GAMALIEL, Ark. -- Baxter County
Sheriff John Montgomery says he is one step closer to finding new homes for
about 450 dogs that were found at an animal sanctuary last Friday. 
The county is involved with legal negotiations with an attorney for
William and Tammy Hanson to get permission to take the dogs to shelters.

  For now, the dogs have to stay
on the Hansons’ property.  They
were arrested on animal cruelty charges and are barred from going to their
property.  The sheriff says the
county may have to take this matter before a judge but he's worried the dogs may
not be able to wait that long.

  Working against daylight on
Tuesday, volunteers tried to brace the dogs against the falling temperatures. 
It's one of many challenges facing volunteers, although they say the
situation is improving.

  “They are not even by far
comfortable at all.  We're just
basically feeding them, watering them, trying to keep them as clean as they
can,” said Desiree Bender, a volunteer for Where Angels Run, an animal rescue
group.

  The sheriff hopes this is just
a temporary fix.

  “We've now worked out an
agreement that we can now stay on site. We can continue to care for the animals
on site until the other legal issues are resolved,” said Montgomery.

   The dogs can be heard
from far up the road.  The
heart-breaking part for many volunteers is they know many of these dogs have
owners who are looking for them.  While
they believe more than half of them are from the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast,
they've had some dogs with tags closer to the Ozarks.

  The sheriff hopes they can move
the dogs to a shelter, while they continue to search for their owners.