29 May Service Trip 2025 – Day 1: Hazen & Carlisle
After a very early flight out of Boston on Wednesday, 33 LHK9 volunteers arrived in Arkansas ready to take on the 2025 Service Trip. After a warm welcome by our amazing southern fosters, crews hit the road bright and early today to begin work on the Hazen and Carlisle shelters. Check out what happened at each shelter below!
Day 1: Hazen
By Sarah Neeley
Today, we spent the day at the Hazen shelter in Arkansas—a place where hope lives in every kennel and compassion shows up in dirty boots and strong hands.
Alongside two of our incredible Southern fosters, Ruth Corley and Tracy Teer, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. These two women are nothing short of heroes. Their daily dedication to these dogs—feeding, cleaning, comforting, and advocating for them—is the heartbeat of this operation. It was an honor to work beside them today.
The day started early, with kennel cleaning and sanitation. With summer heat already creeping in, we wanted to make sure the dogs had clean, cool spaces to rest. We scrubbed down runs, refreshed bedding, and made sure water bowls were full and clean. Many of these pups have never known a life outside of these walls, so even the smallest comfort means the world.
But today wasn’t just about routine cleaning—we also tackled some much-needed facility improvements. The shed, which holds essential supplies like food, meds, and cleaning gear, has long needed reinforcement and better organization. We got to work reinforcing the roof, making sure it can withstand storms and extreme temps. We also built new stairs and we installed shelving to bring order and accessibility to the chaos of storage bins and supplies. It’s amazing how something as simple as a shelf can make day-to-day care more manageable—and safer—for volunteers.
Of course, the best part of the day was spending time with the dogs themselves. We walked each dog, giving them a chance to stretch, sniff, and feel grass under their paws. For some, it was likely the only one-on-one time they’ll get this week. We also bathed several pups—partly to help cool them off and partly to offer a little TLC. Watching a shy dog lean into your hand as you rinse away the dust and grime of shelter life is a feeling that’s hard to describe. It’s connection. It’s trust. It’s healing.
There are so many moments from today that will stick with me—the joy on a dog’s face during a walk, the teamwork and laughter shared with Ruth and Tracy, the physical exhaustion that somehow still leaves you feeling full. Rescue work is tough. It’s gritty. It’s emotionally heavy. But it’s also beautiful, especially when you’re surrounded by people who care this deeply.
To everyone who supports rescue efforts from afar—donating, fostering, transporting, adopting—this is what your support makes possible. Every clean kennel, every safe structure, every comfort we were able to provide today was because people like you care. And because people like Ruth and Tracy show up for these dogs, day after day, even when no one’s watching.
We left sweaty, sore, and sunburned—but more committed than ever to this mission. Hazen reminded us why we do what we do. And why we’ll keep doing it.
Day 1: Carlisle
By Laura Boswick
We had a great first day at Carlisle! After starting with a quick round of introductions, we split into a few different teams,to tackle the various projects. We had folks doing work inside the new shelter, outside around the new shelter and outside at the old shelter.
The new shelter indoor team worked hard to get everything ready for priming and painting, while the outdoor team flexed their muscles to clear the grass, spread gravel, and install dig defense.
Thankfully Chris Zajac stepped in with the tractor to lighten the gravel distribution work! However, there’s no magic way to speed up Dig Defence® and it was a massive team effort in the heat and humidity to get that all installed. It was similarly hot inside the building where the painting prep team was building shelves, moving things away from walls, and spending hours taping everything off, including a fair amount of time up on a high ladder. Once that was done some of the Carlisle team donned bunny suits, masks, and goggles and learned how to use the paint sprayer. Huge shoutout to Alexa and Ben who stayed late to finish priming so that everything will be ready to go for painting on Saturday.
In addition to all the work sprucing up the new shelter, we spent a lot of time loving on the nine dogs at the shelter. This included bathing, nail trims, cleaning the kennels, heartworm testing, and feeding, and of course lots of treats, belly rubs and head scratches. It was wonderful to have such a great mix of northern and southern volunteers and amazing to see how much of an improvement the new shelter is for the sweet pups. I’m so excited to see the final product after the second day at Carlisle on Saturday.
Day 1: Carlisle
By Kai Phoenix
Today, I had the pleasure of helping out at the Carlisle shelter! This is the shelter that we built the new building for last year. We are still continuing work on it and some of that was done today.
We had many different jobs to be done throughout the day – Dig Defence® to secure kennels so the dogs can’t dig underneath the kennel fences, walk and bathing dogs and puppies, shoveling gravel fill hole along with some shale, cleaning kennels, yard work, and cleaning out some areas to get rid of accumulated trash items. We ended up accomplishing a lot!
My job for the day was walking the dogs around the retention pond. The shelter has 11 dogs: 2 adults inside, 3 adults outside, 6 puppies. They were all so adorable and wanting love and attention! Walking them all on a lead was good practice for when they get adopted or go into foster care. The puppies were picking up walking on lead about halfway through our walk. Very smart pups! All the dogs that I walked today were very food/treat motivated. I traveled to Arkansas with 14-16 bags of treats just so I could spoil all the dogs I met! They all deserve it! I was calling them all Bubbles. That is the pet name for the day I guess. All the dogs seemed to be really happy and well cared for. Many of the puppies just wanted to be held and carried. They were really enjoy this – head back and looking peaceful and totally calm.
We did heartworm check on the older dogs. It’s an easy blood test if you can get the blood out. Some dogs don’t like being held firmly and we had one today. S/he get checked at some point when someone strong enough can help hold him steady.
We did great work today. Everyone left feeling accomplished, humbled in so many ways, and tired from the day of helping out these amazing animals!!
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