Nine puppies found seemingly abandoned in a crate at the Fox transfer site last week were all adopted by new families in a single day.
A good Samaritan brought the doe-eyed and lick-happy German Shepherd mixes from the transfer site to the Fairbanks North Star Borough's animal shelter. The puppies arrived on Nov. 3.
As of Friday, they were sharing two conjoined cages inside the shelter, the floor beneath them covered in a layer of old newspapers. The puppies eyed people who passed by and slid their tongues and paws through the thin bars when human fingers or knees got close enough.
Shelter staff eventually lifted a couple of the brown and black-colored pups, handing them off to Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins.
"They're about 13 weeks old right now and about 15 pounds apiece," he said. "They'll be a bit bigger, but my goodness are they sweet and cute and calm."
Animal Control Manager Sandra Hill said in an interview Friday that staff were getting the puppies ready for adoption. She said that was after the official "stray time," or the three days the borough waits to see if an owner will come forward.
"Unfortunately, we didn't have anyone reclaim them, so they were prepared for adoption. Which, like I said, they were vaccinated, dewormed, health check, and then spayed and neutered," she said.
Hill said it's not uncommon for animals that were seemingly abandoned, including at places like transfer sites, to come into the shelter's possession. And she said people with animals they can't care for should contact the borough shelter and learn about its services.
"It's not something that needs to happen. They don't need to be at the transfer site. We have a warm building here [where] they can get all the care that they need and then find those homes and not have to stay at the transfer site in a cold cage," she said.
Though not always the case, Hill said, this time, the shelter had the room available to intake all nine of the dogs without issue. When the shelter is at capacity, staff try to find foster homes or figure out other workarounds to open up more space. Borough code does also allow the shelter to euthanize animals to create space.
The six male and three female transfer site puppies first became available to adopt on Saturday. By the end of the day, they had all found new homes, according to the borough mayor's office.
Borough annual statistics show that the shelter placed 1,464 pets into new homes in 2024.
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