Pups lost after fatal Osceola crash turn up in Broward

Weeks after a stranger walked away with a woman’s two beloved puppies following a deadly crash in Osceola County, the dogs mysteriously turned up almost 200 miles away in a Broward County animal shelter.

Now, authorities are trying to figure out who took the puppies and what their intentions were.

Days before Christmas, Maritsa Melendez, 55, was a passenger in a four-vehicle crash. Her father was killed; she was severely injured.

Her two shih-poo puppies, Mojo and Portia, were with her in the vehicle. Melendez, who was visiting from Connecticut, remembers a woman told her she’d take care of the puppies after the crash until she got out of the hospital. Melendez never heard from the woman and didn’t get her name.

“The woman said, ‘I will be in touch,’ ” Melendez’s boyfriend, Chris Walsh, said at the time.

The dogs were a gift for Melendez’s retirement, he said.

The puppies turned up this week at the Broward County Animal Care and Adoption Center in Fort Lauderdale. They were left behind in a home that had been served an eviction notice.

“These two stood out. The staff was very fired up about them when they came in — loving on them and everything,” said Lisa Mendheim, a spokeswoman for the shelter.

She said the playful pups appeared to be in good health. “Obviously, these people that were evicted, we don’t know if they stole the puppies or if they came to them another way,” she said.

Shelter staffer Krystal Mapp, said she was checking Craigslist ads to see if she could match any of the shelter’s animals with owners who lost them when she found Melendez’s ad pleading for the dogs’ return.

“As soon as I clicked on it, I recognized the dogs automatically,” she told Orlando Sentinel news partner Fox 35.

The shelter contacted Melendez, and her partner flew down Wednesday to pick up the pups.