Havre de Grace Woman Drives 1,600 Miles to Save Dogs

A Havre de Grace woman had Alabama animal shelter volunteers in awe recently when she drove 800 miles each way to adopt a pair of dogs at risk of being euthanized.

Lisa Willhide of Havre de Grace drove from her home in Harford County to Decatur, AL, after seeing a Facebook post about one of the dogs named Spuds.

"I've been looking for the perfect hiking and travel buddy for a while now, and there was something about Spuds that just pulled at me. I couldn't stop thinking about him,” Willdhide said over Facebook to the shelter volunteers.

On July 5, she picked up Spuds and his friend Sparky at Decatur Animal Services, where they had been at risk of being put down due to shelter overcrowding.

The two pups were there to greet her, in addition to amazed volunteers and a news crew.

Shelter personnel told ABC Huntsville that nobody had ever driven that far to rescue an animal from the facility.

"If one catches your eye and it’s in your heart, then you’ll know. That's what happened in Maryland," volunteer April Caldwell Free said in an interview with ABC Huntsville. "Spuds caught her heart. Even though she knew she could go local, he had her heart overnight and she drove down here to get them."

On the way back to Maryland, Willhide took the dogs sightseeing, stopping at destinations like Dinosaur World in Kentucky and Goblins Underpass in Georgia.

Since returning home on July 7, Spuds and Sparky have romped at Bel Forest and Perry Point, among other places.

And while she's long gone from Alabama, Willhide has forever left an impression on the hearts of animal lovers along the Tennessee River.

“We are so thankful for Ms. Willhide,” Decatur Animal Shelter volunteer Cari King told Patch, calling the Havre de Grace woman a "hero in a little Alabama town." She said the journey from Maryland was "inspiring" and "something truly extraordinary in the name of love."