Call it a ruff landing.
A plane carrying three humans and 53 dogs crashed on a snowy Wisconsin golf course on Tuesday, but the story has a happy ending.
The twin-engine turboprop aircraft had been flying from New Orleans to Waukesha County Airport, west of Milwaukee, with a cargo hold full of pups in crates who were being transported to shelters in Wisconsin for adoption.
But as the plane was less than 4 miles from the airport, it crashed on the course of the Western Lakes Golf Club around 9 a.m.
The aircraft landed on its undercarriage, sliding from the fifth hole to the second to the third.
“This was a relatively catastrophic landing,” Matthew Haerter, assistant chief at Lake Country Fire and Rescue, said at a news conference. "When they went through trees the wings actually came off the aircraft and then they came to rest several hundred feet after where they originally tried to place the aircraft."
Local fire crews rushed to the scene to assist the golf course workers who were trying to help.
Although more than 300 gallons of fuel spilled onto the course, luckily the plane's wings stored most of the fuel, meaning the fuselage was mostly not an explosion risk.
The cause of the crash is under investigation by federal aviation authorities.
The three people on board were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
But none of the dogs were seriously injured either; the animals were treated by veterinarians on site and transported to a range of local shelters.
"The dogs are all doing remarkably well," Jennifer Smieja, a spokesperson for the Humane Animal Welfare Society, told BuzzFeed News on Friday. "Physically, they only sustained some scrapes, but we are unsure of how they will do going forward behaviorally."
Smieja said HAWS would be giving free behavior training sessions to people who adopt any of the dogs if they struggle in the future with crate training given their ordeal.
HAWS took in 21 of the dogs, which they've dubbed the "Western Lakes Loves." Four have already found forever homes.
One of those to adopt a dog was firefighter Tony Wasielewski, who was among those on the scene pulling the pups from the plane.
Wasielewski told the Washington Post he felt compelled to bring home a dog that had leaped into his arms and licked him upon being rescued. When he went to the HAWS shelter to see the dog, she instantly recognized him and ran to him.
"As soon as the lady opened up the door, she bypassed my wife, jumped in my arms and started giving me kisses,” Wasielewski told the Post. “It was over."