TAIL’S END: Owner Tom Robinson is reunited yesterday with plucky Charlie. (Christopher Sadowski)
He’s one dogged dog!
A panicked New York pooch fled a frightening fireworks show in New Jersey — and managed to get halfway across the George Washington Bridge as he bravely headed to his home on the Upper East Side.
During his epic, 11-hour, nearly three-mile walk to the bridge from the town of Leonia, Charlie, a 10-year-old Belgian shepherd, successfully dodged traffic on the area’s busiest roads and emerged victorious from an encounter with a skunk before he was picked up by Port Authority cops on the span.
“I can’t believe how good he looks after that horrible night,’’ said his relieved owner, Tom Robinson. “I wouldn’t look half as good if I had a night like that.”
He said Charlie — who was wearing an ID tag — bolted during the height of the Leonia block party, when he pushed opened the door of the family’s second home.
Cops said construction workers on the lower level called at 9:30 a.m. to report a dog running in traffic.
“It’s a miracle he didn’t get hit by a car,” said PA police spokesman Al Della Fave.
Officer Kameel Jumar — who has several dogs of his own and always keeps a leash and collar in his workbag — raced to the scene and found Charlie cowering on a catwalk, just inches from the edge of a 212-foot drop.
Jumar slipped a collar onto the wayward pup whose rear leg was hurt, probably by the skunk, which added injury — and a telltale odor — to insult.
Charlie was rushed to an animal hospital, where a vet stitched up his leg.
“He wanted to go back to where he felt safe,” said Officer Vincent Ascolese of Bergen County Humane Enforcement.
“Dogs can do amazing things. They have determination and they have fortitude,” Ascolese said. “[The family] had only been to Jersey a few times; [Charlie] knew where he was going.”
Additional reporting by Kevin Sheehan