THOMASTON — Diamond arrived at Thomaston’s Pope Memorial Humane Society five weeks ago.  Her daughter and her five grandpuppies arrived the same day.  So did a half dozen other emaciated dogs. The dogs may have seen, in passing, the 11 cats brought in last October from their same home.

All of them came from a hoarding situation in Knox County. Coincidently, they were rescued by the family that took them in; a family wanting to help stray and abandoned animals.  The family got overwhelmed, food ran low, and the animals multiplied. 

Legal action has not been taken against them, due to the fact that it was they who reached out for help.  They allowed the cats to be cared for by the shelter, and in November they put the dogs into travelling crates for the journey to the shelter. 

Zeppelin and Copper were the leanest dogs brought in that day.  Shelter manager Theresa Gargan described them as “scary skinny.”

Zeppelin, blind before the hoarding experience, has beefed up nicely and awaits adoption from the shelter, as do Diamond and Jade. Copper and three other dogs from the same situation wait from foster homes. Diamond’s daughter and grandpuppies have been adopted.

All have made great gains in the past five weeks; their special digestion foods, donated to them specifically by one Loyal Biscuit customer, have done them well.

“Once we got everybody wormed, and on good food, the weight started to come on really fast,” said Gargan.

In fact, Jade was well enough to be temporarily moved from her kennel to the utility room to make space for an unexpected arrival. 

When Heidi Neal, owner of four Loyal Biscuit stores (Rockland, Camden, Belfast and Waterville) heard about the arrival of the emaciated dogs at the shelter, which already had 30 dogs in its care, she decided to direct her annual holiday fundraising campaign to help feed them all.

The “Fill Our Windows, Fill Their Bowls” kicked off with Loyal Biscuit customers donating in $1 to $5 increments. The goal was to raise $4,000 by Christmas.

“We didn’t anticipate raising more than $1,500 or so,” said Neal.

The result?

Customers, approximately 1,350 of them, helped raise more than $6,600, which translated to seven pallets — or, 7,500 pounds — of food. That’s almost five times more than what Neal anticipated in raising.

One Waldo County woman donated $1,000, after Neal and three of her employees, plus the Limerock Inn, matched her with $500.

Then, the pet food company Candidae donated 15 to 23 bags of dog food, as well. 

Last week, Neal delivered 73 percent of the food to the Thomaston shelter (27 percent of the food went to the Humane Society of the Waterville area because her Waterville store raised 27 percent of the money).

While in conversation at the shelter, with Gargan talking about the pressing need for more space, and the year 2014 at the shelter, yet another dog was brought in.  Its owners had requested a family friend watch the dog, presumably for a short time.  A week later, the owners still hadn’t returned for their animal.

The shelter can usually handle 19 to 20 dogs at a time. The arrival of Diamond and her mates generated tails in every corner, despite four other canines being relocated to other shelters. 

“We had dogs behind the counter, and dogs in the med room,” said Gargan. “It’s been very crowded.”

In 2013, shelter staff trapped and brought in the “ice cats” in the middle of January in sub-zero temperatures. Staff had been called to a house with no heat and no water. They anticipated finding a few cats. Instead, they ended up with 43 cats that day.

“We were able to get them placed,” said Gargan. “Some were very scared and we got them into a great barn, others went to homes.”

Then there was the Great Dane, Izzy, that came in last year.

“She was so thin she shouldn’t have been alive,” said Gargan. “And the amazing thing was that the entire time she was here, her tail never stopped wagging. But she’s in foster now and she’s so happy.”

For the shelter, it is a constant battle to help neglected animals, those that are lost, and the ones who have been given up by their owners, for one reason or another. And then, the next job is to find loving homes for them all.

“Our biggest challenge is the sheer volume of full house of cats, and all of our kennels are full,” said Gargan

Of the job as a whole, Gargan said, “You just do what you have to do.”

For more information about how to adopt animals, make a donation, or learn how to volunteer at the shelter, visit humanesocietyofknoxcounty.org

To see more photos and learn more about shelter life visit the shelter’s Facebook page:  facebook.com/pages/Behind-The-Fence/447782295264238

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com