A three-legged miniature poodle that was once saved from squalid conditions in China by a Los Angeles rescue organization has now found a happy Hollywood ending — twice.
“Pita” — a 3-year-old white poodle who went missing around 8:30 p.m. Monday after slipping under a backyard gate at her home near Paramount Studios — was reunited with her overjoyed owner around 1 p.m. Tuesday after a kindly couple found the dog hiding under a car in the parking lot of the KFC restaurant at Western and Oakwood avenues, about a mile away.
Pita’s owner, Alex Felix, a young actress, said the good Samaritans found the frightened pooch around 11 p.m. Monday, induced her to emerge from under a car and took her home — and even gave her a bath.
The rescuers scoured social media and were able to connect on Tuesday with Felix, who had posted her plight on various platforms and plastered her neighborhood with flyers.
“When I FaceTimed them, I just started sobbing,” Felix said Tuesday, with Pita back home safe in their Larchmont-area residence.
“She’s getting so much love, I so was so anxious,” Felix said.
The dog, who is missing her right hind leg, is micro-chipped but slipped out of her collar while going under the gate, according to Felix.
Pita was brought to the United States from China last year by the Los Angeles-based rescue organization Yogi’s House, which specializes in saving dogs ticketed for euthanasia at overcrowded shelters. The group has also taken part in numerous rescues in China, where an estimated 10 million dogs are killed annually for meat, according to activists — though the eating of dog meat is not mainstream and is officially illegal in China.
According to Felix, Pita might have been lured to the KFC by the restaurant’s aroma.
“She loves chicken,” Felix said.