A family reunion of a different breed took place at the Tails to Trails event Saturday, Sept. 12.

Five of eight adopted mixed-breed puppies were reunited 14 months after being rescued on Hurricane Ridge.

Owners from Seattle, Olympia and the peninsula met inside Sequim’s dog park through the efforts of volunteers in the Welfare for Animals Guild.

"This is one of the most beautiful and varied litters you can imagine," said WAG volunteer Paula Creasey.

Last year, Creasey was telephoned by Ken and Teresa Dubuc from Port Angeles. They’d found the puppies on Hurricane Ridge Road. The couple drives the road several times a day and would see a yellow Labrador retriever, the puppies’ mother, running loose.

They tried to capture her to no avail.

"When we got close, we saw that it was obvious she was pregnant," Ken said.

"After a while, we didn’t see her, so my wife and I went searching and found her in a ravine."

The mother, which the Dubucs called Angel, had eight puppies. She was protecting three ferociously but had placed the other five in a nearby den.

The Dubucs think Angel placed them there because she could not care for them.

They rescued the five but could not get close enough to the mother and three remaining puppies, so they phoned Creasey through WAG.

"With much patience and time, lots of treats and finally a crate with smelly cat food, we were able to secure Mom and remove three fat and healthy puppies from the ravine," Creasey said.

Angel was brought back to health, while the Dubucs fed the five puppies with syringes and bottles until they could be weaned.

Through WAG and Internet resources, all eight puppies found adoptive homes.

Most are in the Olympic Peninsula/Puget Sound areas and one is in California.

Angel – or Kaleeta as her owners call her – had been lost but was reunited with her human family in Port Angeles and with Marlin, a shepherd-husky-malamute mix, the puppies’ father.

Most of the owners were unaware of the puppies’ story before adoption.

More on WAG can be found at www.welfarefor

animals guild.org.

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.