Valley opens heart for puppies

Across the Flathead Valley and even across the country, the story and photos of rescued puppies resonated with readers.

The initial Inter Lake coverage on Saturday brought more than 100 people to the Humane Society shelter that day looking for the brave silver Labrador mother and her nine puppies. By the end of the day, there already were 12 applications to adopt the puppies.

The story gained wider circulation for the next several days and eventually the shelter was fielding calls from as far away as the East Coast. Some long-distance callers (from New Jersey and Oklahoma, for example) even offered to adopt the orphaned dogs.

This outpouring of support shows the warm side of human nature when animals are involved.

Many people justifiably lauded the two snowmobilers, Joey Norris and Austin Lowe, who first found the stranded canine family near McGregor Lake and later went back and rescued the dogs.

And although the puppies saved from the snow are all but adopted out now, there are plenty of other dogs and cats at Kalispell shelters waiting to be adopted.

Take a stroll through the shelters: You might find an animal that needs your love - and you can then be a rescuer, too.

There was a sense of community outrage a couple of months ago when School District 5 announced that a previously trusted employee had been dismissed because of embezzlement, but would not necessarily face charges.

That outrage turned to relief last week when criminal charges were filed against Cynthia Upwall for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars of activity funds from Flathead and Glacier high schools.

Although her defenders have called Upwall a good woman who didn't mean to do wrong, that is not the point. She was also a woman given a position of trust, and local students and taxpayers have a right to know that she will be held accountable if she did anything wrong.

It is appropriate that this matter not be resolved with a wink and a handshake, but with a trip to court. How it will end no one yet knows, but at least now we can be confident that the end will be arrived at publicly and fairly.