Imagine spending an hour in the car with 11 puppies so they can find a home. During free weekends, my mother and I spend about two hours driving to get animals out of kill shelters to a foster or permanent home.

On March 5, my mother, cousin, and I decided to drive 11 puppies from Mt. Holly to Newark, NJ. The ride was an hour long with an extra 20 minutes to feed and play with the puppies.

The litter of puppies were called “Missy’s Star Wars Litter” and all the puppies were named after characters from the movie such as Princess Leia, Chewy, and Yoda.

All the puppies were Labradors, with most of them having black fur and three of them having brown fur. Only one of the puppies had brown and black fur, and it was fascinating that only one out of 11 had multicolored fur.

The 11 puppies came from a kill shelter in Texas to an organization in Rhode Island called Save a Lab. Although they went to the Save a Lab organization, my family and I worked under the Kindred Hearts Transport Connection.

The organization communicates and posts new runs on Facebook. The organization is completely run by volunteers who take time out of their day just to help animals find a permanent home.

Freshman Isabella Albergo says, “I would love to help animals in every way I can. They deserve to have love, so I would definitely volunteer for them.”

Throughout the run are different “legs,” which are the parts. Everyone is assigned to drive a leg that is normally one hour long. My family and I were leg 24, which was toward the end of the puppies’ trip.

The puppies were very energetic and loved to play around in the pen we set up. When we set up the pen, we had to put a tarp on the ground because of a “NO PAWS ON THE GROUND” rule. The rule was set so that the puppies wouldn’t get sick from any diseases since they were too young to get shots.

Even though the puppies were energetic, they slept the whole car ride in two crates. One of the puppies slept on my cousin’s lap during some of the ride, wrapped in blankets.

The puppies made it to their destination safely and are now looking for a forever home. I loved helping the organization out and spending time with the puppies because it was a great experience to know you are helping, even if it is for a little bit of time.

In fact, this was my fifth animal trip. My first ever trip with the organization was with two black cats. My mom and I took them from New York to Monroe, NJ, and they both found a forever home. The cats came from Turkey and now live in Texas.

My other three runs were with dogs of different breeds. My third run was with another group of Labrador puppies, but there were only nine of them.

Freshman Kaitlyn Weissmann says, “I volunteer at the library in a kids for kids program that makes fun events for little kids at the library. I also volunteer at a special needs summer camp called MT. SEPA, so I think volunteering is a wonderful thing to do.”

The Kindred Hearts Transport Connection is looking for volunteers and would love for some extra hands. If you wish to help these poor animals please visit: http://www.kindredheartstransportconnection.org/

What can you do to help the community?