An Athlete We Can All Love

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — David Backes went to Sochi hoping to bring home a gold medal with the U.S. hockey team. Instead, the St. Louis Blues’ captain brought back a couple of stray puppies.

Backes and his wife, Kelly, rescued the dogs from the streets of the Olympic city with members of the Canadian team’s entourage. Now in quarantine in St. Louis, the dogs will eventually be given to good homes.

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Backes and his wife, who have four rescue dogs and two rescue cats in their home and set up their own foundation, Athletes for Animals, last November, received helped from Canadian winger Jeff Carter’s girlfriend, Megan Keffer, and defenseman Drew Doughty’s girlfriend, Nicole Arruda, and others. The 3- to- 4-month-old pups, named Sochi Junior and Sochi Jake, were brought back to the U.S. on an Air Atlas charter to Newark and another flight to St. Louis.

“They fought for their lives every day on the street and now they’re laying on our laps in flights across the Atlantic,” Backes said.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2014/icehockey/story/_/id/10518891/david-backes-st-louis-blues-brings-back-stray-dogs-sochi