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Truckload of homemade dog beds headed to BC SPCA shelters

Organizer hopes to collect more donations en route to Kelowna Monday for seized dogs
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Gale Lamothe, pictured here with her own dogs, spearheaded a project that saw more than 50 homemade dog beds made for the dogs seized recently. Lamothe donated all the fabric for the project.

A truckload of homemade dog beds will be headed south Monday morning from Williams Lake destined for BC SPCA shelters in Kelowna and Penticton where all but two of the 46 dogs seized from a property in the Interior are being cared for.

“It’s all about the dogs,” said McLeese Lake resident Gale Lamothe, who doesn’t live too far down the highway from where the animals were seized. “I didn’t even think about it. I just said, ‘you know, we have just got to get something happening here.’ The dogs need it.”

A self-described dog lover “to the extreme,” Lamothe made a quick post on Facebook after reading the story Monday, asking for help to sew several dozen dog beds.

Lamothe said she used to have a business manufacturing fleece bed sheets and just happened to have the fabric needed to make beautiful beds for the dogs, that were found living in difficult conditions outside without adequate bedding.

Read more: BCSPCA seize 46 dogs near Williams Lake

Since then, Lamothe said her life has turned into a whirlwind of phone calls, Facebooking and messaging after an outpouring of support from women, and one man, from 150 Mile House, Williams Lake and McLeese Lake to help make the beds.

Read more: BC SPCA under pressure to care for seized dogs

Volunteer seamstresses, including Audrey Sayewich and Irine Peasgood, gathered at the McLeese Lake Hall and made a prototype dog bed which consisted of fleece pads made of four layers of fabric, with each bed stuffed with three pads. After the design was determined, the 14 volunteers got to work and completed more than 50 dog beds in 13 hours.

“I’m still in shock that this all got done in two days and here we are, my truck is stacked to the roof with beds,” Lamothe said.

Volunteer sewer Charlene Freeman said she was happy to have been a part of something so wonderful after seeing Lamothe’s original post looking for volunteers.

“I just love dogs and have an ability to sew and I thought, ‘I could do that,’” Freeman said. “It was really good.”

Freeman said her hope now is that the rescued dogs can be rehabilitated and found loving homes.

Lamothe hopes that too, and is getting in her vehicle early Monday morning and driving to the Kelowna shelter, which has 20 of the dogs, to deliver the beds and anything else anyone wants to donate.

“They are super happy about this,” Lamothe said of the Kelowna shelter.

“I’ve told everybody I am willing to pick up donations along the way and can make stops along the highway in 100 Mile House, Cache Creek, Clinton, Kamloops and any other community in between. We will be going through 100 Mile House by 6:45 or 7 a.m.”

Meanwhile, Lamothe’s husband, Calvin Black, is delivering some beds north to the Quesnel shelter, and the Williams Lake shelter will also get some of the extra beds.

If anyone would like to include a donation in Lamothe’s truckload of beds from the Cariboo, they can contact her through Messenger.

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A small army of volunteers led by Gale Lamothe (centre, sitting) worked to make more than 50 dog beds for SPCA shelters housing the 46 dogs seized from a property north of Williams Lake in February. Photos submitted
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Dog lovers turned out on a moment’s notice with their sewing machines at the McLeese Lake Hall this week to make dog beds for the SPCA shelters caring for the dogs seized from the Interior in February.
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Angie Mindus

About the Author: Angie Mindus

A desire to travel led me to a full-time photographer position at the Williams Lake Tribune in B.C.’s interior.
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