Puppies still searching for their ‘furever home’

FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) -

We have an update on a story we first told you about a few weeks ago, involving a litter of puppies found abandoned near Barnesville, Minn.

Homeward Animal Shelter in Fargo and 4 Luv of Dog in Moorhead each took a couple of the puppies into foster care until permanent homes can be found.

The local animal shelter officials say it’s a growing problem throughout the nation and they’re seeing abandoned pets and stray animals are left to fend for themselves.

“A dog that we took in, she was tied up in the middle of nowhere,” says Sidney Williams, owner and founder of Smiley’s Rescues.

“It does happen unfortunately pretty frequently. At least once a month we are asked to take in a litter in need or puppies in need that have been found either abandoned or as strays,” explains Amy Goore, Foster Coordinator at 4 Luv of Dog.

That’s the story for Amelie, Sloane, and Betty Boop, three of the five puppies found in rural Clay County in August. The other two have already been adopted.

“When we saw some articles about them being at capacity and desperately in need of fosters we thought, now is as good a time as any and it’s been a really rewarding experience ever since,” says Robert Vallie, a foster with Homeward.

They say, these puppies are some of the lucky ones.

“Puppies are always picked in rescue and a dog has five puppies and those five puppies steal homes away from senior dogs and from adult dogs who now...like, unfortunately, not every shelter is a no kill shelter and there just isn’t enough homes,” says Williams.

Animal rescue experts say they’re in crisis. Both Homeward and 4 Luv are at capacity and say they need more foster homes and ask for people to adopt- not shop.

Operations Director at Homeward, Heather Clyde says, “We’ve only got about 45 animals that can be housed here in the shelter but we have 200 animals that are under our care so all the rest of those animals, if we didn’t have foster homes we wouldn’t be able to help all those animals that we help every single day.”

She says if you are in a situation where you need to surrender your pet, “We usually try and encourage people to try and rehome their pets on their own if they can because you’re usually going to be able to find them a home on your own faster than trying to get into a shelter.”

If you’re interested in becoming a foster, volunteering, or adopting you can follow the links found in this story.

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