All of last weekend, Callie Clemons was crawling in and out of storm drains and manhole covers in the Houston heat, searching for abandoned puppies.
Saying the area is infamous for “puppy dumping” as she refers to it grimly, she says won’t rest until all three of the black labrador-terrier mutts are located.
Clemons, whose name comes from her marriage with the son of Yankee pitching legend Roger Clemons, received a call from a concerned citizen Wednesday night that three stray puppies had fallen down a storm drain in the neighborhood of Spring Branch.
By Friday, Clemons, a dedicated group of volunteers, and her own dog Gizelle, had found two of the abandoned puppies, and she was already going back down on Saturday night to find the last one.
Clemons says in her 7 years of rescuing animals, she’s never lost one.
While she told Britain’s Daily Mail that the city of Houston was supportive—unlocking drains and moving manhole covers, she told the New York Post that her work stems from a lack of action on the part of the city and county, or the ASCPA who are too swamped with phone calls to stay on site more than an hour.
“There’s no way the puppy can get out by itself so it’s up to us and I have no shame to go down and get it,” the five-foot-tall woman told the Mail.
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While Houston animal control did little to help, the city was able to provide Clemons with blueprints of the Spring Branch sewers to help her map her way through the cockroaches and fetid water.
“I’m not stopping, I mean, I already told my mom, “I think I’m going to keep this dog if I find it,’ I’m so invested,” said Callie.
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Clemons additionally told the Post that she had been down in storm drains crawling around for around 8 hours into the small watches of the night.
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Thank you, Ms. Clemons, for bringing light out of the darkness and rescuing puppies.