WILLMAR -- There was a happy ending for a litter of eight puppies who were apparently abandoned on a gravel road north of New London during last week's record heat wave.
Seven of the eight have been adopted, said Bobbie Bauman, operations director for the Hawk Creek Animal Shelter.
"We're down to one," she said Tuesday.
She anticipated the final puppy to be placed in a home soon.
Neighbors discovered the dogs July 19 in a wildlife area along 227th Avenue north of New London. A bag of dog food had been left nearby.
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The puppies' age was estimated at 10 to 12 weeks.
All eight were rescued by Randy and Tc Peterson, who brought them home, cooled them off in a wading pool and called the Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office to have the dogs brought to the shelter in Willmar. Temperatures were in the 90s that day, with record humidity.
Publicity about the puppies' plight sparked numerous applications for adoption. By Sunday, all but the last one had gone home with new owners, Bauman said.
"All of them were spayed and neutered so we don't go through that again," she said.
Several donations also came in -- and not just for the puppies. A couple of people contributed sponsorships for some of the shelter's other dogs available for adoption, and someone else sent money to help an aging dog who was recently surrendered to the shelter, has cancer and is waiting for placement in a hospice home.
Bauman said one family showed up at the shelter to adopt one of the abandoned puppies and ended up taking home an older dog instead.
"There's always a need," she said.
