Rescued Dogs Face an Uncertain Fate : Animals: A Rosemead woman lavished care on the pets before she died, but now there is not enough money to pay for their keep.

Josephine Forman never could say no to a mutt in distress.

The 64-year-old Rosemead woman took them in by the dozens, even though it strained her modest Social Security income.

She boarded the dogs at a nearby kennel, where she received a discount for grooming and feeding the dogs herself.

But Forman died in December, and 26 of the mixed-breed dogs she saved from the streets are once again facing the pound.

Before she died, she specified that the dogs should go to Artis Rose of San Diego, a longtime friend who shared her love of animals. Since Forman’s death, Rose has made the 220-mile round trip to the kennel several times a week to groom and feed the dogs. She has paid half of this month’s rent, but says she doesn’t have the money to pay the rest.

Joe Warren, owner of the Astro/All Star Kennel in Rosemead, who had been charging Forman $500 a month instead of the regular $5 a day per dog, said he will turn the dogs over to animal regulation authorities soon.

“What am I supposed to do with all these dogs?” Warren asked. “As long as she was here to clean the dogs and pay the rent, I was happy. . . . These dogs have to be cleaned . . . every day and I just can’t do it by myself.

“I’m not a mean person,” Warren continued. “All I want is money to take care of these dogs or someone to take them away.”

At Temple City Animal Control, the nearest such facility, young, healthy dogs are kept for a week or so in the hope that someone will claim them, said supervisor Bill Hart.

Older, sickly dogs are put to death immediately, he said. Forman’s dogs average between 7 and 8 years old, but one is 16, Rose said.

When Forman was alive, she received assistance from Animal Alliance, which has offices in West Los Angeles and Woodland Hills, whenever she ran short of money for dog food.

“There were many times when she would call us and she was hysterical because she had no money or food for the dogs, and we tried to help her as much as we could,” said Leeta Anderson, founder of Animal Alliance, which is devoted to rescuing animals in need. “She really cared about these dogs.”

Rose has taken three of the dogs into her own home, and one of Forman’s neighbors agreed to take six others. Twenty-six of Forman’s dogs remain at the kennel.

“It is a horrible situation,” Anderson said. “The man (Warren) has a business to take care of. He can’t just keep these dogs forever. On the other hand, we have these creatures that need to be taken care of.”

Anderson is contacting other animal rescue organizations to mobilize help for the dogs. But she says the best solution would be for people to adopt the animals and “let them live out the rest of their lives.”

The people who knew Forman say the dogs were her entire life and it was her last wish to see them taken care of.

“She really loved these dogs,” Rose said. “She always had dogs, even when she lived in an apartment.”