Shelter Volunteer Takes Dog on Road Trip to Meet Forever Family

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A Connecticut shelter dog has been reunited with her foster mom after a 14-and-a-half-hour journey.

Clementine, who is a pitbull, has been at the Little Guild in Cornwall since December 2021. The shelter said due to her breed and coloring, she was having a hard time finding an adoptive family.

A woman in Athens, Georgia, who once fostered Clementine, saw the dog’s picture online and reached out to the shelter.

“She had been fostering Clementine in Georgia and was under the impression that Clementine had found a permanent home. She didn’t know that she had been essentially transported to a new shelter in Connecticut. She was just devastated to know she was still in the shelter environment,” said Alex Echevarria, the kennel behaviorist for The Little Guild.

Clementine’s foster Emily Cason contacted the shelter in hopes she could provide more information on the dog that would get her adopted.

When the dog still had not been adopted, shelter volunteer John Guenther offered to drive Clementine to Georgia so Cason could adopt her.

John Guenther with Clementine.
The Little Guild
John Guenther with Clementine.

“John is a very special person as well. He's a tireless volunteer; we're sort of happy-sad to see Clementine go. But she couldn't be in better hands with John, and I'm sure he's going to deliver her safely and soundly,” Echevarria said.

Guenther and Clementine arrived in Georgia to meet Emily Monday afternoon.

"She had, over the last two years, fostered as many as 14 different dogs. But Clementine was the one she had the most special bond with,” Echevarria told NBC Connecticut.

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