The Super Seven
In the summer of 2010, Spencer found a stray mother and her newborn pups in a ditch in Kabul. He couldn't walk away. Eighteen months and one mountain later, all seven of the grown dogs landed in Calgary — and went on to forever homes.
A litter in a gutter, and a teacher who couldn’t keep walking.
Spencer was teaching street children in Kabul when he came across a stray dog and her newborn white Labrador-cross puppies, huddled in a ditch outside his guesthouse. Their mother had clearly had a hard life — but she was gentle, and the pups warmed to him fast.
He started feeding them, had them treated for fleas, and got them vaccinated. The school let him keep them on its grounds. When it came time to fly home, he couldn’t bring himself to leave them to the streets — so he arranged a shelter to care for them while he figured out the rest.
A couple of the pups found homes with families in Kabul. Seven remained — and Spencer decided he would get them all the way to Canada.
You’d have to have a heart of stone just to walk by.
Numbers breakdown
rescued
bring them home
Kabul to Calgary
by Air Canada
to fundraise
Four legs, half a world.
Getting seven dogs out of a war zone took a shelter, a fundraising climb, a viral video, and an airline willing to help.
Kabul
The seven dogs spent a year and a half at a shelter outside the city while Spencer raised money and cleared paperwork from Canada.
Dubai
With logistics arranged on the ground, the dogs began the long route out of Afghanistan toward Europe.
Frankfurt
An Air Canada employee saw Spencer’s video and championed the cause — the airline donated the $28,000 flight.
Calgary
On a winter night in 2012, the crates opened at the airport cargo hangar — and the reunion was everything.
It was one of the happiest days of my life.
After clearing customs, the dogs tumbled out of their crates — tails going, some whimpering — and crowded around the man who’d refused to give up on them. Every one of the Super Seven went on to a loving home in Canada.
