This is a remarkable story of a Good Samaritan who took the time to notice a stray dog and in doing so, saved not only the dog but nine other lives!
A Finnish man had seen a stray dog wandering around the edge of the forest in his town late in summer. Winter soon arrived and he saw the dog again, but this time he noticed the female dog had swollen breasts, indicating that she had recently given birth to puppies.
The man inquired with people in the neighborhood, but no one recognized the dog or knew where she had come from. With winter temperatures dipping, the Good Samaritan knew that the dog and her puppies would never survive the sub-zero cold. So he brought some food into the woods and went looking for her den.
When he found traces of a den he contacted the local animal rescue called Tassutarha and asked if they could come out and check the situation.
Their mother was a mixed breed dog and was apprehensive when they first approached the hole in the ground. To their great surprise they found nine small puppies!
Rescuers told the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti that the mother and her puppies were feral and the puppies had spent their first few weeks living in their den and had never seen people before. After several hours they were able to get the puppies out safely.
The puppies were 6 to 8 weeks old and had parasites but were in amazingly good condition given they had been living in the wild and in winter conditions. Veterinarians were amazed that the mother had been able to keep the puppies alive given the freezing temperatures at night.
When word spread on social media about the wild puppies, the shelter was flooded with emails from animal lovers wishing to adopt the puppies. The puppies were rescued in January and would first be dewormed, vaccinated and socialized before being happily adopted!
Thank goodness that kind-hearted man decided to act!
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