Progressive Politics

“Another dog [Bondi] helped was a Saint Bernard named Master Tank. She adopted him from a shelter after he was lost during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, not long after her own Saint Bernard had died. The story has been told but bears repeating. Master Tank belonged to Steve and Dorreen Couture and their grandson, who was 4, recovering from the murder-suicide of his parents and losing his dog during the storm. Bondi said the dog was a ‘walking skeleton’ and ‘dying from heartworms’ when she adopted him.

The Coutures eventually tracked down Master Tank, but instead of giving him back, Bondi hired a lawyer, who accused the Coutures of abusing the dog, which Bondi had renamed Noah. ‘She lied,’ Dorreen told a Palm Beach Post columnist years later. ‘My little grandson begged her to take the dog home, and she refused. She thought she would just wear us down. That we were unstable people and would just quit.’ The case was settled out of court, with Bondi securing visitation rights, but she never did visit. She got another dog.”