Photo by Miranda Pederson/Daily NewsDotty is traumatized from the fire, according to Tracy Moser, owner of RePets.

As a pet store stocked with animals from humane society shelters and pets left behind by their owners, RePets has its share of animals looking for better homes.

Five dogs who came to the store Friday, however, arrived after surviving a truly life-threatening situation.

The store in Fairview Plaza Shopping Center picked up five dogs that had survived a fire that destroyed the McLean County Animal Shelter last week.

Dena Wilson, who volunteers her time at RePets caring for new arrivals, said she received an e-mail about the shelter fire, and that the surviving dogs needed new homes.

Wilson learned that five of the 16 surviving dogs were at the home of a mother of one of the McLean County volunteers, so she drove there the day after the fire to pick up the dogs.

“It was raining when I got there, and the dogs were outside in little doghouses,” Wilson said.

After driving the two hours back to Bowling Green, Wilson had returned with four puppies and one adult – a 2-year old English setter named Dotty, Dotty’s 4-month-old puppy, Holly, a 10-month-old chocolate Labrador named Barren, and two 5-month-old beagles named Junie and Carter.

Dotty, Holly and Barren were in outdoor kennels at the time of the fire, while Junie and Carter were deposited at the shelter’s entrance while it burned.

“If (Junie and Carter) had been dropped off a day earlier, they wouldn’t have survived,” Wilson said.

News accounts indicate that the fire was electrical in nature and that more than a dozen animals perished. Sixteen dogs and two cats survived.

While none of the surviving group of dogs was injured in the fire, RePets owner Tracy Moser said Dotty appears to have been traumatized.

On Wednesday afternoon, Dotty was even less energetic, having been spayed the day before, and was resting on a blanket laid out behind the cash register.

“We left the door to Dotty’s cage open for a while before she decided to come out and play around,” Moser said about the dog after it came to RePets. “You hurt inside because you know what the others have been through, but you can’t get inside their minds.”

Carter was adopted Monday, and the remaining younger dogs appear to be healthy and playful.

Wilson said that although most of the surviving dogs appear not to have suffered any ill effects from the fire, it is important to help them adjust to a new environment, so she has taken them out and walked them when she can.

— To learn more about the rescued animals, visit www.repets.biz.