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Almost all of 44 rescued dogs find homes

Haley Gustafson | Daily Press Five of the 10 chiweenie puppies born recently are held by Delta Animal Shelter personnel in Escanaba Tuesday. The five-week-old puppies are babies of one of the 44 dogs that were surrendered to the shelter in March.

ESCANABA — The 44 dogs that were surrendered to the Delta Animal Shelter in Escanaba have almost all found their forever homes.

According to Shelter Manager Sue Gartland, the dogs who have been adopted are thriving in their new homes. Families who adopted some of the dogs have kept the shelter updated on their social progress, as a majority of the dogs were timid and scared of people when they arrived at the shelter three months ago.

“We’re still here to help with any support they need,” said Gartland.

On Thursday, March 22, shelter employees, volunteers, and Gladstone Public Safety began the process of removing the dogs and one rabbit from the single dwelling home in Gladstone. It took shelter personnel approximately two hours to remove all 44 dogs and rabbit from the home. The rabbit was adopted shortly after arriving at the shelter.

The canines are a small breed known as “chiweenies” which are crosses between a Chihuahua and dachshund (sometimes called wiener dogs).

Prior to coming into the care of the facility, Gartland said, to their knowledge, the dogs had never been outside and were not house trained.

Since arriving at the shelter, all dogs were spayed/neutered, given vaccinations, de-wormed and de-fleaed. Of the 44, 26 chiweenies have been adopted into homes.

Currently, there are three adult males left at the shelter and one of them is available for adoption. Four females are in foster homes and all had puppies.

However, some pups didn’t survive due to premature labor and other unforeseen complications. In total, 10 puppies were born and are healthy and happy, noted Gartland. They are five weeks old and aren’t available for adoption just yet.

Once they are ready, the pups will be spayed/neutered and given proper medical treatments at the shelter and be put up for adoption.

When the news hit about the shelter receiving such a large intake of dogs, the community jumped into action with donations of money, items needed, and volunteers spending time with the scared dogs in their kennels for hours at time, said Gartland. Without their support, the shelter would have had a difficult time helping “The 44,” she added.

“Without the support of the community, we would’ve not been able to what we were able to do for all of these dogs,” said Gartland.

Gartland noted the shelter is still in need of donations both monetary, food, and other items as its busy summer season is upon them. At some points in the summer, the shelter can house up to 200 animals at a time. The shelter has many donation options including their “Cans for Critters” where people can drop off their recyclable cans to the shelter.

For more information about the Delta Animal Shelter, call 789-0230.

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