SHELTER VALLEY, Calif. — Digging deep into the dirt to stick posts and build 35 dog kennels near Shelter Valley, Calif. and 30 miles east of Julian.
Dog trainer Chris Jimenez, the owner and founder of K9 Connect, and his friends are trying to build the kennels quickly for the pups eager to get out of their dog carriers.
"Right now, we are making 8' x 8' x 8 feet high, so they have room to stretch their legs and all that," said Jimenez.
CBS 8 showed you last month, Jimenez in Ukraine since late February, working to get these police and military trained K-9's out of the war-torn area.
"We tried rationing out just how long we could survive there, and it was about two weeks of food that it would take to feed all of these dogs, so we made the decision that we got to go,” said Jimenez.
Through the help of his social media followers, Jimenez raised the 53,000 Euros to pay for a chartered plane for all the dogs to travel to California.
"The warzone aspect wasn't the difficult part. It was the logistics of traveling with 35 German Shepherds,” said Jimenez.
Landing at LAX last night, the dogs are ready to break free but need some TLC.
"Right now, the dogs need to go through some extensive rehab, they've been shoved in a car for hours and then shoved on a plane, and they were in bad condition when I showed up,” said Jimenez.
These German Shepherds ranging in age from 6 months to 7 years old are trained for explosive and narcotics detection and missing person searches.
Now, the find them each a home, Jimenez says it has to be the right fit and most likely, they'll go to police departments or with a government agency.
"It's a lengthy process because these dogs are so special, they just can't easily be adopted out,” said Jimenez.
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