Joe, a scruffy mixed-breed puppy, would have surely frozen to death with her brothers and sisters under a porch, were she not rescued in the nick of time.
She and two other homeless puppies were flown to Edmonton in search of new homes, as their birthplace of Hay River, NWT, is overrun with orphaned dogs and not enough places to put them.
“They were found freezing and starving to death, and were they not found, they would have died,” said Edmonton Humane Society spokeswoman Shawna Randolph.
Because the small, northern community does not have its own animal shelter, orphaned dogs are placed with foster families. Bylaws prevent surrogate parents from housing more than two at a time, and few families are willing to foster as it is.
Four-month-old suspected siblings Joe and Shanna, along with two-month-old Faith, a Rottweiler-Husky mix, were flown to Edmonton where there is a little more room at the inn.
All expenses for the trip were covered by the Hay River SPCA.
Though they arrived at the shelter two nights ago, the puppies won’t be ready for adoption for another week, so that they can first be spayed and vaccinated.
Currently, the shelter is housing around two dozen adoptable dogs.
