PLAIN CITY, Ohio (WCMH) — There were 60 dogs at The Canine Collective before the rains hit, the sump pump failed, and the kennels flooded.

On Thursday night at dinnertime, a call went out to the community — “can you help our dogs?” And the community responded in droves.

Mitch Christian of Christian K9 Academy a few miles down the road, had 20 open kennels and was going to take 20 dogs, but only ended up with one. That’s because cars had already lined up and people pitched in to help.

“I think at one point we had about six inches of water in the kennel with each dog,” said Rachel Nori, a volunteer at the no-kill shelter founded by Jean Lally.

“We put out an urgent plea for help from volunteers in the community just to come out and help get the dogs in the homes for the day.”

By 8:30 p.m., all of the dogs were safe and warm. “We had volunteers taking linens home to wash them, they were unloading cars that had food that was donated, they were helping mop up the mess, there were people out here working on our sump pumps. It was amazing to see,” Nori said.

The Canine Collective has been in existence since 2007, and the Plain City location was purchased in 2015 at a sheriff’s sale, founder Jean Lally said. The shelter has about 30 dogs on the premises and another 30 in foster care.

You can sign up to be a foster, donate, volunteer or help fill The Canine Collective wish-list on Chewy.com or Amazon.