LEBANON — When a Chevy Suburban containing 14 homeless dogs rolled on Route 78 in the wee hours of Saturday, July 20, it precipitated a heart-warming outpouring of community involvement.

Members of the Lebanon Borough Fire Company and the Clinton rescue squad arrived on the scene at 2:30 a.m., and Fire Chief Kevin Saharic discovered a big station wagon that had overturned and landed right-side up. Two people were trapped inside, along with a dozen dogs. The dogs had been taken from a kill shelter in Georgia and had been en route to Libby’s Legacy, a no-kill shelter in Buxton, Maine.

According to State Police, the driver was Jonnie Craig, 60, of Douglasville, Ga., and her passenger was Dominick Fanelli, 68, of Newman, Ga. They were quickly extricated by the firefighters using the Jaws of Life, and they were taken to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries. Then the dogs, six of them 8-week-old puppies, were taken out of the wreck. It was discovered that a puppy and a full-grown dog had been ejected from the car and were missing. A search in the darkness ensued, but finally the decision was made to clean up and leave the scene — a difficult decision, but first responders know it is not uncommon for dogs to go missing after a motor vehicle accident.

But just before leaving, firefighter Tommy Lapczynski noticed movement in the tall grass beside the road, and it was the missing puppy.



Chief Saharic and his wife, Michelle, an EMT, took that puppy and two other dogs with suspected injuries to Crown Veterinary Specialists, a 24-hour animal hospital in Lebanon, for immediate care. They were later taken by Animal Control Solutions to Hunterdon Hills Animal Hospital in Whitehouse Station to join the other dogs.

One of the dogs, a Chihuahua named Harley, was treated at Animerge Hospital. One of his eyes was damaged in the wreck and it had to be removed.

The staff at Hunterdon Hills Animal Hospital, Juliana, Chelsea, Lauren, JoAnne, Samantha, Brianna, Shannon, Kory, Erin and Cindy as well as the director, veterinarian Charles A. Westfield, ensured all the dogs were cared for and examined each one to make sure there were no delayed reactions to their ordeal.

The Saharics’ daughter Marlaina and her fiancé Tucker Harding visited the dogs in the hospital and fell in love with the puppy that had been ejected. Susan Brown, founder of Libby’s Legacy, was contacted and eagerly agreed to the adoption. The dog has been named Flip. Then firefighters Justin Badger and Ron Lapcysnski, both of whom had been at the scene of the accident, each adopted a dog.

Friends of Marlaina and Tucker, John and Becky Malcolmsom who were visiting from New Hampshire, also decided to adopt one of the dogs, and so did the fire chief’s niece Emily Sella, now the proud owner of Nuka, a chocolate Lab.

At the end of the day, there was still one dog missing, and a handful of dogs that still needed to get to Maine. But both problems were soon solved.

On Saturday evening, Honey the lost dog walked into a groomer’s shop in Cokesbury and was then reunited with her travel mates at Hunterdon Hills Animal Hospital. And Jon Bellemare, a firefighter from Biddeford, Maine, and his girlfriend Alisha Keezer, who were visiting Tucker and Marlaina, agreed to give the remaining dogs a free ride to Buxton.

On Sunday afternoon the newly adopted dogs and their families, as well as other members of the Lebanon Borough Fire Company, met a few staff members at Hunterdon Hills Animal Hospital to prepare the remaining dogs for their trip to Maine, and gathered for a group photograph of the dogs and their benefactors.



By the end of the day Sunday, all the dogs left at the animal hospital — except for Harley the Chihuahua who is recuperating — had gone off to Maine, and the driver and passenger were on their way home to Georgia with the help of generous people who gave them airline tickets.



On Monday morning Dr. Westfield said he would not charge anyone for any boarding time or veterinary care that had been provided. He said it was the least he could do.

Lauren Case, a nurse in Westfield’s animal hospital, was deeply moved by the chain of events. “The way it unfolded and worked out so miraculously well brings to mind the word ‘kismet,’ which means fate, but even better. The light and hope the puppies bring to their new owners, people meeting each other, the friends down from Maine who live just two towns over (from Buxton), what are the chances of that? It just shows that there’s something bigger out there than us.”

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