A connection made at comedy gig at a Hands, Hearts, and Paws fund-raiser led to the perfect surprise birthday gift for an Omaha woman.
Comedian Dusty Stehl and his girlfriend, Mollie, have two cats, but she always wanted a dog, he said.
"I don't want to get a dog until we have a house, so the dog could have plenty of room to run around and do 'dog' things," said Stehl, who hosts Missing Kitten Comedy Show the second Saturday of every month at The Backline Comedy Theatre, located at 17th and Harney streets.
So Stehl went looking for "puppies for rent" on the internet. But the search yielded zero results.
Then he remembered a fund-raiser he participated in recently run by Debbie and Tony David. So he contacted Tony, and found out that it was meant to be.
"It turns out, they had rescued a pregnant dog about two months prior from a kill shelter in another state," Stehl said. "She then gave birth to 13 puppies, so they ended up saving 14 lives!
"Tony and Debbie were fostering the puppies at their home. Twelve of the 13 puppies already have homes, but they will start going to the vet this week. So the timing was perfect!"
Mollie mostly figured out the surprise — she didn't know exactly how many puppies — just before they arrived, Sthel said, "but that gave me time to explain that this my promise that we would one day get a dog."
