Illinois woman stuck with 12 puppies and 3 dogs in home after dog delivery driver quits route in the middle of the night, turning her home into a dog shelter for a week, woman says: ‘I know for a fact that I won't use this method again.’

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Feb 25, 2026 2:00 PM EST

It should be said that when you adopt a dog you ought to expect the unexpected. Because if it was then this woman might have stood a chance at anticipating the madness that would befall her when she accepted delivery of her dog, along with another 14 canine guests.

Call it irresponsible hoomans, call it fate of the doggo universe, but the way that this one woman was left to care for 15 dogs all by herself with most of them being below the age of 12 months is just unreal. All she did was wait patiently for the delivery of her dream dog in a time when the world was so dark and bleak. But when her package of light and love arrived she was unexpectedly encumbered and entrusted with the lives and wellbeing of fourteen more canine souls.

What is a person to do in such a situation? Burst into tears as they collapse under the immense pressure? We certainly do not know to say what the right answer would be, but we are sure that is so overly positive person would say that it is a blessing to be surrounded by so much love and licks. And that being in such a situation is an opportunity to soak up all that wonderful energy.
 

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  • 01
    "So I have 15 dogs at my house with no timetable for them leaving"
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    At the beginning of April, I bought a new Samoyed puppy (Jim) from Idaho (I'm in central IL). I planned to have him flown to me but due to the co .S airlines weren't shipping live animals. I eventually decided to have him
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    shipped to me via ground courier, and he was supposed to be picked up from the breeder on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 6. Since it is a 24 hour drive straight through from Idaho to my house, I was
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    assuming that he would either arrive Thursday evening or Friday morning. I found out on Thursday afternoon that he didn't actually get picked up until Thursday morning, so we're about 18 hours behind schedule
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    already. No problem, he'll show up on Friday night, which might be better anyways. After a few more delays and very poor communication on the shipping company's part, the driver is finally
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    heading my way on Saturday evening. He left northern IL (3 hours north of my house) at 4:30 pm and he calls me at 6:00 pm saying he'll be at my house at 8:00. This is where things get fun.
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    Not 30 minutes later I get a call from the owner of the shipping company saying the driver will be at my house at 10:30 (this seems strange), AND that he is wanting to quit the delivery route (huh?). When he finally gets to my
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  • 09
    house at 11:30, he does in fact decide to quit the delivery route, and he leaves me with all the remaining dogs on the delivery van (which is probably the same year and model as the van on Dumb and Dumber but without the Mutt
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  • Holy what in the what? In what world do we live in that you can simply quit your job and delegate the responsibilities of your job to the nearest bystander? Like could the president just be like ‘you know what guys im tired, i’m done being president, here door security man, hold down the office’? They most certainly could not just abandon their post like that and when you have taken on the responsibility of safely bringing a bunch of animals to their intended homes, you had better hunker down and get the job done. 

  • 10
    Cutts appearance upgrade). There are 10 dogs on board that still need to be delivered!!!!!!! Now I already had 4 dogs of my own plus my new puppy, so I have 15 dogs at my house with no timetable for them
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    leaving, and all but 3 of the 15 are under the age of 12 months. It's an absolute madhouse, but at least all the dogs had crates | could put them in, even if they seemed to soil them every time I turned
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    ININ w/www
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    around. 6 of the 7 crates got soiled immediately so the driver and I had to clean them out before I brought him to a hotel. Before we were able to clean them all, 3 got re-soiled. In the 40 minutes it took to
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  • Holy moly, this is such an insane undertaking. Could you imagine what a head trip it must be to expect one dog, wait a whole lot longer than you intended on waiting for it and then end up with a circus of soiling happening all around you twenty four hours a day? Like at least if there were a majority of adult dogs then the little ones might have a chance of falling in line. But with that many little ones you have the pawfect recipe for a mad house. We cannot imagine what it took to get that situation under control, if that was even a possibility. 

  • 14
    bring this guy to the hotel, yet another 3 crates were soiled. I finally lay down to sleep at 2:30 but one of the dogs won't stop barking so I'm unable to sleep. Finally at 4am I get up to try and soothe this dog, and he, along with 2 others,
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    had soiled their crates again. I end up getting a couple hours of sleep this (Saturday) night. The next day I spend most of the day talking to the owners of the dogs. Most were fully
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    supportive of me letting their pups play with the other dogs and releasing some energy since they had all been sitting in small crates in a van for 3 full days. It takes all morning just to feed all 15 dogs while making sure they all
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    eat the correct food that was sent with them and that the other dogs don't steal it. The evening feeding took about 3 hours as well. Most of the dogs get along real well at this point. The German Shepherd is
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    a clear alpha so I have to keep an eye on her, and the French bulldog is an in tact male, while I currently had a b h in heat. Also the French bulldog didn't get along with a few of the others so I had to keep an eagle eye on him
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    (and for the most part I just let him out on his own). All day long it was let a few dogs out at a time, pick up p, talk to owners, clean a crate, feed and water dogs, just over and over and over. Oh and one of the
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    dogs (mini Goldendoodle) crapped liquid no less than a dozen times and wouldn't eat or drink and acted lethargic the entire afternoon. It turned out that he had stress collitis. Fortunately, some of
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  • 22
    the new owners rightfully got upset at the delivery company and decided to drive to my house to pick up their new pups on Sunday night, I had people driving in from NY, VT, and OH, So Sunday night I got rid of 7 of the
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    10 pups that did not belong to me. The owner of the delivery company decided that she would have new drivers drive (in a rental car) to my house from Idaho (not sure why they chose to drive
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    instead of fly) to continue the trip, which I mentioned before is a 24 hour drive without stops. They were supposed to leave Sunday morning, putting their estimated arrival at my house Monday early afternoon if they can
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    make good time. Of course they got delayed in their departure and had more delays during the trip. Monday I had to take a day off work to finish cleaning crates and find a schedule that works
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    for the 3 remaining dogs plus my 5. Also I got to bring one of the dogs to the vet for a lump larger than a golf ball on its neck. By Tuesday I was able to work from home while caring for the dogs during my breaks and before and after
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    work. The one dog continued to bark Everytime he was in his crate but he was much smaller and younger than the other dogs so he wasn't able to play with them without strict supervision, so
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    I got really good at ignoring the barking. Since there were only 3 dogs that weren't mine, and since they were finally able to get some exercise, there was much less soiling of crates starting on Monday
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    evening. Come Tuesday morning the new drivers en route to my house go radio silent after buying gas in South Dakota. All day Tuesday, the owner of the shipping company and I try to contact
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    these new drivers with no luck. By Tuesday night we think they've been kidnapped or are d in a ditch somewhere. On Wednesday morning the owner calls the cops in 4 different states to see if there are any accident
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    reports. After she finds that none have been filed, the owner files a missing persons report on these drivers. And she decides to send yet another new driver my way in another rental car. The clock starts over.
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    On Wednesday night, we find out the original new driver had been arrested in South Dakota (not sure about the copilot) and to this day I'm not sure why this driver got arrested.
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  • 37
    Once again this second new driver gets a late start and then stops for haircut and a new cell phone on the way, and he also missed multiple turns which cost multiple hours. He finally shows up late Friday night, but
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    opts to stay in a hotel overnight before relieving me of my duties. By this time, 2 of the 3 dog owners had decided to use a different delivery company for the remainder of the trip. So this new
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    driver and the new delivery company both end up picking up the dogs Saturday morning. The 2 dogs that went with the new company made it to different locations in Pennsylvania within 24 hrs, but the dog that went with the
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  • 41
    original company took 40 hours to get to Connecticut (supposedly a 19 hr trip without stops). Apparently the driver got his tires slashed on this old c., y van on the way out East. And who knows what else might have
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    happened during the trip to make it take 40 hrs. Below is a list of the pups I took care of. Dogs that were at my house for 1 day: 9 wk Border Collies (4); 8 wk English
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    DARIGOLD
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    Cream Golden Retriever; 8 wk mini Golden Doodle (was sick the whole day at my house- ended up being stress collitis); 2 yr in tact male French Bulldog (my 11 mo Samoyed, Pam, was in heat at the time)
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    Dogs that were at my house for 1 wk: 8 wk Dogo Argentino (barked incessantly while crated); 5 mo long haired German Shepherd; 5 mo Great Dane (had a lump bigger than a golf ball on her neck
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  • 46
    when she arrived. I took her to the vet and it was found to be a be of some sort)
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dogs woman illinois puppies stuck quit reddit story driver dog story animal shelter week home delivery
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