BILLINGS -- Mihail Kennedy sat on the floor next to Tia, a 2-year-old English shepherd, and gently stroked her fur as she drowsily recovered from surgery Saturday morning.

Tia was one of 154 of the 206 dogs formerly owned by Ballantine dog breeder Linda Kapsa that are being spayed or neutered this weekend, the last step before going to new homes. Another 38 at the Moore Lane Veterinary Clinic will undergo the same surgery on Tuesday.

The weekend clinic, which continues today, is being put on by Spay Montana, a program of the Lewis and Clark Humane Society in Helena. Surgery is being done in a large room under the MetraPark grandstand.

";About 20 to 25 of the dogs have already gone to new homes, some this weekend," said Catherine Schaeffer, manager of the MetraPark shelter. ";And we'll continue into next week."

The new owners of some of the dogs had the animals spayed or neutered by private veterinarians in town.

Adoptions are being handled by National English Shepherd Rescue. The Operation New Beginnings volunteers, some whom have been working with the dogs since they first came into the county's custody last December, will have the first chance to apply to adopt 187 of the dogs.

After that, adoptions will open to the public. Everyone who wants to adopt one of the dogs must go through a rigorous application process.

The remaining 19 dogs will stay in county custody until a judge decides how many of the dogs Kapsa will be allowed to keep.

The clinic went like clockwork Saturday morning, overseen by Sandy Newton of Spay Montana, which conducts similar events around the state.

";The tragedy is this should never have happened," Newton said of so many dogs being bred over and over again and not cared for. ";The positive side of all this is these dogs are going off to forever homes and never breeding again."

The dogs were sedated and kept comfortable in large wire cages until they were prepped for surgery and taken to one of four operating tables.

Once surgery was completed, the animals were gently carried and placed on quilts on the floor to let them recover. Volunteers remained with the animals, petting them and speaking softly to them.

In Kennedy's case, the task was a true labor of love. He started volunteering Jan. 1 and has been at the shelter five days a week, at least two hours a day, since then.

Kennedy, who works at ZooMontana overseeing the botanical garden and working as an animal keeper, said he came in with no intention of adopting a dog.

";After a month, I absolutely knew I would," he said.

Kennedy, who lives in an apartment, is so serious about adopting Tia and a second dog, Freckles, he's buying a house so he has a place for the dogs to live. In Tia, he will be taking home a much different dog than he first met last winter.

Tia was a free roamer at Kapsa's kennel, Kennedy said, one of the wilder dogs who wanted nothing to do with humans. Now, after months of encouragement, she loves to cuddle on Kennedy's lap.

As an ";enforcer" dog, she used to bite, but she hasn't done that for months. Now she likes to play with dogs and with people ";and she doesn't have to hide her emotions," Kennedy said.

As the dogs are now gradually going out to their homes, he said, it's sad to say goodbye to both the animals and the many volunteers he's worked with who have given so much of themselves to the dogs.

";I hope we can get together once a year -- the dogs and the people -- but we'll need a big park," Kennedy said. ";I want to see where the people and where the dogs are in a year."