Miracle on Alfred Clarke Drive

Kimlyn Marshall, Ledyard's Animal Control Officer, said that the spring is usually a hard time for the shelter because more people drop off or dump animals, and often enough, the animal comes with a medical condition or a litter of little ones.

This spring's start began similarly when she found her shelter full of dogs with special needs and two cats with newborns. Marshall said the medical fund for animals was depleted and she had a couple dogs who were in dire straits.

Around that time, a group of boy scouts from Troop 12 came to the shelter and offered to spruce up the grounds by mulching and planting some flowers and by building a wee faerie and gnome village.

Marshall said that up until then, she wasn't a really strong believer in magic. 

"I don't know but ever since, really good things have been happening here," said Marshall. "I mean miracles."

Marshall said since the faerie and gnome village was installed, donors stepped up and covered the medical expenses of the needy dogs and members in the community offered to help secure the facility with a fence and protective door devices so that the shelter's four-legged residents can't make a break for it.

Faolon Hurley, Bradley Clayton, Michael Perkins and Wesley Hughes, of Troop 12, did the work as part of earning  a "Citizen in Your Community" merit badge, according to LuAnn Perkins.