For his wife’s 40th birthday, a Virginia man paid for 40 shelter dog adoptions

Andrew Duhe wanted to do something to celebrate his wife’s 40th birthday besides buying typical presents such as jewelry or flowers.

He wanted to give Jennifer Duhe something meaningful.

The couple volunteer every weekend at Chesapeake Animal Services in Chesapeake, Virginia, and it was during one of those visits about a month ago that Andrew suddenly hit on the perfect idea: The animal shelter had 40 dog kennels that were always full. What if he were to pay the $110 adoption fee for each of the 40 dogs?

Although it would cost a total of $4,400 to cover the costs of spaying, neutering, microchipping and vaccines for 40 dogs, Andrew said he knew the gift would mean more to his wife than anything he could buy in a store.

They’d recently lost one of their three dogs, Sierra, and he thought sponsoring the adoptions to help dogs find forever homes would help Jennifer cheer up.

“More than anything, she wants all dogs to find good homes,” said Andrew, 38. “The shelter has a Guardian Angel program, where anyone can sponsor a dog’s adoption fees. We’d sponsored one or two before, so why not 40?”

Jennifer’s birthday was Nov. 13, but Andrew said he was worried that word might get out about his surprise since he’d gone to the shelter a few days earlier to pay the adoption fees.

So on Nov. 12, he summoned their three children and asked them to help deliver an early birthday present to Jennifer before she got out of bed.

“I had to smile, because Andrew always gets excited about giving gifts and has trouble waiting until the actual date,” Jennifer said.

First, she was presented with a custom-designed, insulated mug that Andrew had ordered weeks earlier, featuring a message of love in Sierra’s memory. Then Jennifer opened a birthday card with a heartfelt letter tucked inside.

“I’m reading this beautiful note with lots of mushy love stuff, and at the bottom he’d written that he’d paid the adoption fees for 40 dogs,” she said. “I just cried and cried.”

Jennifer said their kids were puzzled by her reaction at first since Andrew hadn’t told them about his gift.

“I told them what he’d done, and at first, they thought he had adopted 40 dogs and they were all coming home,” she said. “We all laughed about that.”

“I was incredibly touched that he did something on that large of a scale, knowing what matters the most to me,” Jennifer added. “It’s honestly the most sentimental and perfect gift I’ve ever gotten.”

She and Andrew have been together for 10 years, and they both work for the Navy in Chesapeake, she said. About a year and a half ago, they decided to start volunteering at the animal shelter and fostering animals.

“If the shelter is overcrowded or there are animals with special medical needs, we’ll take them in,” Jennifer said, noting they’ve fostered more than a dozen dogs and cats over the past year.

“Right now, we’re caring for a little dog that was severely starved,” Jennifer said. “She has this obsession with stuffed animals, so my daughter named her Squishy.”

She and Andrew devote about 30 hours a month to volunteering at the shelter, where they walk and bathe dogs, and help with shelter cleaning and repairs. They were recently honored by the city of Chesapeake for their efforts.

“Ever since they walked in the door, they’ve been incredibly positive and they never say no,” said Kasey Gallardo, outreach coordinator for Chesapeake Animal Services. “Andrew will walk in and say, ‘What can I fix?’”

Gallardo said she was stunned when Andrew told her he wanted to pay the fees for every dog in the adoption kennels.

“We’ve never had anyone pay for so many before,” she said. “His gift made it possible to bring up more dogs from the back” of the shelter.

“For every dog adopted, you’re actually saving two,” Gallardo added, explaining that the shelter has overflow kennels for when too many dogs are brought in and there aren’t enough foster homes.

So far, 17 of the dogs Andrew paid for have found new homes, she said. WAVY News in Chesapeake covered his creative birthday idea.

For Andrew, the highlight of paying the fees was breaking the news to two people in line at the adoption counter that their dogs would be free.

“They were waiting to adopt that day, so I thought, ‘Let’s get started now,’” he said. “One lady told me it was her birthday, and the dog was going to be her present. She gave me a hug and started to cry, so I could see the gift giving back right there.”

Jennifer said she still gets teary-eyed when she imagines the love and sloppy kisses that 40 dogs will bring to their new families.

“Nothing else could hold a candle to how Andrew decided to celebrate my 40th birthday,” she said. But she admits that now the pressure is on.

“What am I going to do for him on his birthday?” Jennifer asked. “That’s a big question. He hit the mark in a way that I’ll never be able to top.”