STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sandy Berk measures her walks by the feet in Waikiki where she walks reptiles for the zoo.

But in Ketchum she’s the Numero Uno dog walker for the animal shelter, taking dogs on eight-mile hikes around Sun Valley nearly every day of the week.

Berk can’t rationalize having a dog since she winters in Oahu and summers in the Wood River Valley. But she considers all of those at the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley hers. And she was in overdrive Friday night as she rallied support for her four-footed friends and the shelter at the annual Dog Days of Summer Benefit Auction and Gala.

“Humane is marked by compassion for humans and animals,” said the shelter’s Executive Director Joanne Dixon, noting that shelters are often referred to as a Humane Society. “A Humane Society is  somewhere where we look out for each other and take care of each other…where we celebrate the human-animal bond.”

Among the dogs hawking live auction items at the gala at Trail Creek were two border collie cattle dogs—part of a litter of six brought to the shelter from Texas. The four-month-old dogs sported tech names, such as Dell, Samsung and Wi-Fi. And the two that took part in the gala immediately endeared themselves to gala-goers, finding forever homes before the night was out.

“They’re so smart, so calm for four months,” said Michael Kimmel, who paraded Dell around as a rabbit he’d pulled out of his magic hat.

The shelter has been adopting out dogs faster than ever, said Hillary Hayward, the shelter’s behavior training coordinator. She pointed to Denali, a willing pit bull, decked out in British flag colors to advertise an auction lot featuring a London excursion.

“We’ve had her the longest—since March. She’s the perfect dog, an ambassador of her breed. Hayward said.

The shelter is getting “fabulous dogs” from shelters that can’t care for them, Hayward  said. And people are coming from as far away as Florida to adopt dogs because of the shelter’s reputation.

“They know we treat the dogs like individuals. Instead of focusing on getting them out, we make sure that the dog and its potential family is a perfect match.”

Wag-good tales were everywhere. Dixon played a tape of a call she received from a man in Iowa who wanted to tell her how much Spirit, a dog he’d adopted from the shelter 11 years ago, had meant to him.

Bobbi Hunt told of a dog she’d adopted who had been found under a box on a rural road. The dog had mange and was blind but she was precious in Hunt’s eyes, even though she rubbed off the paint on the walls feeling her way around the house.

“She was such a comfort to me-- always wanting to be right there with the person she loved,” Hunt recalled.

Bonnie Hovencamp, a former New Orleans resident, recounted how the Animal Shelter  came across her radar when it sent a truck to rescue dogs rendered homeless by Hurricane Katrina.

“If you could have seen these animals at the screen doors saying, ‘Take me. Take me. Don’t leave me’—it brings tears to my eyes even now,” she said wiping her eyes.

Hovencamp and her husband wince have adopted a golden doodle they named  Saint after the New Orleans Saints. Hovencamp walks the dogs at the shelter and she serves as its chief volunteer dishwasher, rocking out to CDs borrowed from the Barkin’ Basement  as she scrubs the bowls.

Supporters were generous, raising their dog bone-shaped paddles high as they bid $14,000 on a oil painting of dogs by renown California artist Francis E. Livingston, who just relocated to Sun Valley. They put $17,000 down on a Zambian photographic safari and $12,000 on a pizza party for 50 featuring comedian Mike Murphy at Whiskey Jacques.

And, after one bidder bid $15,000 for a London excursion complete with Limited Edition 2001 PT Cruiser London Taxi Cab, another bidder offered $8,000 for the London excursion without the Taxi Cab.

The shelter recently broke ground on a new welfare campus, which it expects to open in Fall 2019. The new shelter will be able to hold 59 dogs, compared with 30. And it will offer an education barn for workshops and other events.

Outgoing Board President Priscilla Pittiglio, who will be succeeded by Jan Main, recounted how she just  returned from Utah’s Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, which she’d always considered the gold standard of animal shelters.

“After being there, I realized we’re doing as good or better,” she said. “We’re not having stressed dogs in our shelter. And we’re going to do whatever we have to do in the new facility so they’re not stressed. For instance, we will make sure we don’t have dogs housed across from one another. And we’ll have have an elaborate air system—the most expensive part of a shelter, you know, is avoiding germs and disease.”