Foster Families help alleviate Angels of Assisi workers

Foster Families help alleviate Angels of Assisi workers (Image 1) (Copyright by WSLS - All rights reserved)

ROANOKE (WSLS10) The holiday season is about giving and one family in Roanoke is giving their time to foster a puppy who was found in an alleged mill.

Angels of Assisi workers say it's a big help financially when foster families take in dogs from the organization.

A foster family takes in an animal temporarily until they can find a home permanently if the shelter is full.

They say some of the puppies they took in before Thanksgiving may be still be housed at the shelter until March.

Olivia is an energetic pup who loves to explore the front yard of her foster parent's home.

She is happy now, but she wasn't when Olivia first moved into her new home.

"We only live ten minutes from assisi so she was very nervous in the car ride," Amy England, Olivia's Foster mom said.

Olivia is one of 55 animals rescued from an alleged puppy mill.

Angels of Assisi volunteers spent hours giving dental work and registering the puppies.

"They had bladder stones stomach ulcers, constipation ear infections, eye infections we got to see the internal needs of the dogs," Lisa O'Neill the director of Angels of Assisi said.

O'Neill said without the foster families it would put a huge stress on their facility.

For example, it costs about $15 a day to house 1 puppy.

Fifty five puppies will be at the shelter possibly until March when Angels of Assisi workers say they could be adopted after a jury decides in the alleged puppy mill case.

In the end, that adds up to nearly $100,000, not including medical costs.

"We're still providing the medical care so when the foster families take, they provide the food and the daily care which is a huge part and the most important thing is the foster family providing enrichment that they can't get here," O'Neil sai

O'Neill