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'Sweet Puppy' Becomes 5,000th Adoption At Wish Bone Canine Rescue

Maui started the year as a stray. On Thursday, he became the proud owner of a new home.

Maui is a dog, by the way. He’s a 2-year-old mixed breed whose last known address was McLean County Animal Control. But on Thursday, he became the 5,000th dog adopted out by Wish Bone Canine Rescue in Bloomington. And from the looks of it, he was quite excited to meet his new dog mom, Megan.

Megan with her new dog, Maui.
Credit Maddie Bounds / WGLT
/
WGLT
Megan with her new dog, Maui.

“This is one sweet puppy,” said Larry Apfelbaum, a Wish Bone board member.

Wish Bone opened in 2009. Sixty-eight dogs were adopted that first year.

This year 80 percent of the dogs transferred out of McLean County Animal Control were brought into Wish Bone's program, including Maui—possibly some sort of Shepard, Shar-Pei, pit mix—according to board member Linda Krueger.

Around 75 percent of Wish Bone's dogs come from animal control facilities in Central Illinois, Apfelbaum said, with others coming from owners who can no longer take care of their pets.

Megan said she was won over by Maui’s excitement and eagerness to become friends.

“Everyone at the shelter here has been very helpful. You can tell they spend a lot of time with the dogs. They know the dogs really well and they’re really well cared for,” said Megan, who asked that her last name not be used. “It was consistent with the way I’d like dogs to be treated that don’t have a home. I definitely wanted to support that type of organization.”

Wish Bone typically has 50 to 60 dogs in its program at any given time, Krueger said.

Apfelbaum said he’s thankful for Wish Bone’s network of donors and volunteers.

“We’re very fortunate to have a very supportive community. McLean County is very special in that regard,” he said.

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Maddie is a social media and online writing intern at GLT. She's a student in the School of Communication at Illinois State University.
Ryan Denham is the digital content director for WGLT.
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