Riona Was Brutally Burned — After A Year To Recover, She's Finally Going To Her New Home

It’s truly unbelievable how cruel some people can be to dogs. A sweet pup named Riona suffered as much as anybody after being brutally set on fire by her owner last year.

But almost exactly a year after that horrific incident, Riona is finally going to her new home.

Last June, residents in Nutbush, Tennessee witnessed a shocking site as Riona, a pitbull mix, ran down the street engulfed in flames. The smell of gas made it clear that she had been intentionally set on fire.

“All you could smell was gas,” Mallory Mclemore of Bluff City Veterinary Specialists told Memphis Commercial Appeal.

“She was burnt and covered in diesel fuel… It confirmed she was set on fire via witness statements,” Ginger Natoli, founder of the Tails of Hope Dog Rescue, told Newsweek. “We have obtained ring cam footage from a neighbor that also shows her running in a ball of flames.”

Riona’s ear was burnt off, but thankfully her left eye was saved after emergency medical response. She was taken in by Tails of Hope Dog Rescue, and received medical treatments at Bluff City Veterinary Specialists. She was given twice daily full body wraps to protect her skin.

A TikTok video of Riona’s story went viral with millions of views, garnering sympathy for Riona around the world.

Riona began a long road to recovery, receiving a series of skin grafts to treat the fourth degree burns all over her body. While she was traumatized by the ordeal, Riona was also said to be in good spirits throughout her recovery.

“She’s just always wagging her tail,” Mclemore said. “That’s what makes it even worse, I guess. Not that it would ever be OK, but just being so sweet and for somebody to do something like this to her. She just loves everybody.”

“She’s actually kind of cute with one ear,” Natoli told the Commercial Appeal. “It makes her personality cute.”

 

Tails of Hope continued to share updates of Riona’s recovery, and supporters sent in donations and gifts for the dog.

Meanwhile, 43-year-old Quishon Brown was arrested for allegedly setting Riona on fire. Police charged him with misdemeanor assault and two felonies, aggravated cruelty to animals and setting fire to personal property. The case is currently awaiting trial.

According to a Facebook post, Riona’s story also helped a new animal cruelty bill pass in Tennessee.

Months passed, and slowly but surely Riona’s condition improved. And recently, almost exactly a year after she was set on fire, there has been an inspiring update to Riona’s story: she’s finally going to her new home!

Tails of Hope wrote that they would be embarking on an ten-hour road trip to bring Riona to her new forever home.

“Our goal was to get her a forever home, and that’s exactly what we found,” Natoli told the Commercial Appeal. “Riona has other dogs to play with, she has children to play with, she’s got a big yard to play in, she’s got a family that has experience in the medical field and an understanding of what her injuries were.”

“Riona’s story is not coming to an end, in fact it is really just beginning,” the rescue wrote on Facebook. “We have all been a part of this miracle, our ‘warrior’ girl.”

In a reminder of how the work of animal rescues is never done, Tails of Hope said that right after Riona left for her new home, they took in another rescue dog who had been a burn victim. “There is always another in need,” they wrote. Now we get to be part of yet another story.”

What a horrible thing for this poor sweet dog to go through, but we’re so happy that a year later Riona is off to her new home!

Please share this inspiring update! ❤️🐾

They got hate letters after they got married - 55 years later they're still going strong

Leslie Uggams has had a fascinating career as an actress on the big screen and on the stage.

Probably best known for her role in the Deadpool series the Harlem-born singer and actress has had a successful career spanning seven decades.

But behind the scenes, her personal life could be the subject of a movie after she tied the knot with White Australian man Grahame Pratt in 1965 as their love affair throughout the ages has defied all the odds of interracial love...

Leslie was a talented singer and in 1953 when she was just 10 years old she made a record for MGM. Encouraged by her aunt singer Eloise Uggams she attended the Professional Children’s School of New York and prestigious New York music school Julliard.

But her musical career was only the start of her journey and by 1969 she had her own TV variety show “The Leslie Uggams Show”, the first network variety show to be hosted by a black person since “The Nat King Cole Show.”

But behind the scenes she had met and fallen in love with actor Grahame Pratt. After first meeting him at Professional Children’s School of New York, where they were both students, the couple then ran into each other while she was performing in Sydney during one of Leslie’s celebrity tours in Australia.

Leslie knew what the repercussions would be of dating a white man as she’d done so in her teens and her aunt had told her not to entertain the idea of a future with him.

“I remember the shock I got once when I was dating a white boy,” Leslie said in a 1967 interview with Ebony.

“He sent me a color picture of himself. I showed it to my aunt. He was a good looking boy with beautiful hair. I thought he was gorgeous. But my aunt took one look and started in to lecture me. ‘Well he’s alright, I suppose,’ she told me, ‘but only for dates, huh, honey? When you’re thinking of settling down for keeps you’ll make sure you marry a nice [Black] fella, won’t you?’”

After her chance meeting with Grahame Leslie said she kept seeing him.

“I found myself really falling for him, which was quite a thing for me to realize as I was only 21.”

When she left Australia it would be 12 months before she saw him again.

The two had fallen in love, despite Leslie’s reservations over her family’s reaction and what it would mean for the two of them as Grahame would have to move to the U.S. for Leslie’s career. They got engaged for 5 months and Grahame visited her in New York.

“Knowing my family’s ideas about mixed marriages I wanted to know, too, whether they would really accept Grahame and not just tolerate him,” she said.

But Leslie had nothing to worry about as for Grahame being Australian had its advantages.

‘But of course we did get mail’

“He had none of the self-consciousness about the situation that a white American often has. He fitted in easily with all my friends…just because he liked them. And they certainly liked him, both the men and the girls.”

The two got married in 1965 and although didn’t encounter many of the racial issues that the rest of the U.S. was experiencing living in New York, Leslie said she still received hate mail over their union.

“It was not as hard as I expected it to be,” Leslie said of her marriage in an interview with PEOPLE. “I think the reason is that Grahame was not an American white man. But of course we did get mail.

“Sometimes when I go on tour through the States I get anonymous letters about being married to a white man,” Leslie revealed. “I remember I got one in Detroit of all places. It came to the club addressed to ‘The Little Negro Entertainer.’ They’re always addressed something like that and they’re not pleasant to read.”

Grahame became Leslie’s manager and the couple had two children Danielle, born in 1970, and son Justice, born in 1976.

By 1977, one year after their second child was born, Leslie had landed the lead role in the miniseries “Roots”, a part she received an Emmy nomination for her role as Kizzy.

Two years later she starred as Lillian Rogers Parks in “Backstairs at the White House”, a miniseries for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Actress.

In 1996, she played the role of Rose Keefer on “All My Children” and in 1983 she received a Daytime Emmy Award as a host of the NBC game show “Fantasy.”

She also made guest appearances television programs such as “Family Guy” (as herself), “I Spy”, “Hollywood Squares”, “The Muppet Show”, “The Love Boat” and “Magnum, P.I..”

Leslie and Grahame are still together and very much in love 55 years later and as well as having two children they also have granddaughter Cassidy.

And the secret to their happy union – Leslie said, “We laugh all the time — but it ain’t always roses. We have fun together.”