A Virginia man made his dog-loving wife’s fortieth birthday special by spending $4,400 on adoption fees for 40 shelter dogs.
Andrew and Jennifer Duhe, of Chesapeake, recently lost one of their beloved dogs, Sierra, when the birthday idea was born, the Washington Post reported.
The couple spends 30 hours per month volunteering at Chesapeake Animal Services, where Andrew noticed that 40 overflow kennels were always occupied. With the fees of spaying/neutering, microchipping, and vaccinating all 40 dogs added up, it would cost thousands of dollars to cover the adoptions.
However, he knew it would mean a lot to his wife.
“More than anything, she wants all dogs to find good homes,” Andrew, 38, told the Post. “The shelter has a Guardian Angel program, where anyone can sponsor a dog’s adoption fees. We’d sponsored one or two before, so why not 40?”
On November 12, the day before Jennifer turned 40, Andrew had their three children help pull off the surprise.
“I had to smile, because Andrew always gets excited about giving gifts and has trouble waiting until the actual date,” Jennifer said, recalling the moment their kids presented her with a custom mug that featured their late dog, Sierra.
Then, she saw the big gift.
“I’m reading this beautiful note with lots of mushy love stuff, and at the bottom he’d written that he’d paid the adoption fees for 40 dogs,” she said. “I just cried and cried.”
To keep the surprise a secret, Andrew did not even tell the children what was written in the card before they gave it to Jennifer.
“I told them what he’d done, and at first, they thought he had adopted 40 dogs and they were all coming home,” Jennifer said. “We all laughed about that.”
Now, local dog lovers will be able to adopt any of those 40 pups, free of charge.
“I was incredibly touched that he did something on that large of a scale, knowing what matters the most to me,” Jennifer added. “It’s honestly the most sentimental and perfect gift I’ve ever gotten.”
The couple only started volunteering with the animal shelter last year, but they have already fallen in love with it.
“If the shelter is overcrowded or there are animals with special medical needs, we’ll take them in,” Jennifer said, adding that they have temporarily taken in more than a dozen dogs and cats since helping out at the shelter.
“Right now, we’re caring for a little dog that was severely starved,” she explained. “She has this obsession with stuffed animals, so my daughter named her Squishy.”
Chesapeake Animal Services outreach coordinator Kasey Gallardo said she was taken aback when Andrew forked over the $110 fee for 40 dogs.
“We’ve never had anyone pay for so many before,” she told the Post. “His gift made it possible to bring up more dogs from the back” of the shelter.
“For every dog adopted, you’re actually saving two,” Gallardo explained, saying that the shelter’s overflow kennels are for when there is not enough space or foster homes.
“Ever since they walked in the door, they’ve been incredibly positive and they never say no,” she added of the Duhes. “Andrew will walk in and say, ‘What can I fix?’”
“It’s so nice to know that he just understands my heart and knows what I value most,” Jennifer said in an emotional interview with WAVY TV 10:
“It just really meant a lot,” she concluded.
So far, 17 adoptions have already been covered by Andrew’s generous donation, the Post reported.
Andrew even got to break the good news to two people who happened to be in line at the shelter after he paid the fees.
“They were waiting to adopt that day, so I thought, ‘Let’s get started now,’” he said. “One lady told me it was her birthday, and the dog was going to be her present. She gave me a hug and started to cry, so I could see the gift giving back right there.”
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