The call was urgent. There was an opportunity to keep 13 beagles out of a miserable life in medical labs. An assortment of automotive journalists gave up their Memorial Day holidays to come to the rescue. But it was Big Booty Judy, along for the ride, who won the heart of the author on the trip from Omaha to the Pacific Northwest.
The author with Big Booty Judy as they set out from Omaha to the Pacific Northwest.
How could I resist those big brown eyes? It was love at first sight, and I couldn’t hide it. As we headed out from Omaha on a brisk May morning on a journey that would eventually wrap up in the Pacific Northwest, I made sure Judy was sitting right by my side.
I hadn’t intended to make such a long trip over the Memorial Day weekend. After traveling most of the previous six weeks, I looked forward to lounging by the lake at our rural Michigan cottage. Then came the phone call from Harvey Briggs. He needed drivers to help save Judy and 12 other beagles who were up for auction. If we didn’t intervene, they’d likely wind up either in medical labs or as breeders in seedy puppy mills.
The call came in as I was resting in a Paris hotel, celebrating my 72nd birthday and my 17th wedding anniversary. I looked at my wife, knowing she had plans for the holiday. “I don’t know what to do,” I told her. “You know you’ve got to do it,” Jennifer replied.
America has a problem with stray and unwanted animals
A look of concern on the part of one wary beagle as Operation Frodo left Omaha on its cross-country “Mission from Dog.”
America, in general, has a problem with stray and unwanted animals. Each year, as many as 6 million dogs and cats are brought to shelters across the U.S. Nearly 1 million are eventually euthanized. That understates the problem. Many more animals are simply dumped by the roadside or in the woods, others “put down” by their owners and breeders.
That’s particularly true of beagles who are bred in large numbers by private puppy mills. Many wind up in the hands of hunters who, all too often, abandon them after the season is over. That was the fate of my own beloved beagle, Melvyn … but I’m getting ahead of myself.
As for the puppy mills, it’s not uncommon for them to dump dogs they can’t sell, auction them off to medical labs, or even shoot them, as fellow journalist Nik Miles was told by one breeder.
Operation Frodo
Nik Miles, left, with Lee Asher, of Asher House. Miles launched Operation Frodo after adopting a beagle of his own from a Nebraska rescue group.
It’s been four years since Miles lost a beloved beagle and went looking for another to fill the hole in his heart. The search took him to Omaha, Nebraska where he discovered a loose-knit network of dog lovers who’ve organized Basset and Beagle Rescue of the Heartland.
There are shelters all over the country run by groups like the American Humane Society. But they’re overflowing these days. Complicating the problem, millions of Americans got dogs during the COVID pandemic to keep them company while they were isolated. As more and more businesses end work-at-home policies, people are dumping their pets at shelters.
Groups like Basset and Beagle Rescue help ease the burden, taking in some animals into their own homes until permanent adoptions can be arranged. But there’s a limit to how many they can handle. “We do 300-350 dogs a year,” Omaha’s Kathi Ortmeier told the Shifting Gears substack. And when her group hits a wall the only alternative is to find new owners — or another rescue group with open spaces.
After adopting his new beagle from the Nebraska group, organizers asked if he could help out by bringing several others to another rescue near Miles’ home in Portland, Oregon. That’s how Operation Frodo was born.
On the move
Harvey Briggs, right, has handled logistics for Operation Frodo, as well as driving cross-country.
That first trip was a challenging one. Heading across country in the middle of December can be risky, as Miles and several fellow journalists discovered. Driving a Wagoneer loaned by Jeep, they and the beagles ran into the worst snowstorm seen in Wyoming in a century, at one point sliding off the road into a ditch. Eventually, they dug out and slowly made their way to the Pacific Northwest.
A year later, Miles enlisted another automotive journalist, Harvey Briggs, to help with logistics. They reached out for support and were offered some financial backing, as well as a handful of vehicles that, over the coming years, would be provided by brands like Mercedes-Benz, Kia, Ram, Volkswagen and others.
“We went to the well and they came through,” he told me. (Several automakers have expressed interest in having exclusive rights to the rescue program, something Miles has so far rejected.)
The growing support for Operation Frodo allowed the ad hoc group to increase the number of rescued beagles to 12 in 2023 and 20 in December 2024.
A “Mission from Dog”
The author adopted Melvyn Torme, the Velvet Dog, during the December 2024 Operation Frodo.
Considering the roughly 1,700 miles from Omaha to Portland, Operation Frodo normally is divided into stages. There’s a stopover in Denver, then Salt Lake City then Boise, Idaho, before reaching Oregon. I first signed on last December to drive the initial two legs, from Omaha through to the Utah capital.
“We’re on a ‘mission from dog,’” said fellow driver Aaron Gold as we drove across the Nebraska plains in a Mercedes Sprinter buffeted by wind gusts of up to 80 mph. If we were lucky, the winds came from behind, giving the blocky van a little extra push.
It was on that trip last December that I truly understood the importance of what we were doing. I had adopted a Labrador-mix in February 2023. (Named Miles Dewey Dog, he saved my life last September by alerting me to an oncoming heart attack.) Now, as we headed west, beagles in tow, I was holding one of them, Melvyn, in my lap during my stretches in the passenger seat. I’d never thought about owning a beagle before. But his big ears, waggly butt, gentle eyes and loving demeanor won me over. When my portion of the trip ended in Salt Lake, I rented a car and headed back to Michigan, 1,622 miles back east.
An urgent call
It took a bit of work, considering the holiday, but Briggs and Miles were able to line up three vehicles and enough drivers to move the dogs to their new homes.
Like many Operation Frodo alums, I was set to join again this coming December. But, then came the call from Harvey, and on the Thursday evening before the holiday, I stuffed myself into a cramped seat on the back of a regional jet for the flight to Omaha.
There was reason for the urgency. The folks at Bassett and Beagle had learned of a local auction of 13 beagles, mostly young pups, but also a couple of breeder females. The likely scenario was that the dogs would wind up going to medical labs for years of exposure to experimental drugs while kept captive in cramped cages.
“Clearly, we had to do something,” Miles told me. The problem was that the Operation Frodo team had just days to line up three vehicles and enough drivers to man them for the cross-country run. But one thing I learned about Briggs and Miles, they don’t give up easily. “It all comes together,” Nik told me. “You don’t stop talking to people, and it happens.”
Judy, Judy, Judy
Another linchpin in the project, Bev Braga cuddles with Judy.
By the time I reached Omaha there were three vehicles — a Kia Carnival, a Volkswagen Atlas and a Ram ProMaster van. And, though a bit short of the normal number, there were enough drivers to wrangle the hounds and handle the vehicles.
Waking up on a surprisingly cold Omaha Friday morning I went outside to meet the beagles. They were an adorable enough group, 13 purchased from the auction before the labs could get them. But there was a 14th coming along for the ride. Big Booty Judy, they called her, a bit older, and well overweight at nearly 50 pounds, she had been with a local foster but was being sent to a new home in Seattle to help open up space for another rescue in Omaha.
I took one look and was in love. As I discovered with Melvyn, beagles have a remarkably sweet disposition that can win over even the hardest hearts. Judy had sweet eyes and soft fur and a tail that never stopped wagging. Had I not already had four rescues at home — including Lab Miles, Melvyn and two black cats, my wife reminded me several times over the phone – she’d also have come back to Michigan with me.
On the road again
The Op Frodo team split up this year, some heading to Portland, others to Seattle.
As we began loading up for the long drive, the beagles looked out at us from their cages, most with a mixture of fear and apprehension. Yet, some seemed to know they were in for a better life.
The weather improved as we headed off toward our first overnight stop in Laramie, Wyoming — though the prairie winds still buffeted our caravan mercilessly.
We were booked into a bargain hotel, but it had a comfortable bed, something welcome after more than 550 miles and several stops to let our charges respond to “nature.” I barely ate that night, anxious to see how the two beagles I would room with were doing. As I expected, Judy was more than happy to cuddle for the night, waiting expectantly as I went through my nightly ablutions.
Little Bella was another matter. She was a beautiful, tiny cream-and-white beagle. But she dashed frantically around the room when I first let her out of the cage. When I finally was able to pick her up she was initially rigid with fear, slowly releasing the tension as I gently stroked, nuzzled and talked to her. As I shut off the lights Bella and Judy curled up in right balls on either side, pushing their heads under my hands. I gently stroked their fur as I fell asleep.
Homeward bound
Three of the beagles wake up for the final day’s drive.
I couldn’t have been happier to see, the next morning, Bella bouncing with excitement as I woke up. Tail no longer stuck between her lags, she danced across the bed, rolling on her back and seemingly excited about getting back on the road.
This particular rescue mission was a hurried-up adventure, skipping the Denver stop. The crew dropped me off at the Salt Lake airport where several other drivers caught up with our little caravan. I was sorry not to be able to make the rest of the journey, but happy to get at least a bit of time back with my wife over a shortened holiday.
But saying goodbye to Judy, in particular, was heartbreaking, and I didn’t try to hide the tears in my eyes as I gave her a last hug. It helped me to remember a word of advice from Dr. Seuss: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”
New homes
Lee Asher welcomes Bella, among the nine beagles now part of the Asher House sanctuary near Portland.
I didn’t have to worry. In another break from earlier Operation Frodo rescues, the crew eventually split as they set out for the last day’s drive. One van with five beagles — including Judy — headed to Seattle. My beautiful brown-eyed girl now has a new home with a vet tech who is putting her on a healthy diet. As you can see from this photo, Judy is more than happy with her new life.
The other nine were safely delivered to Asher House, a unique animal sanctuary near Portland started by Lee Asher, an Instagram star, corporate trainer and extraordinary animal lover. According to the official website, it’s “a registered nonprofit sanctuary that advocates for the welfare, protection, and dignity of all animals. It provides rescue, rehabilitation, rehoming and a lifelong sanctuary for animals in need, and promotes humane treatment and education.”
Spread out over several 100 acres, it provides a safe place for rescues of many breeds and species. And it’s Lee Asher’s domain by more than name. He apparently knows each animal by name.
Until next time
Nik Miles and Frodo, his first beagle rescue and the dog the operation was named after.
“Nik told me, ‘This will change you.’ It changed me,” Gold told reporter Phoebe Wall Howard for her Shifting Gears substack column that appeared in the Detroit Free Press. “I’ll keep doing this until there are no dogs left to move.”
Sadly, the reality is that there will be lots more dogs to move for an indefinite period of time. And there are plenty of other groups who’d love to work with Operation Frodo, including Anderson Humane Society, the S. Elgin, Illinois rescue from which I got my Labrador.
Miles told me he plans to continue growing Operation Frodo through the 501(c)(3) charity that officially operates the program. He’s been pleasantly surprised by the number of donors coughing up cash and is seeking automakers who might donate, rather than loan, some vehicles so they can be permanently reconfigured to handle such missions.
Big Booty Judy’s clearly happy in her new home in Seattle.
Rescue, please, don’t buy
While there are legitimate breeders, the reality is that there are far too many sketchy operations that see their dogs as little more than livestock, said Miles. Many treat their dogs cruelly, keeping them in unsanitary conditions, feeding them as little as they can get by with and rarely showing affection. Worse, many dump or destroy animals they can’t sell.
They, as well as uncaring owners, are responsible for much of the problem with stray and abandoned dogs. Add the post-COVID problem and shelters are desperate to find more adoptive parents.
For those who really want purebreds, be aware that you often can find them at shelters. And there are many groups, like Bassett and Beagle Rescue of the Heartland, that focus on specific breeds, including shepherds, Labradors and other popular choices.
Even if you can’t adopt, please consider donating cash, food or toys. With so many animals at hand, shelters and rescues are struggling more than ever. Every little bit helps.
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