The other day, Alexis Aguilar, cofounder and rescue coordinator at Feeding Peris Strays, got a message about a little dog family who desperately needed her help. The message included a photo of a litter of puppies huddled together in a laundry basket
with their mom watching over them.
Although the dogs were located over 40 minutes away from Aguilar, she dropped everything to go rescue them. The person who’d initially found the pups had given them food and water before leaving, but Aguilar was nervous about coyotes and wanted to get to the dogs as quickly as possible.
“I prayed the whole way there,” Aguilar told The Dodo.
When Aguilar arrived, she quickly located the little dog family. They were tucked away in a residential area next to a sidewalk behind people’s houses. Because the pups were so hidden, it’s lucky that anyone noticed them and reached out to get them some help.
“It was sad to see them in a basket,” Aguilar said. “Imagine if they were able to walk, they would’ve gotten out of that basket and … went into the street.”
Aguilar had been warned that the mama was nervous about being around people and protective of her babies, so she was hesitant to approach the dog at first. But when she sat down next to the dogs to start gaining their trust, she was surprised to find that the mom trusted her right away.
“Right when I got there [the mom] went up to me right away and put her muzzle out for me to pet her, and so I started petting her,” Aguilar said. “She let me scratch her and everything, she was doing so well.”
As soon as all of the dogs were comfortable, Aguilar started transferring the pups into her truck as the mom watched from afar, then placed the mama inside the vehicle with them. The babies, whom Aguilar estimated to be just 2 to 3 weeks old, were soft and adorable.
“There were seven puppies,” Aguilar said. “So cute, so little, too.”
Aguilar quickly got the dogs to a vet appointment. While they luckily didn’t appear to have any major health issues, it was clear they’d been struggling to survive on their own for quite some time.
“[Y]ou can tell [the mom] has been neglected for a while,” Aguilar said. “Her fur’s completely matted.”
Aguilar got the pups set up in a foster home, where they’ve been settling in for the past few days. In that short time, the dogs have already gotten much more comfortable. The mom is eating and drinking well and even learned how to walk on a leash.
The whole family will continue to decompress with their foster family for the next five or so weeks until they are ready to be adopted. Thanks to Aguilar and the pups’ foster parents, the whole family will get to live the comfortable life they’ve always deserved.
