinez’s Puerto Rican family, Taíno suddenly started to “talk.”
“We were all doing the prayer and saying what we’re thankful for on Thanksgiving, and before that, Taíno hadn’t made a sound,” Fair said. “But when we were talking about family, he let out a sound for the first time. That was the moment where we were like, ‘He’s part of the family. He’s trying to speak up to say, ‘Hey, I’m here.’”
“We can see him go out in the field, and he runs circles around every other sized dog,” Martinez said. “He loves to run on the beach and swim in the ocean. So I would say he’s thriving.”
Taíno’s life has been one big adventure since being adopted by Martinez and Fair — and he has another big adventure ahead of him. Early next year, Martinez is due to have a baby, which will make Taíno a big brother.