Chris Jimenez and his firm ‘K9 Join’ had dozens of canines working in Ukraine. He is been in Europe attempting to get his canines dwelling and a Mainer helps the trouble.
POZNAŃ, Poland — The facility of social media can do a number of good on this world, and one California man is hoping the far attain of the web can assist him and his 30 skilled German Shepherds get dwelling from Poland.
Chris Jimenez and his firm K9 Join prepare the canines in California and ship them to legislation enforcement businesses and navy models everywhere in the world, together with Ukraine.
On Friday, Jimenez advised NEWS CENTER Maine he bought a textual content from his contacts in Ukraine after Russia invaded the county in late February.
“And it was a easy message, ‘we’re being bombed,'” he stated.
Jimenez instantly booked a flight to Warsaw, Poland, then took a prepare into Ukraine and hitchhiked to the capital metropolis of Kyiv to satisfy up together with his contacts and practically 30 of his canines.
“I made the choice to evacuate [the dogs] and began working canines to the Polish border in a little bit hatchback automobile and German Shepherds are monumental and people rides had been ten, 12 hours,” he stated.
It took three weeks, however all of the canines had been ultimately delivered to town of Poznan, Poland. Jimenez stated the Metropolis Council there let him and the canines keep in an deserted animal shelter the place they have been for 2 weeks.
“So far as my canines go, I couldn’t ask for higher lodging,” he stated within the zoom interview. “Everybody right here is taken care of, proper now my solely concern is getting the canines again dwelling.”
A Maine resident is doing what he can to assist Jimenez and his canines return to america from again dwelling. Tim Davis is a Okay-9 Handler with the Knox County Sheriff’s Workplace.
The 2 use the social media app Tik-Tok to publish K9 movies to their hundreds of followers and the 2 are related by way of social media.
“Tim is a really essential a part of this whole factor,” Jimenez stated.
Their problem now could be elevating sufficient cash to fly all of the canines dwelling on one airplane. Jimenez stated there have been a couple of occasions when a couple of canines had been scheduled to fly dwelling individually however by no means made it out of Poland. He stated he by no means needs to undergo that once more.
Jimenez began a Go Fund Me web page to assist his canines get dwelling. He added he’s in contact with corporations who can fly the canines to america if the journey charges are paid.
After spending the final 5 weeks in Europe, Jiminez stated he’s grateful for all of the strangers he met in Ukraine and Poland which have helped his canines to security.
“In all these horrible locations, individuals noticed me and so they’re like this man appears misplaced, he’s going to get himself killed, we must always assist this man,” Jimenez stated. “We don’t communicate the identical language, by no means met, won’t ever meet once more, most likely. Full strangers took me in each single step of the way in which and simply helped me get right here.”
