Whatever
Happened To...
An update on past news
STAR-BULLETIN / 2002
Becky Rhoades, of the Hawaiian Humane Society, held Hok Get last year aboard the American Quest at Pier 24.
Tanker dog Hok Get now
fat and happy on dry landQuestion: What ever happened to the dog that was rescued about a year ago from a burned-out oil tanker?
Answer: One year after her rescue from a crippled tanker, Hok Get the castaway dog is going on a diet, says caretaker Michael Kuo.
But first there will be cake to celebrate the anniversary of her arrival in Hawaii.
"It's kind of like she's reborn or something," Kuo said about the anniversary of Hok Get's rescue and arrival in Honolulu Harbor one year ago yesterday. (The cake will be served today.)
Hok Get drifted aboard the burned-out oil tanker Insiko 1907 for nearly a month last year after she was unintentionally left behind when the crew was saved by a passing cruise ship.
After a rescue effort that is estimated to have cost more than $280,000, the Coast Guard located Hok Get and the drifting tanker near Johnston Atoll and brought the ship and the dog back to Honolulu.
At the time of her return, Hok Get weighed 22 pounds. Released from quarantine in August, she now weighs 26.5 pounds and is slightly overweight, Kuo said.
Hok Get has been feasting twice a day on the lifetime free supply of dog food donated by the IAMS company. Kuo is cutting her down to one meal a day and said he'd like to maintain her weight at about 24 or 25 pounds.
"She's pretty happy now," Kuo said about the mixed-breed terrier that is living with him and his family in Leeward Oahu. She takes walks twice a da, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and enjoys her celebrity.
"Even this morning one of the ladies said: 'Is that Hok Get? Can I pet her?'" Kuo said this week. People and kids are always coming up to pet and play with Hok Get, he said.
He said he keeps in touch with his friend and Hok Get's owner, Capt. Chung Chin-po, to update him on how the dog is doing.
"Last month, I sent him an article and a CD by Henry Kapono that has a song about Hok Get," Kuo said.
"I told my friend she's the most lucky dog in the world."
Chung is at sea on a tanker that has been renamed Hok Get, in honor of his famous dog. "Hok get" in Taiwanese means "happiness, good fortune, blessing -- all that is good," Chung told the media in a letter last year.
Kuo says Hok Get will remain in Honolulu and not return to sea. "He (Chung) said: 'It's a better life in Hawaii. It's paradise. If I take her back, she's going to be bored.'"
This update was written by Craig Gima.
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