Wake Forest firefighter rescues, adopts dog found wandering after Helene

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (WTVD) -- Korey Floyd went to help in western North Carolina without expecting to bring home a lifelong friend, a black and white pitbull mix named "Lulu."

"None of them knew who she belonged to," said Floyd, a Wake Forest firefighter. "We took her to the local shelter. They checked her for a chip, there was no chip and no collar, no tags. So, we were kind of in the blind with her."

Lulu was found wandering on the road in Mitchell County where Floyd was helping clean up storm debris after Hurricane Helene and doing welfare checks. The dog was treated for tick-borne diseases and worms.

"Everybody was joking "Are you going to take her home with you?" Floyd said. "When we're getting toward the end of it, we're like, yeah, we're probably going to take her with us because we didn't want her to go to a pound."

After hanging out with first responders in western North Carolina, Lulu received a warm welcome at home in Wake County, where her new brothers and sisters consist of a 3-year-old beagle mix named "Winston," and a gaggle of chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys.

"First meeting, they were great," Floyd said. "They kind of looked at each other, kind of weird at first, and then they were friends from the beginning."

Floyd describes Lulu as a happy, giddy dog that is a sweet reminder of how important life is.

"I think she's more of a sign of hope," Floyd said. "There's good things that can come out of it. (Western NC) will recover and they're doing efforts now. Most of the time we were there, it was good thoughts, it was not a negative time for us. All we did was just good things, helping the community out, trying to do what we could."