North Texas swim team assists with foster puppies to help overwhelmed Dallas Animal Services
DALLAS - Dallas Animal Services says it is still in urgent need of people willing to temporarily care for moms with puppies until they reach eight weeks of age and can be adopted.
A North Texas swim team stepped up to help in a big way.
"They came over and fell in love," said 11-year-old Kennedy Denovellis.
Denovellis isn't swimming for the Midlothian Sting Rays this summer. She found another passion: caring for a mom and her pups.
"We fill their water, feed the moms, clean up the puppies, sometimes we give them baths here and there," Denovellis said.
The litter is being fostered by her neighbor, Mary Martin, who is also the assistant director of Dallas Animal Services.
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"It just fills my heart so wonderful to have the support of our neighbors and the community to help raise these babies," said Martin.
While this group was first united by a love for swimming, they also share a love for caring for an orphaned mom and her six puppies.
When they all come over, they have more than enough hands.
"I've never had this experience, so it is really fun to see the different puppies name them, see how they are all different," said Denovellis.
Martin hopes that their example will inspire other.
"Thanks to you and Fox 4 News we were able to get a number of puppies into foster and rescue, but more have come in," she said.
Martin says there are 5 litters at DAS in need of temporary homes right now.
"These girls are helping to socialize them, so they'll make good puppies as they grow," she said.
Martin says having the moms in foster homes helps them to de-stress, allowing them to better care for their puppies.
"In 2 hours from being here where she could come and go as she pleased and make her own choices, she was completely relaxed," Martin added. "The less stressed the mom, the less stressed the puppies will be."
Again, the pups can't be adopted until they're older, but foster care helps free up shelter space for other animals.
Dallas Animal Services expects surge in pets in need of shelter. It is already over capacity.
Last year, the shelter saw more than 100 new animals from off the streets on July 4th and 5th.
Kennedy and her family plan to adopt Layla once she is finished raising her puppies.
"The moms are often overlooked, and they might end back in a shelter situation after the puppies are adopted. This one was very sweet, not that the other ones were not, we thought it was important to give her a loving home," said Kelli Denovellis, Kennedy's mom.
On Friday afternoon eight puppies were brought into Dallas Animal Services with no mom.
They will need to be bottle-fed.
If you would like to foster puppies from Dallas Animal Services you can send an email to Mary.Martin@dallas.gov.