ALBANY — They were found beaten, starved and close to death near a railroad track in Arbor Hill.

The three pit bull puppies were just three weeks old when they were saved on Sept. 10. One did not survive, but the other two, named Hudson and Pearl, were slowly nursed back to health.

One has a prosthetic paw. The other is missing two toes.

On Wednesday afternoon, after a lengthy search, the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society sent the pair to their new homes.

Hudson, the male with the prosthesis, will live with Richard and Rosemarie Nash of Schodack. The Nashes own another rescued pit bull, Sami, and five rescued cats.

Pearl, Hudson's sister, went to the Kittle family, who have a 4-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever and a huge back yard at their Poestenskill home.

"Look at him, he's just gorgeous," Rosemarie Nash said as her husband held Hudson in front of a pack of television cameras. "It's an honor to be bringing him home."

Investigators and the humane society believe the pups may have been nailed to the rail tracks. No one has been charged in the case, and a $7,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest.

"We don't want to dwell on the bad today," Richard Nash said. "We want the good and the happy to just go on."

On Wednesday morning, brother and sister, now about 4 months old, played in an outdoor pen at the humane society as employees and others who helped care for the pups said goodbye.

The Kittles and Nashes were chosen after the humane society fielded hundreds of phone calls from prospective owners as far away as California and asked each to submit a 300-word essay explaining why their home is best suited for the pups. Executive Director Brad Shear said the humane society received about 30 essays.

"Each of the essays were very good," Shear said. "There were a lot of good people, but in the end we had to dig down and focus on what we thought was best for the dogs."

The humane society visited the Kittles' house to see how Pearl would interact with the family's lab, Bailey.

"They hit it off right away," Susan Kittle said. "We didn't want to let her go home."

Richard and Rosemarie Nash took Sami to visit Hudson with similar results. They'll be adopting Hudson not long after Richard's brother died, just after Thanksgiving.

"We're so thrilled to be bringing him into our home," Richard Nash said.

Hudson's rear left paw had to be amputated. He was fitted for a prosthetic paw in October and it was attached last month. Tom Bowersox, who performed the rare procedure, said he had fitted only one other animal with an artificial limb in more than 20 years of practice.

Hudson's new paw is essentially a flexible cast with a rubber grip at the bottom. The brown-and-white pup seemed barely to notice when the replacement paw was put on and was soon chasing Pearl.

The Kittles say they plan to take Hudson to visit hospitals and recovery centers for amputees. Hudson has already visited amputees at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Center in Niskayuna.

"He'll be an inspiration to others," Rosemarie Nash said.

Litter mates are often sent to different homes, Shear said, because when siblings stay together they can distract each other, making them difficult to train.

"We've separated (Hudson and Pearl) before, and they've been perfectly happy," Shear said.

The Nashes and the Kittles say they will let the pups visit each other. They plan for the pair to attend training classes together starting this month.

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