Of the 70 rescue dogs brought into the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri just after the new year began, almost all are already on their way home.

Executive director Tracy Poston said several of the dogs processed Tuesday had already been adopted out as of early Thursday afternoon. She expects the rest to be adopted by Friday.

To help clear some overcrowding at the Humane Society facility on Boutin Drive, Poston said a few of the dogs were released to a partnering rescue facility. Even so, the Humane Society still housed about 65 of the original rescues.

Poston said she had "a long line outside of people waiting in the cold" for adoptions of the new arrivals. She added that 90 percent of the rescued dogs were Yorkies, or Yorkie mixes.

"Everybody wants a Yorkie, so it's a lot easier," Poston said. "The average length of stay, usually, is about 20 days."

What the Humane Society has taken its time on in this process, Poston said, is ensuring permanent and loving homes for the dogs.

"We're being really careful with where we put them. These are dogs that are going to not be the easiest," Poston said. "Not everybody who came out got a Yorkie today. We are definitely screening and talking [to potential owners]."

Making such a quick turnaround took extra hands, and Poston said many were right there to help when needed.

"We had a lot of volunteers come in to help out," Poston said. "We were here for hours after hours evaluating so that we could hurry up and get these dogs into homes."

One of those volunteers was Dr. Elizabeth Kistner of Doctor's Park Animal Hospital who Poston said "really stepped up" to perform evaluations for the animals.

The community rallied behind the rescue dogs and adopted them with haste, but the Humane Society has more work to do.

"Before they got here we had 50 dogs that needed a home, so we'll keep doing what we do every single day, just on a little bit smaller scale," Poston said.