Trooper Rescues Puppy Abandoned At Ohio Rest Stop — Then His Cop Friend Adopts Him

A puppy found abandoned in a crate at an Ohio rest area did not have to wait long for someone to notice him. He also did not have to wait particularly long for someone else in law enforcement to decide he belonged at home.

Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper John Kronander discovered the puppy during a morning rest-area check in Medina County on Aug. 23. The dog had been left inside a crate without food or water, according to News 5 Cleveland.

Body-camera footage showed Kronander opening the crate and reassuring the puppy before taking him to the Medina Post and eventually the Medina County SPCA. The shelter initially called the dog Miles.

The next important encounter happened without the puppy even being there.

Kronander later crossed paths with Sgt. Matthew Denton of the Medina County Sheriff’s Office while the two were helping with a disabled vehicle. Kronander told his friend about the dog he had found and pulled out his phone.

Denton liked what he saw.

One Photo

Embedded media follows; please allow a moment to load.

“He got out his phone and showed me photos of the dog, and I said, ‘Boy, I like that dog,'” Denton recalled in an Inside Edition interview.

Denton sent the photos to his wife. The family had already been discussing getting another dog, so the idea was not quite as spontaneous as it might have sounded.

He contacted the SPCA, met the puppy and went back to talk it over with his family. A few days later, the adoption was underway.

There was still the matter of a name.

Sticking With Trooper

Denton’s family considered several possibilities before settling on “Trooper,” a nod to the Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper who found him.

The puppy is believed to be a pit bull-Great Dane mix and roughly 4 to 5 months old. Denton said they have not had him genetically tested, but one part of the prediction already seems safe: Trooper is going to be a big dog.

“He’s a big boy and will be a big boy,” Denton said.

Trooper has also been settling into his new home well. Denton told News 5 that his family had wanted a larger second dog to join their roughly 20-pound Boston terrier.

No Easy Lead

What happened before Kronander found Trooper remains less clear.

Denton told Inside Edition it is believed the puppy was dropped off at the rest area, but he said there were no cameras positioned there to capture who left him. Cameras farther east and west were unlikely to provide enough information to identify the person responsible.

“The chances of us finding the person who did this is just very, very slim,” Denton said.

He had a simpler message for anyone who can no longer care for an animal: use an SPCA, shelter or another available resource rather than leaving the animal behind.

“There’s no reason to put an animal through the stress, through the trauma, through the pain of no food, no water in the sun,” Denton said.