CAMARILLO : Freeway Romp Leads to New Home for Dog

Chomping happily on an avocado, the dog that successfully dodged traffic on the Ventura Freeway for 40 minutes last week surveyed her new home in Camarillo.

Big lawn, nice-looking golden retriever in the yard next door, plenty of citrus, apple and avocado trees--and most important, a good fence encircling the property.

As the little black dog turned the avocado into guacamole, her new owner, Angie Casco, smiled at her.

“Look at her already,” Casco said. “Can you beat that? Boy, are you going to have a ball with avocados.”

Casco adopted the cockapoo from the Camarillo Animal Shelter, where she was in danger of being put to sleep after five days of being unclaimed.

A newspaper story about the dog’s travels on the freeway brought her to the attention of Casco and eight other would-be owners.

Casco, who was waiting at the shelter when it opened Friday, had to draw straws with one other early arrival hoping to adopt the dog.

The adoption was fate, she said. Three years ago, Pepper, her pet cockapoo, tried to take a jaunt on the Pasadena Freeway while Casco’s daughter was dog-sitting. Pepper was intercepted on the on-ramp and has since passed on from unrelated causes.

“This struck a familiar chord with me,” Casco said. “Maybe I was meant to have this dog.”

Casco, who was recently widowed, said she is looking forward to having the little dog for company.

Her house is already equipped with a dog-door, and she still has Pepper’s bed and bowl.

“Her face is almost exactly” like Pepper’s, Casco said. “She’s got a lot of personality.”

She told the dog to sit, and it immediately flopped at her feet, panting.

“She obeys and everything,” Casco said.

As for the name, how could Casco resist?

“I’m going to name her Freeway,” she said. “But if she doesn’t like that, maybe Scraps.”