Just a simple dog train that takes rescue dogs on dog adventures
An 80-year-old retired man in Fort Worth, Texas recently began a completely new career as a train conductor — driving a homemade train filled with stray dogs he’s rescued. Eugene Bostick retired about 15 years ago, but he has since discovered that what he actually wants to spend his golden years doing is helping out homeless pups.
Bostick and his brother live in an area where people sadly abandon their dogs on the regular, so they have taken it upon themselves to take the dogs in, because if they didn’t — the dogs likely wouldn’t survive. Bostick explained to The Dodo, “We live down on a dead-end street, where me and my brother have a horse barn. People sometimes come by and dump dogs out here, leaving them to starve. So, we started feeding them, letting them in, taking them to the vet to get them spayed and neutered. We made a place for them to live.”
Not only are the dogs given a place to eat, sleep, run around, and play — they also get to go on mini trips. Bostick built a doggy train so he could take his dog friends on little adventures — no tickets needed.
“One day I was out and I seen this guy with a tractor who attached these carts to pull rocks. I thought, ‘Dang, that would do for a dog train,’” Bostick told The Dodo. “I’m a pretty good welder, so I took these plastic barrels with holes cut in them, and put wheels under them and tied them together.”
Bostick and the troop of nine dogs currently living under his care can often be seen adventuring through the quiet streets in town. They spend a lot of their time rolling through the woods near the house or hanging out at a nearby creek. Since all the formerly abandoned dogs were most likely lacking love in their lives, they really look forward to their adventures with Bostick. They love the train so much, they don’t even try to jump out. If you have a dog, you know that not trying to jump out of a dog train definitely means the dogs are super into it.
“Whenever they hear me hooking the tractor up to it, man, they get so excited,” Bostick said. “They all come running and jump in on their own. They’re ready to go.”
We absolutely love this story and are so happy people like Bostick and his brother exist.
Related reading:
This is a story about dogs going to a funeral, and it’s heartbreakingly beautiful
This “Uptown Funk” parody with dogs is too adorbs for words
[Images via Twitter and Imgur]
