Carla Duran Capellan’s afternoon stroll often takes her from her cramped Mt. Vernon Ave. dorm at UMass Boston through the sprawling harborside grounds of the JFK Library and down to Boston’s seaport at City Point in South Boston. She knows the route by heart, and recommends the mile-long trek to the incoming freshmen she encounters as an orientation leader.
Last Friday afternoon, when the UMass Boston junior reached Castle Island, she expected to see throngs of pedestrians who, like her, had headed outside after the day’s heavy morning rain. Instead of throngs, though, she and another passerby, Gayle Cataldo, spotted a dog trapped and cowering behind a fenced-off construction site and looking very thirsty.
“I called the number on the collar and said, ‘If you’re looking for a blue-eyed dog, we have ‘em!’ It didn’t seem like a heroic thing to do; anyone would have done it,” said Capellan. “All I did was find a dog, but, when you save a national hero’s dog, suddenly you’re a national hero.”
The phone number belonged to Aly Raisman, a world-class gymnast and three-time Olympic gold medalist whose pet, Mylo, an 11-month-old rescue dog, had been missing for a week, spooked, apparently, by the Seaport District’s Independence Day fireworks display. Raisman offered a post-lunch coffee date as a gesture of thanks.
Capellan, a Lowell native by way of the Dominican Republic, relayed how she and Cataldo rescued Mylo: “One of us jumped the fence and the other lured him out with treats; it was a team effort,” she said. “He was just waiting behind the fence for someone to get him out. We held him afterwards, and he was so friendly and kept licking our faces. I think he was relieved.”
Mylo wasn’t the only relieved party. Raisman, who had launched a “Find Mylo” campaign on social media and offered a reward for his return, remained on the phone with Capellan for 15 minutes, getting directions to their meeting place and relaying stories of well-meaning false alarms and deceptive prank calls.
The tearful reunion that followed has garnered hundreds of thousands of likes on Instagram and more than 9,000 jubilant comments celebrating Mylo’s safe return.
Raisman’s headline: “HEROES. I HAVE HIM. MYLO IS SAFE.”
Despite watching the Olympic games over the years and rooting “fanatically” for the limber American gymnastics team, Capellan said she didn’t recognize Raisman. In retrospect, she suggested, her muted response to meeting her may have been exactly what the celebrated high-performance athlete needed.
“They had a very sweet moment. He was lost for six days, you know; it must’ve been hard for the both of them,” Capellan said. “Eventually, I realized who she was and her dad even asked if we knew Aly – he’s very proud of her. But it wasn’t about getting a reward or meeting a famous person. We just found a dog. Anyone would’ve done the same thing; it’s just what you do.”
The rush of publicity that followed amid freshman orientation and “regular life stuff,” Capellan said, has been the most unexpected part of the experience.
After an interview with Channel 4 and the Boston Herald, she took a live Zoom interview on Channel 5 from the floor of the break room at the Marshall’s store in the Fenway where she works, using a strategic seating arrangement to avoid any brand placement in the background.
Capellan is looking forward to things dying down, and said she doesn’t think any more big acts of heroism are in the cards for the near future.
“The picture came across my screen this morning, and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, I’m in People Magazine!’ Newspapers I’ve never read and reporters I never spoke to ran the story because it makes people feel good,” said Capellan. “Happy news makes people feel good.”
She added: “Still, I’m looking forward to walking down to the Seaport just as normal again.”
