I received a call this past Wednesday morning from Nancy in Bemidji who had stopped by the Leech Lake Impound with her husband Tom to drop off a dog. When they opened up the door to the Impound (expecting to see four adult dogs wagging their tails), they were hit with an insane chorus of barking.
 |
| Yadro |
 |
| Yankee |
Much to Nancy and Tom's surprise - the Impound was FILLED with puppies of all sizes, colors and ages - all carousing happily in their own poop and crazily wagging their tails - and all of them wanting to be picked up and snuggled.
 |
| Yanni |
 |
| Yarrow |
After talking to Nancy, I contacted Rory, the Animal Control Officer, who told me that 18 puppies had been dropped off at the Impound the previous evening. He only had time the night before to vaccinate and feed them and had not yet found a minute to let me know they were there and were going to need transport to the Cities.
 |
| Yasmine |
 |
| Yentl |
I knew we needed to get the puppies out of the Impound as quickly as possibly and immediately started reaching out to my Leech Lake contacts.
 |
| Yolanda |
 |
| Yoseph |
After many calls and emails, a transport was set up for yesterday.
- AHS graciously found a volunteer to make the trip and also donated the use of a cargo van to transport the puppies.
- Nancy and Tom from Bemidji went through hell and high water to get the puppies loaded in Leech Lake in time to meet the transport in Little Falls and hightail it back to work.
- The staff at AHS met the transport and worked with us to get the puppies unloaded, vaccinated and named. As is usual when puppies are coming in, a huge contingent of AHS staff met the transport and oohed and aahed over every one of the puppies.
- Out photographer Marilou, met us at AHS and took pictures and video of this amazing transport.
 |
| Yoshi |
 |
| Youngblood |
And somehow, an extra puppy made its way onto the transport - we ended up with NINETEEN puppies! Not really sure how THAT happened...
 |
| YoYo |
 |
| Yuri |
This transport is another shining example of just how much we can do when we work together. Nineteen sweet little puppies will be given a chance at a better life because of the generosity of so many people.
 |
| Yvette |
If you happen to count the pictures of the puppies in this blog, you will note that there are only 18 pictures. In the chaos of the intake, we neglected to get a picture of Yosemite Sam.
Thank you again to everyone who helped make this transport a success.
If you are interested in adopting any of these puppies, some of them are already up for adoption at the Golden Valley location of AHS. You can view them online or even better, go see them in person.
 |
| Yaz |
And one more thing…
Marilou Chanrasmi was interviewed by Sidewalk Dog about a month ago on our efforts to help the animals up at Leech Lake Reservation. They are getting ready to send out their December e-newsletter, which will feature the following story:
I would like to send a special thank you to Meredeth, Ali and Beth at Sidewalk Dog for this fabulous story.
