STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

The 88-year-old man apparently didn’t adopt the husky any too soon.

The man was hiking near his home in Sun Valley, Doug King related, when he became dehydrated and fell. He told his newly adopted husky to go get help.

And soon an ambulance and other rescue vehicles were on the scene offering assistance.

This was one of countless stories employees of Mountain Humane, formerly known as the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley, heard Wednesday night as a sellout crowd turned up for the annual Dog Days of Summer benefit dinner and auction at Trail Creek Pavilion.

“He was one of our longer lasting residents and one we never trusted off leash,” marveled Hillary Hayward, who trains dogs for the facility.

Countless people told of the bond they had for their dogs as they perused silent auction items ranging from Pickle Palooza--a pickleball party, to season passes for the Sun Valley Suns hockey games, complete with a Sun Valley Sun jersey and Wise Guy Pizza certificate.

Ketchum residents Kristin and Michael Owens told how excited they will be to see the Comfort Corner they are sponsoring at the new animal shelter facility scheduled to open in Croy Canyon by the end of the year.

The Comfort Corner will have a painting of the Rainbow Bridge, a poem that Michael’s father, the late country music singer Buck Owens, put to music. The poem tells of the journey a pet takes after this life and its eventual reunion with its human companion.

“Forever and ever we’ve always loved animals,” said Kristin Owens, “And our legacy is the animal shelter because animals are so important to our lives and others’ lives.”

Owens went on to tell about their “Little Blue,” a yellow lab that is the love of their lives.

“He’s the most amazing yellow lab—so smart, so kind, so joyful. And our days are all about Blue. We wake up thinking not what are we going to do today but what are we going to do with Blue today. We know that parting with those animals is often the hardest thing to do and we want to help people with that through the new Comfort Corner.”