NJ woman drove nearly 2,000 miles to rescue 6 dogs from Alabama

Some lucky dogs have a Vernon woman to thank for taking a marathon road trip to Alabama that likely saved their lives.

Siobhan Abato drove 32 hours round trip from Vernon to Athens, Alabama, where she rescued six dogs from the Athens-Limestone Animal Shelter that recently lost all its funding and will close on September 30.

"It was very last-minute," Abato said of the trip down South with her own dog, Dugg, faithfully buckled up in the front seat. "When I heard they were going to euthanize, I wanted to get as many dogs as I could."

Abato volunteered for the mission on behalf of JKRC Rescue, a West Milford-based animal adoption service that received dogs from the Alabama shelter prior to the announcement that Limestone County would not renew its contract.

Jennifer Capalbo, the foster care coordinator for JKRC, said the rescue received an initial delivery of 20 dogs from its Alabama transporter, but volunteers wanted to do more. So JKRC rented a U-Haul, and Abato stepped up with an offer to make the trip, which is 932 miles each way.

"I said to Siobhan, 'are you sure you're up for this? That's an awfully long drive,'" Capalbo recalled. "I give her all the kudos in the world."

Capalbo estimated that between the U-Haul rental, gas, food, and a brief hotel stay, the Alabama getaway cost about $2,800.

Abato said she left Vernon on Wednesday night around 10 p.m. and drove all night. Around 5 a.m., she pulled into a motel in rural Virginia, slept three hours, then was back on the road. Except for food, gas, and bathroom breaks, she didn't stop until she and Dugg pulled into Athens on Friday morning.

Abato said the adrenaline kept her going. "I'd never done anything like this before," she said. She'd never been to Alabama, either, she said.

"The people are very, very friendly," she said. By noon Friday, Abato had loaded six dogs into crates – Spotty Girl, Windy, City, Little Bit, P'Nina, and Destinee – then drove non-stop back to New Jersey, a trip that took 15 1⁄2 hours, she said.

"On the way back, I was expecting it to smell awful, with a lot of yelping and barking," Abato said. "But it was very quiet. There was not a peep from any of them."

Abato said the dogs were likely to be euthanized once the shelter closed, so the trip was a matter of life and death. "It was their freedom ride," she said.

Capalbo and her JKRC volunteers were there to greet the van when Abato arrived home in Vernon before dawn on Saturday. JKRC is an adoption service and doesn't operate a shelter, so the volunteers will care for the dogs until they are placed in permanent homes, she said.

"Two of them got adopted (last) Sunday, and that was beautiful," she said.

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