Egyptian dongs come to Maine looking for forever homes by Michelle Libby

Dinsmore is a cute little puppy, full of energy and he romps and plays with his older doggy siblings, but 12-week-old Dinsmore is special.

Windham resident and father of five Jim Hoar loves his animals. He was told by his wife, Debbie, that he could not have any more dogs, so he volunteered as a rescue dog transporter. He picks up dogs and drives them sometimes 100 miles to the next volunteer as one leg of a journey that takes a dog to its forever home.

“I was surfing the Facebook sites and came across ‘Save Aurora!!!’ It showed cute little puppies. Tough guy, Mr. Macho started crying,” he said of himself. The puppies, who were only weeks old, had lost their mom and were looking for new homes, but that was only the beginning of the story.

The mom was a full-blooded German Shepard and when she got pregnant by an Egyptian street dog called a Baladi, her human parents kicked her out of the house to fend for herself. She had the puppies the garden at an older woman’s house. She called the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals. While waiting for placement at the ESMA, boys from the town tried to steal the puppies and when the mom growled at the boys, one of the boy’s fathers poisoned her. Seven little puppies were left orphaned.

 Phaedra Al-Masri, an Egyptian model and soap opera star, is also an animal activist and she started the Facebook page. It was Al-Masri that Hoar contacted about transporting three of the puppies from JFK airport in New York City to Maine to meet with two ladies from Canada who were adopting the puppies. That was on May 21. Al-Masri asked Hoar if he would like one of the puppies as a gift for helping. He declined.

“I thought I could foster one, I have two other dogs,” he said. But on the ride home in driving rain at midnight, Dinsmore snuggled up to him and said, “Yeah, I’ll adopt you. I’ll rescue you,” Hoar said.
“I have become an international foster failure,” Hoar laughed.

He thought this would be a onetime thing for him. He didn’t see himself driving to JFK more than once, but Dinsmore had more brothers who needed forever homes.

“Every dog deserves a chance to make a difference in a human’s life,” Hoar said and four more needed homes. These dogs have no chance of being adopted overseas, so they turn to the US.

Hoar has been in touch with the Seeds of Peace camp offering Dinsmore as a “canine ambassador”. “Animals thrive when people come together. Even from foreign countries wondrous things can happen,” Hoar said. Dinsmore is also being sponsored by the Gray-New Gloucester Animal Hospital for all of his shots and vaccinations, according to Hoar.

Never again, happened last Friday, when Hoar returned to JFK to pick up four more puppies. However, this trip didn’t go quite as smooth. On the way home at 11 p.m., Hoar tried to change lanes and realized too late that he was being passed on the right by a tractor trailer truck. He over corrected and went off the left side of the road, totaling his wife’s 2010 SUV. The dogs were in crates and they were fine, one crate opened, but the puppy was found under the passenger seat, by Tim Riley, from Haverhill, Mass. Fire Department, who was one of the first responders on scene. Only weeks before he had put his St. Bernard to sleep, and his co-workers seeing Riley hold two of the puppies told him, “You’re wife was going to get you a new dog for Father’s Day,” they said. “These two need homes.” So Riley, who was only responding to a call, walked away with two new puppies for his 7-year-old twins, said Hoar. “You couldn’t ask for a stranger, more coincidental thing. Rescued by this rescuer,” he said. The other two puppies went to homes in Lowell, Mass. and Canada.

The story should end there for Jim Hoar and his Egyptian puppies, but it doesn’t.

“With Phaedra and a German lady paying to send them over, this system is really going to work,” Hoar said. There are three more German Shepard puppies waiting to come to the US and there are more.

The puppies are free to good homes. Each dog is fully-vetted and has a vet certificate from Egypt. Hoar does home inspections and talks with the families, who sign a contract saying they will care for the dogs and love them. If a family is interested in one of the Egyptian puppies, email egyptrescuedogs@yahoo.com. 

There is no cost involved to adopt one of the dogs.

“It’s amazing how these things just work out,” Hoar said.