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Anita Coupe and her newly adopted dogs, Ben, front, and Leo, relax at home in Biddeford Pool. Ben and Leo were flown to Maine from Arkansas with eight other dogs who await adoption.

INTERESTED IN ADOPTING?

MANY OF the Arkansas dogs are still in foster homes.

GO TO LuckyPupRescue.org to see pictures and fill out an adoption form.

BIDDEFORD — It was only one day after Anita Coupe had laid to rest her dog, Cody, but she knew that what she had found on the Internet was exactly what she needed.

Their names: Leo and Ben. Two dogs in desperate need of a good home.

What Coupe didn't know at the time was the remarkable journey that Ben and Leo would take from their foster home in Arkansas to her house in Biddeford Pool, a journey that would include a private jet ride across the country as part of a dog airlift bringing other animals to Maine for adoption.

Ben and Leo had been lucky enough to catch the eye of a powerful woman. Coupe, a lawyer, is the chairwoman of the Humane Society of the United States' board of directors. She is the first woman to hold that title. And she has one of the most powerful voices in Washington when it comes to lobbying for the humane treatment of animals.

"She knows how to influence her colleagues on the board and is universally respected," said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States. "She is a leader with the organization and helps to set the entire strategic direction of the HSUS. She is incredible."

Coupe, 60, says she hopes the airlift that brought her Ben and Leo has spotlighted the larger issues, including the need for spaying and neutering. "It's about the millions of perfectly beautiful, healthy and lovable pets waiting to be adopted," she said. "The animals need homes."

Born and raised in Michigan, Coupe earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan, and she is also a graduate of the Duke University School of Law. Her professional focus has been in labor and employment law.

Ten years ago, she and her husband, Brad, moved to Maine to get away from the fast pace of living in Connecticut and working in Manhattan.

Above all things, Coupe is a lover of animals, especially dogs.

She joined the board of the Humane Society in 1990, the same year she became a partner in the firm where she practiced.

"A client casually inquired over lunch what I would be doing if I weren't a lawyer. I said I'd work full time on behalf of animal welfare, instead of just making donations to animal welfare groups," Coupe said.

So she joined the board, and in April 2008 became its first female chair.

"My legal training and experience, as it has turned out, made me well-suited to board governance work," she said.

But just a little more than a year after becoming the board chairwoman, Coupe was simply a woman with a broken heart.

She and her husband had made the tough decision to put down their dog, Cody. She knew that she would someday take in another dog, one that had been rescued or come from a shelter.

An Internet search took her to pictures of Ben and Leo. "It said they were inseparable buds, they were Labrador retriever mixes, they needed to be adopted together and the Web site was based in Kennebunkport. I thought, 'This sounds perfect.' "

Then Coupe learned that the dogs were in Arkansas.

LuckyPupRescue.org, based in Kennebunkport, works with a dog rescue group in Arkansas, the Paragould Animal Welfare Society.

The partnership works, Coupe said, because "Maine is excellent in getting dogs fostered and adopted. We don't have a terrible dog overpopulation problem."

Arkansas, however, does have a terrible problem. It has no spay-and-neuter law, as Maine does, and only three of its 75 counties have animal control.

Leo and Ben were strays in Marion, Ark., in a county with animal control. They were caught and sent to a shelter.

Ben easily warmed up to his human caretakers, but Leo was emaciated and antisocial, bonding only with Ben.

Allison Carroll, a PAWS volunteer, believed there was hope for Leo if somebody just spent some time with him. And in time, Leo began to enjoy human company.

Which brings us back to that June day when the...