Franklin County Dog Breeders Lose Home, 11 Dogs, Including One That Was Pregnant, And 4 Cats In Horrific Fire

For many, pets, especially dogs, are family. And in some cases, they can even become your whole life.

That's how it was with the breeders Beth Caroll and Hacket at Muddy Brook Springers in Franklin County, according to their friend and fellow breeder, Cynthia Pepin. Pepin and the couple connected 12 years ago, when they got their first springers from Pepin, who was a part-time breeder in Vermont.

The couple started breeding the Springers they got from Pepin, and became very well known in Western Maine for their excellent lines of dogs.

"She has become an amazing breeder. Even my DA here from Grand Isle, Vermont, has a dog from her. She has been breeding consistently, beautiful lines, for 12 years. "

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Pepin says dog breeding was not just their entire livelihood, but the dogs were like family, with Beth keeping in touch with all of the families that received dogs from Muddy Brook Springers throughout the years.

Then their lives changed, literally overnight, when a horrific fire destroyed not only the family home, which the couple had purchased specifically to give their beloved animals lots of space to run and play, but the entire line of dogs that had become their everything.

"A lot of breeders, when they retire their breeding dogs, rehome them. Beth never did that. She kept them all because they were her babies."

"She bought that home to have plenty of room for all of them."

Eleven dogs, including one pregnant one due to whelp at any minute, and 2 puppies who had not yet been picked up by their owners, perished in the fire, along with the couple's 4  cats.

"She has no children. These dogs are her kids. They live for these dogs."

Pepin says the couple were out Tuesday night, when Beth came across drone footage online of a fire in her neighborhood.

"She said she was on her way home and saw on Facebook that there was a fire... Her home sits way in the woods; it's a beautiful home with a lot of acreage. They bought it just for the dogs. She bought it a few years ago when her father passed away, and was just so happy to be settled and set her dogs up in a beautiful yard and everything. And she said she saw that there was a fire... and the next thing she knew, there was drone footage, and it was her home."

According to a spokesperson from the Maine Department of Public Safety, the fire department reached the home at 461 Square Mile Road in Avon around 9:30.

"Investigators from the Office of State Fire Marshal were requested to respond to the scene. Due to the extent of the damage, the cause of the fire could not be determined."

Sean Allen, Fire Chief with the Phillips Fire Department (which services the town of Avon as well) said they received a call from someone on the Wheeler Hill road stating they could see a fire, off in the distance about 2 miles away, on a ridgeline.

With nothing else to go on, Chief Allen says he and his team utilized satellite information, a drone and put together a grid profile with the local law enforcement agencies to try to narrow down the location of where that fire could be coming from.

The effort to find the fire was also hampered by a narrow, winding driveway and a thick border of evergreen trees that obscured the view of the home from anywhere nearby.

While it took firefighters almost 45 minutes to actually reach the scene, the harrowing effort to even find it that was going on in the background was nothing short of amazing.

Once on the scene, and realizing the home was a total loss, responders sprang into action trying to save a couple out outbuilding nearby which were full of the family's belongings, and also the acreage of woods, as the fire had started to spread along the property into the forest.

Chief Allen says they were able to extinguish the fire before it reached the buildings and contain it before it destroyed more of the land.

Pepin says, meanwhile, there's a GoFundMe page that's been set up for the couple, as this has become their only source of income, and they've lost everything.

"This is actually their entire living, and I don't know if you know anything about breeding, but you can't breed a dog under two years of age; therefore, they will be without income for that long."

If you'd like the link to the GoFundMe page that's been set up for Beth and Rob from Muddy Brook Springers, just click here.