Local Animal Rescue Destroyed

CHAPPELL – Adopt-A-Dog suffered a terrible loss Saturday night in Chappell, as three dogs perished in a kennel fire.

The cause of the fire is not known, but owner Terry Duffield said it may have been a faulty heater.

Duffield said she had been at the 18-kennel run all day, playing with the dogs and cleaning the pens.

After giving the nine occupants food and water, she said she left and went to her house to start supper.

A neighbor came up the drive to tell her they saw the blaze from over the hill and Duffield’s husband took off to rescue as many dogs as he could.

Six dogs survived.

“He was my hero,” she said. “He opened pens left and right.”

She said the Chappell Fire Department responded immediately and were there to offer support, even the day after the fire.

“They are the best fire department in the world,” Duffield said.

The Adopt-A-Dog kennel is the closest thing Cheyenne County has to an animal shelter, and Duffield said her intent is to rebuild and re-evaluate what she will do with the next kennel.

“We don’t know for sure what we are going to do. We’re going to think on it,” she said.

The one thing she requests from the community is to consider adopting the three remaining dogs  rescued in Saturday night’s fire, which include a female 1-year-old Shar-Pei/lab mix, a male 1-year-old beagle/hound and a male 1- to-2-year-old lab/boxer mix.

One 6-month-old Australian Shepherd has already been adopted.

Sister organization, Wagon Tails’ Animal Rescue, offered their support after hearing of the fire.

Wagon Tails’ board member Ashley Boothe said “Wagon Tails has been trying to garner support to construct a nonprofit rescue facility to serve Cheyenne, Kimball and Deuel counties that would help alleviate some of the burden for Adopt-A-Dog and be a “sister” rescue agency of sorts. With Adopt-A-Dog’s demise there is now nowhere nearby for unwanted and rescued dogs to be housed while awaiting adoption.”

The two entities work alongside each other, but are not the same organization, Boothe said.

She went on to say that Wagon Tails is trying to “develop some sort of foster home network in the meantime.”

Yet, it is Duffield’s goal to find “forever homes” for the last few dogs.

“I want the dogs to go to people who sincerely want them,” she said.

She said finding permanent homes for the three remaining dogs would take a weight off of her.

For more information on adoption, contact Adopt-A-Dog at 308-874-2558 or Kathy Foster of Wagon Tails at 308-254-4569.

Wagon Tails will have a meeting tonight at 5:30 p.m. at It’s Our Place to discuss and share ideas about the future of local animal rescues.