Gary Farkash brought his dog Roxey to the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum Preview Center on Dec. 11, along with the visit from author Heather Hill Worthington, who wrote the book, Miles of Smiles – The Story of Roxey, The Long Island Rail Road Dog. Mr. Farkash, an OBRM trustee came to the Holiday Express event with his dog Roxey, a child friendly dog. Mr. Farkash told the story of how he found, “The Other Roxey.”
The Other Roxey
Gary Farkash (Oyster Bay Railroad Museum Trustee) was on the way to work one morning and as he was driving on the Cross Island Parkway near the Belmont Race track, the traffic was at a standstill. As he got closer, he saw that a car had hit a dog. “It was still breathing and I called the ASPCA,” he said.
Now he hoped there was open road for him to get to work. No. There was traffic dead stopped in front of him again. Finally there was one car ahead of him. “I wanted to get to work, so I honked my horn at the car in front of me” he said. “That was when I noticed the reverse lights had come on, on the car in front of me, so I assumed that the driver must have put it in park. I saw a big angry guy get out and I figure, okay, he wants a fight, but the driver was looking at the road ahead of him and not looking in my direction. That’s when I see a boxer walking along the center divider and knew that was the real problem.
“I whistled to the dog and he came over. I gave him the bagel I had with me for breakfast. I said ‘sit’ and he sat. I motioned to the car and said ‘up’ and he got on to the front seat.
“I cancelled my appointments and called my veterinarian. The dog had a chain around his neck but no identification tag. Twenty minutes later I was at my vet in Hewlett and dropped the boxer off for them to look at. They asked me to give the lost dog a name when I brought it in and I thought boxer – Rocky of course.
“Two days later I brought my Sammydog in for a Spa Day at the vet. When I returned after work, I didn’t see Sammydog in the spa, so I went to the front desk to inquire as to her whereabouts and was told that she was limping so they put her into the kennel to rest and said I could go inside and get her.
“I said, okay, and went to pick her up. When I opened the door, I saw that she was laying on a blanket with ‘Rocky’ next to her. They proceeded to tell me that, the boxer was a girl, so I thought, why not Roxey. Now they were smiling at me and I said, ‘What’s so funny? They said, we brought the boxer in to see if she got along with Sammydog and they were fine together.
“The vets office checked to see if the boxer had been “chipped”, tattooed or if anyone had reported a missing boxer, but to no avail.
“I asked what happens to stray dogs that are brought in to their office and was told that they had to turn her over to the Hempstead shelter and that the shelter would only keep her for a week before they put her down.
“I could not let that happen as she was such a sweet girl and got along well with my Sammydog, so, I just told them to wrap her up and I took her home. Sadly, Sammydog is no longer with us, but Roxey is happily living the good life with her new sister, a greyhound rescue from LI Greyhound Transfer. This organization rescues retired racing greyhounds from the few remaining racetracks in the USA and places them in good homes. If they didn’t, the dogs would be put down when their careers end.”
So the story has a happy ending. A good holiday story!
