Puppy Love

Chris Hanson is on a mission. There are dogs abandoned in the south — lots of them. Mainly black dogs (for reasons no one quite understands), big dogs, puppies a bit older than most adopters would like. They’re abandoned by the side of the road, dropped off at the humane society in the middle of the night, stuck in overcrowded, under-funded shelters that have no choice but to euthanize them. Their lives are often short and miserable.

Hanson wants to stop all that. She wants to gather those dogs up, get them socialized and in good health, and send them off with new owners who will train, appreciate, and even adore them. And, for more than 700 dogs, she has succeeded. Through Almost Home Rescue, the all-volunteer rescue organization she runs on top of her job as a financial administrator for a national corporation, Hanson and partner Adele Jones have placed dogs with families throughout Northern New England. “It’s a lot of fun to turn a dog that knows nothing into a good house dog,” says Hanson, who lives in Hollis. “I also love when their homes fall in love with them and we get notes that say, ‘Thank you for saving this wonderful dog; he’s become a member of our family.’”

It’s not a simple task.Almost Home, which Hanson founded in 2005, works with four shelters in Arkansas that are full to the brim with dogs that need homes. The organization puts Mainers and others who want to adopt the dogs through their paces, requiring a detailed application, references, and a home visit. Once an adoption is approved, the dog in question is quarantined in Arkansas for at least two weeks; during that time it’s vaccinated and, if old enough, spayed or neutered. Then the pooch is brought to Maine by a U.S.D.A.-approved transport process. And in an unassuming commuter parking lot just off the Maine Turnpike, the pups’ lives are transformed in an instant when they’re introduced to their new owners.

Hanson and other dog rescue volunteers are worried, though, that those happy meetings will soon be no more. They’re currently advocating against new legislation that would require a five-day, in-state quarantine before dogs could be adopted. State officials say such a quarantine is necessary in order to prevent the spread of diseases such as distemper and heartworm. But Hanson and others say the proposed quarantine would mean they’d have to stop rescuing dogs. “If we can use foster homes [for the quarantine], we would be happy,” she says. “But if they make us have a state inspected quarantine facility, we can’t do it — we’re going to have to close.”

That’s an unacceptable option for this thirty-eight-year-old animal lover. So when the State Department of Agriculture holds a hearing on the proposed rules July 16, expect Hanson to be there. Her four dogs (not to mention a couple foster pooches) will probably stay home, but Hanson is happy to speak for them.

“It’s all we can do at this point,” she says simply.