A local animal shelter got a boost recently from the most unlikely of sources.
New Hampshire native Abigail Dupuis raised more than $3,600 for the Forgotten Tails Animal Rescue as a part of her senior project at Coe-Brown Northwood Academy in Northwood, New Hampshire.
Not only did she run in a 5K race to raise the funds, Dupuis organized the race herself.
“I became familiar with Forgotten Tails through working with Mary’s Dogs, a similar charity in New Hampshire that partners with Forgotten Tails to find homes for their dogs up North,” said Dupuis. “Dogs from Forgotten Tails in Clarendon County are transported to Mary’s Dogs to be adopted out.”
Forgotten Tails co-founder Ginny Turcotte said the rescue gets the dogs from Clarendon County, helps get them well and then sends pictures and profiles of their personalities to Mary’s Dogs, and they post them to PetFinder and find them homes,” she said. “Then, every four weeks, we send a transports of dogs.”
Turcotte has had as many as three dozen dogs leave at once.
“All the dogs are fully vetted, they’ve been dewormed, they’ve had every shot, they’re spayed and neutered,” she said. They’re perfect when they leave.”
Dupuis has helped serve as a foster with Mary’s Dogs in New Hampshire.
“Because I am the one who sends most of the dogs up there, and it’s mostly our dogs that she sees, that’s why she picked up,” said Turcotte, who noted that Forgotten Tails is also a non-profit organization. “I was amazed. Around here, we don’t get a lot of help, so for someone that far away to care that much about our dogs, it’s just overwhelming really.”
Dupuis said that her 5K incorporated participants’ dogs “into whatever was happening.”
“My school is a really big running school,” she said. “I don’t personally run, but we do a lot of track and cross-country. I figured that a lot of people would want to run with their dogs. We had two dogs from (South Carolina) who came to run the 5K.”
The run, held June 18, had about 70 participants, and there were about 20-30 volunteers as well.
“There were probably 15 to 20 dogs there,” she said.
Dupuis said she’s always loved animals, and has always enjoyed helping them.
“I’ve never been allowed to have any growing up, so the summer after my freshman year, Mary’s Dogs moved into a building two addresses down from my school,” she said. “I started volunteering there, and I probably did about 200 hours of volunteer work before I started working there.”
She said Mary’s Dogs has a 48-hour quarantine period, and that she works with the dogs during this period.
“Then, I get to watch them go to their forever homes,” she said.
She said working at Forgotten Tails during her time in South Carolina was a little different.
“I had only seen the part where they are finding their homes, but not where they are coming from,” she said.
Turcotte said the rescue maintains 60-70 dogs “on any given day.”
“This money is probably going toward our vet bills, because we have a huge one right now,” Turcotte said. “Everybody is spayed and neutered; they’ve all had their shots. Every dog we get, regardless of whether it is going now or later, it gets all of its vetting done.”
Turcotte said she and her husband, Rick, enjoy having the rescue.
“There is nothing like bottle-feeding a little gray puppy whose mother died,” she said. “I had a whole litter whose umbilical cords were still on when they were found in a ditch in the winter. And when they are adopted, they send you a picture of this dog sprawled out on a white sofa.”
Turcotte said she is “forever grateful” to Dupuis and her efforts.
“From all the paperwork that had to be done, this was a really major undertaking,” she said. “She is amazing. She did a lot of work. It’s overwhelming for us to have someone do something like that for our dogs. It’s a big expense for us because we have a lot of dogs.”
“It’s amazing to me that someone that young cares that much and can do that much,” she said. “It’s unique these days. She’s just jumped right in when she’s been here, and she’s been such a blessing overall. We just adore her.”
