The Shepherd of the Hills Humane society has been nominated for the Rescue Story of the Year by the Killuminati Project Puppy Gala.

This story begins in February 2020, when the Shepherd of the Hills Humane Society first heard about Grace from Furry Hearts Animal Rescue.

“Someone had just called about Grace and that she was pregnant and they didn’t want her anymore,” said Alicia Mason, operations coordinator at Shepherd of the Hills Humane Society. “They were going to dump her in the woods.”

Grace was immediately taken to the humane society, but things did not exactly go as planned.

“We were going to pull Grace and put her into a foster home until she had the puppies and all that. Grace had other ideas,” said Mason. “So Grace came, and two days later, on March 2nd, she started having puppies on Tuesday morning.”

To everyone’s surprise, the only one-year-old, malnourished dog ended up having eleven puppies. In her condition, Grace was unable to feed and care for all eleven of her newborn puppies.

That’s when Mason called a friend that had been caring for her husky that had just suffered her second false pregnancy.

“They were so worried about her. She was moping. She wasn’t eating. So she called if maybe we could try two puppies, and she’s a doctor who works at Cox that owns her so I felt safe that she could do it. So she picked up two puppies. Took them. They were only a day old. Took them, and the husky just kind of looked at them and left them, and then five minutes later she came back and started cleaning them and taking good care of them. So she picked up another two. So she ended up getting four of Grace’s puppies, and she raised them for six weeks. So, Grace raised them for six weeks at my house, and then the others were raised and came back here.”

The voting for the awards will run until Sunday, Sept. 12th, at 7 p.m. Grace’s story is in the fourth category (Rescue). To vote, visit www.surveymonkey.com/r/BMN83L7.

Grace and ten of her puppies have since been adopted, but there is still one more to go. Quinn is six months old and looking for a home.

For more information, contact the SOHHS at www.bransonhumanesociety.com or call 417-337-7387.

The video feature can be seen on the Ozarks First Website. 

(Story by Jacob Blount and Emilee Kuschul, Ozarks First)