Billy Joel and his family adopt rescue dog
Billy Joel's daughter Della welcomes her new family member, a French bulldog named Bucky. Credit: Billy Joel Instagram
Longtime animal advocate Billy Joel and his family have adopted a new rescue dog, a French bulldog named Bucky.
“A year and a half ago, we lost Rosie and were waiting for the right rescue for our family,” the Hicksville-raised Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, 74, wrote on social media Sunday, referring to a puppy-mill puppy he rescued via North Shore Animal League America in Port Washington in 2012.
Posting photos of himself, his wife, Alexis, and their daughters Remy, 6, and Della, 8, gathered happily around the dog, Joel went on to thank Beth Stern, a major supporter of that no-kill shelter, and Nikki Carvey, founder of the five-year-old Lomita, California, nonprofit Roadogs Rescue “for finding our Bucky. He was at a shelter in San Diego with a bad case of mange[.] @roadogs rescued him and nursed him back to health and now he is part of our family.” The message was signed “The Joels.”
On Instagram Stories, where posts cycle out after 24 hours, a photo of Della hugging the new dog was captioned “Welcome Bucky to your forever home.”
“Big love to @billyjoel and family for choosing to adopt from Roadogs,” read a Roadogs Rescue Instagram post. “We rescued Bucky from the shelter with mange. Thanks to his foster, Nicole [Osborne], he got lots of love and good care and was soon ready for adoption! … Thank you to @bethostern and @cindypinkceo for advocating for rescue and Roadogs,” the post said, referring to Stern, wife of Long Island-raised radio icon Howard Stern, and pharmaceuticals entrepreneur Cindy Eckert, founder of the women’s-health advocacy group The Pink Ceiling.
“It’s a long distance from a San Diego shelter to the living room of @billyjoel — just incredible!,” Eckert commented on the Roadogs post. “Can you imagine those private concerts Bucky has access to?! Congrats @roadogs for changing so many lives … and I’m not just talking about the doggies. … — loved being a part of this….”
Joel additionally had made a home for another pug, Sabrina, who died in 2016 and was often photographed sitting or riding in the sidecar of one of the singer-songwriter’s motorcycles.
In December 2019, North Shore Animal League America named a room for Joel in the shelter’s newly opened Bianca's Furry Friends Feline Adoption Center. Joel in May 2014 donated the proceeds from his 65th-birthday concert at Madison Square Garden to Bianca's Furry Friends.
Joel recently announced that his unprecedented monthly residency at the Garden would play its final concert July 25, capping a 10½-year run.
