It’s a full and noisy house at the Gastineau Humane Society. The animal shelter over the weekend had more than 20 dogs up for adoption, including 11 puppies that have been in foster care.
Shelter director Chava Lee said Friday most of the dogs came into the shelter last week.
“You know every morning I’d hear, ‘Oh, we got two more dogs last night; well, we got another dog; well, we got three dogs today,’ ” she said. “And you know those added up to ‘What do you mean we have 22 dogs at the shelter?’ ”
Lee said the dogs are not Christmas rejects; she expects those to begin coming in next month.
And while the dogs have not been “dumped,” she said the shelter does have more than usual. She said they all came from people moving out of town who could not take their dog, or from homes where for one reason or another, families could no longer care for them.
Gastineau Humane Society maintains a list of foster families, who care for animals in their homes until permanent homes can be found. That was the case of the 11 puppies, born to a dog rescued from a Southeast village. She said the foster family had its hands full.
“They had to feed these pups by bottle every few hours and they did it,” Lee said. “They have small children and the small children have friends, so these pups have been around a lot of kids and they are just incredibly well-socialized, sweet dogs.”
She said the foster-to adopt puppies are a Rottweiler and possibly Lab mix.
Lee said the shelter also has 16 pups from two litters “waiting in the wings,” to be prepared for adoption.
