After weeks and weeks of work and thousands of miles of travel, Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy (you might have read our love letter to him during the Olympics) has finally been reunited with the stray puppies he rescued while in Sochi.
Not only did Gus bring home the mother of the dogs, but he was able to rescue five adorable puppies from the streets of Russia. But the process was anything but easy.
While appearing on Today, Gus and his friend Robin Macdonald revealed that they while they thought getting the dogs back to America would take some time and paperwork, they had no idea it would be such an ordeal. And sadly, they lost two of the puppies because of "government roadblocks" that kept the animals from getting the treatment needed.
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"A politician claimed the dogs were theirs and they didn't want to release them to us for whatever reason," Robin said. "They were kind of kept away from me for the duration that I was there. We were fighting with the Humane Society International to get them proper treatment and to get them to care, and it took too long and two of the dogs unfortunately did pass away."
But at least those puppies did not pass away in vain, as Gus has brought attention to the treatment of stray animals in other countries, and hopefully if people want to rescue pets at big international events in the future, the process won't be so arduous.
"We've had people come up to both of us and tell us what they either donated to the Humane Society or went and adopted a dog here, so that's awesome to see," Gus said while petting the mother dog he appropriately calls Mama. "I think that we're really just hoping to bring awareness to the plight of the dogs in Russia and hopefully set up some shelters and stuff there. So in future World Cups and different events, there will be a better system in place so this doesn't happen again. So if someone wants to take a dog back, they can take a dog back. It's not going to be a horrible process."
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You can watch the full interview with Gus and Robin below, and trust us, this whole story is better when you see the guys cradling and cuddling adorable puppies while telling their amazing story:
If you want to donate to the Humane Society, head on over to their website for more information.