Dozens of dogs are getting a fresh start after the Owen County Humane Society rescued them from a hoarding situation in May. The organization found more than 80 dogs living in a rat-infested home on Shephard Road.
Neighboring communities are now coming together to help give the dogs a new beginning.
A little dog named Buck is among them. He follows his owner wherever she goes.
"If I'm going to brush my teeth, if I'm going to do laundry, going to make a sandwich, he follows me everywhere and he sits there and waits for me to be finished," says Kyra Crum.
So it may surprise you to learn Crum and Buck have known each other for less than a month.
We knew that we had to take him home.
"We knew that we had to take him home," Crum says.
Crum and her sister adopted Buck three weeks ago from Bloomington Animal Care and Control, one of the neighboring shelters that stepped up to help Owen County. The humane society doesn't know much about the dogs or what they went through, but you can faintly see where someone wrote initials into the top of Buck's head.
Many of the other dogs were in worse shape.
"When the state vet comes in they do a body score from 0 to 5," says Owen County Humane Society Vice President Becky Brown. "Zero is deceased, five is relatively healthy actually chubby. 85 percent of the dogs came in at two or below which were extremely neglected, underweight, flea infested, ticks. Just poor condition,"
Many of the dogs needed special attention, which is more than Owen County's Humane Society could handle alone.
"It was at least double their natural capacity so they didn't have long-term placement for these dogs to get them well and get them going so they asked for assistance from other shelters around the community," says Director of Bloomington Animal Care And Control Virgil Sauder.
Bloomington Animal Care and Control took in 19 dogs. About half of them are already in new homes. Some still have to regain their health in foster homes or at the shelter before being adopted.
"The group we got here, even though they're from a bad hoarding situation are very well socialized and very sweet dogs, other than needing some basic vet care," Sauder says.
Buck still needs a little extra care. He gets nervous around new people and is frightened by loud noises.
But that's OK with Crum because he already feels like part of the family.
"He definitely makes the end of my day when I come home from work a little more special," Crum says.
