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Puppy 911
by Rich Thomaselli
When a grandmother spotted a litter of puppies clinging to life in a ditch, she knew she needed her grandchildren's help
For Kathy and Lee White, it started out as just another adventure with their two grandsons.
And it became a bonding experience the four of them will never forget.
The Whites were taking Brandon, 13, and J.P., 10, to a stretch of the Nolichucky River, about 70 miles northeast of Knoxville, in Greenville, Tenn., where the boys could play on a sandy beach. They were driving down the road, when out of the corner of her eye, Kathy spotted something "trotting."
It didn't have the look, nor the gait, of a squirrel or a raccoon or a possum.
"I said to my husband, 'Look, I think there’s a puppy running down the road,'" Kathy, 60, told Grandparents.com.
Lee, who just turned 65, stopped the pickup truck and Kathy jumped out. Sure enough, it was a puppy, and she was easily able to catch up to it and pick it up. The puppy was dirty and weak. Curious as to where the little guy might have been heading, Kathy walked a few more feet before she stopped in her tracks.
"Lee!" she yelled.
Lee and the boys jumped out of the truck to see what Kathy was looking at.
On the side of the road, in a ditch, were 13 more puppies. Each looked to be about five or six weeks old. But because of the differing colors and looks, Lee said he didn’t think they had all come from the same litter.
One thing was sure. The rest looked the same as the one Kathy held in her hand — dirty, and too exhausted to climb out of the three-foot-deep ditch. Kathy actually thought one of them was dead.
“They didn't look good at all,” she said.
At that moment, the four of them made a decision. The beach was off; the rescue mission was on.
"The only sad part about the whole thing is that seven people drove by us," Kathy said, "and not one stopped."
The smaller and more agile Brandon and J.P. did their part for "Grammy" and "Pa." The boys jumped in the ditch and carefully picked up each puppy to hand to their grandparents, who then placed the pups in the back of the truck. They turned around and headed home.
"The boys were just as anxious as we were to get [the puppies] out of there," Kathy said. "They love dogs, just like we do."
Once back at their home, Kathy and the boys started to clean up the puppies — all were dirty, all were covered with fleas and at least two were mangy — while Lee began to nurse them back to health with food. Evaporated milk and warm water at first, and some puppy food later.
Within a day or two, all 14 were bounding around on Kathy and Lee’s enclosed back porch. One of Kathy’s co-workers adopted a female puppy; the Humane Society of Greenville-Greene County took in the other 13, treated them, and put them up for adoption.
Asked if her two grandchildren wanted one of the pups, Kathy laughed.
"What do you think?" she said, still chuckling, before adding that "they already have a dog."
Nonetheless, it was an experience she said the four of them will never forget.
"We do a lot of things with them," Kathy said of Brandon and J.P. "Whenever we get a chance, we take them somewhere. We like to go places with them. They're a lot of fun. But this is surely something we’ll remember for a long time."
If you want to adopt one of the puppies, call the Humane Society of Greenville-Greene County at 423-639-4771.
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