The Brookhaven Animal Rescue League (BARL) now contains almost50 happy dogs and puppies, thanks to work done on their behalf by17-year-old Cayce Falvey.

Falvey, a junior at Loyd Start Attendance Center, is an activemember of Troop 117, Andrew Jackson Council, Boy Scouts of America.Last fall, he was perched near the top of the Boy Scoutachievements, ready to earn his last, and biggest, rank – EagleScout.

In order to earn the coveted rank, Falvey had to give back tohis community through a renovation project. Time was of theessence, as 18 is the cutoff age for awarding the rank.

While searching for a project, Falvey said someone mentioned theanimal rescue league. He contacted league officials to see ifanything big needed to be done.

“They said they had a drainage problem that needed to be fixed,”Falvey said. “I was looking for a project for a while, not havingany luck, then that popped up and gave me a chance.”

Falvey seized the opportunity.

He met with Debbie Brent, BARL president, and Olivia Wallace,the league’s lone paid employee and day-to-day caretaker of theanimals. Brent and Wallace informed Falvey of the animal rescueleague’s large, wet problem.

The entire backyard, the only area available to the animals forplay and exercise, would not drain properly after rain. Standingwater would pool up and remain for day, especially around largeholes that had developed around the yard’s trees, several of whichhad to be removed over the years because of root rot.

Not only was the standing water causing the dogs to have limitedspace for activity and getting them filthy on a daily basis, it wasa major health risk as well. Brent said the animal rescue league’sentire backyard had become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

“Mosquitoes can spread heart worms to the animals,” Brent said.”We check and treat the dogs for heart worms regularly, and most ofthem come through the treatments with no problem, but not all ofthem can take it.”

Dogs were not the only ones at risk because of the standingwater.

While several trees had already been removed because of rootrot, others were dying behind them. The danger of one of therotting trees falling onto the rescue league building, the kennelsor the BARL personnel was increasing day by day.

“We’ve needed to get this work done, but we didn’t think we’dever have time to do it because we’re all on a volunteer basis,”Brent said. “Then we got involved with Cayce, and it was like Godsent us this little angel and he took care of it for us.”

The angel arrived on Oct. 20 with backup. Falvey was accompaniedby volunteers from his troop, family and church, Red Star Church ofJesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. While his mother, Monica, andsister, Sarah, lead the female volunteers on a mission to feed,water and walk the dogs and clean the kennels, Falvey and the malevolunteers took up shovels and attacked the landscape.

First, Falvey and his crew cut down and removed the remainingrotten trees and filled the holes their roots left behind.

While the wood work was ongoing, Falvey’s grandfather James,owner of E and W Construction in Wesson, and his father Tommy, whois also a part of E and W, brought out the heavy machinery. The twomen worked together to operate one of the company’s backhoes,carving out a ditch that would drain the rescue league’s standingwater.

When the day was done, the drainage project was a success, butthe future Eagle Scout wanted to make sure.

To this day, Falvey returns to BARL every few weeks to inspectand maintain the work that was done, using his shovel to fill inholes caused by the drainage or the dogs. During his last visitearlier this month, Falvey brought a wheelbarrow full of wash rocksand spread them along the ditch to cut down on the amount of mudgenerated during drainage.

Falvey did not only provide manual labor for BARL, he collecteddonations from his church for dog food, and still brings as manysupplies as he can during his maintenance visits.

The upgrades performed by Falvey and company aremuch-appreciated by the staff of BARL.

“It’s cut down on possible infections from certain diseases thatmay thrive in water, helped us keep the place and the dogs cleanerand given the dogs a great space to play in,” Wallace said. “Hisproject worked, and it’s working well.”