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On a chilly Monday morning in January, a bag holding a litter of five-day-old puppies was dumped off of a bridge and into a creek along the Iowa-Missouri border. A family witnessed the event and quickly rushed to retrieve the bag of puppies before they fell through the ice. Holding them inside their coats to keep them warm, the family took the puppies to a local pet rescue. When the rescue discovered the mother of the puppies was not present, they called A Heinz 57 Pet Rescue & Transport. Soon, a transport van was there to pick up the pups and drive them back to safety. 

A Heinz 57 is a foster-based rescue organization located in De Soto, Iowa. It all started after CEO Amy Heinz witnessed a man leave his dog on the side of a highway. After spending weeks leaving food and blankets for the dog, Amy was able to catch it. She named it Gracie and adopted her into her home. Not long after that, Amy decided to open A Heinz 57 with the intent of saving homeless animals and giving them another chance at life. A Heinz 57 facilitates a foster system but is also committed to assisting other area shelters through its transport system. 

A Heinz 57 owns two transport vans, which are used to pick up multiple dogs at a time. The vans travel from Missouri to Minnesota and from Illinois to Nebraska. The headquarters acts as a pit stop for other rescues as they travel from state to state. When puppy mills close down or a shelter is unable to take a dog, A Heinz 57 is there to rescue the animals and make sure they are taken care of. 

“The transports are fun because you see so many dogs, and they all seem to know that they’re getting a second chance,” Amy said. 

Situations like the nicknamed “bridge pups” are nothing new for the volunteers of A Heinz 57. Kim Applegate, a longtime volunteer and transportation director with A Heinz 57, was more than happy to show me around the rescue and introduce me to the dogs. She told me about the forest dogs, a pack of mixed breeds that had been living at the edge of a forest for years. I met Zeus, a wrinkly mastiff, and Hannah, a bright-eyed basenji mix who’d been surrendered by her owners. She led me through a maze of kennels, where each dog had its own bed, blanket and pile of toys. 

When I sat down with Amy, she recounted a few of the rescues she’d been on through A Heinz 57. In March, she and fellow volunteers traveled to southern Iowa during the floods. For eight hours, Amy and her team waded back and forth through a field, transporting more than 30 dogs by canoe to safety. She told me stories of how she brought dogs home from vacation in Mexico and saved over 96 dogs and five cats from Hurricane Harvey in Texas in 2017. 

Amy works 12 to 14-hour days every day with a smile on her face. 

“This is my life, and I love my life,” she said. 

A Heinz 57 currently has over 200 dogs in its system with only a small portion of them housed at its main location. The rest of the dogs stay in foster homes around the Des Moines area. People who foster open up their homes and hearts to displaced dogs until someone chooses to adopt them. Applegate has been fostering dogs through A Heinz 57 for years. 

Applegate has found that fostering A Heinz 57 dogs can be emotional. 

“Sometimes it breaks your heart,” Applegate said. “I cry with every single one. But then you get another dog that needs your help, so you repair that little piece of your heart, and you help the next one.”

What shocked me the most about A Heinz 57 was the devotion of its volunteers. When I spoke with Applegate, she told me she’d been at the rescue until 1:30 that morning and was back at 7:30 a.m. to go out on another transport. Travis Parsons, head of maintenance for the facility, let me know he’d be spending the night there in the bad weather to make sure everything was running smoothly. Stacey Jones, who was working the front desk while I visited, is a full-time teacher, yet she facilitated over 300 adoptions in 2018 for A Heinz 57. Last year there were over 1,200 pet adoptions through A Heinz, and this year they’re hoping to break that record.

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“We’re not just a bunch of volunteers; we’re a family,” Travis said. 

As I spent time at A Heinz 57, I realized that the family dynamic extended far beyond just the workers there. People stopped in to drop off various donations of money, treats and collars. Foster families dropped by to say hello or goodbye to furry friends. Families took time to play with puppies. It was clear that this was a place where every person and dog was welcome. 

Today, the puppies that were thrown over the bridge are healthy and have all been adopted. A Heinz 57 is always accepting donations and is looking to add volunteers to its family. Whether you devote a little bit of time or a lot, it’s clear that the benefits of investing time in these animals are well worth it. For more information about volunteer opportunities, fostering an animal or adoption, you can visit aheinz57.com or find them on Facebook to receive updates on upcoming events.