The other day, a young man named Cameron was outside working on his uncle’s property in Uvalda, Georgia, when he started hearing a squeaking noise. Cameron could tell something wasn’t right, so he followed the noise to a ditch filled with muddy water.
Cameron was heartbroken to see that all around the ditch, there were tiny puppies. The little dogs were in terrible shape and barely clinging to life.
Cameron knew the puppies weren’t going to make it much longer, so he quickly got in contact with local authorities and with Julie Bumbaca, a staff member at Lucky Dog Rescue Ranch. Bumbaca searched around for signs of the puppies’ mama but didn’t find any, which could only mean that someone had dumped the puppies in the ditch on purpose.
“From what she told me, there were no paw prints of a bigger dog at all,” Scott Bennett, owner and president of Southern Comfort Animal Rescue, told The Dodo. “So we know the mom didn’t just lead her puppies down there and then take off. [I]t’s safe to assume that someone put those puppies down there deliberately.”
Bumbaca called Bennett to ask if he could take in the puppies, and of course, he agreed. She arrived at his facility within an hour, and the two rescuers got to work right away getting the puppies comfortable.
“[The] first thing we did was start bathing the puppies,” Bennett said. “They were just covered in mud and dirt, and of course that’s going to affect how the skin can breathe.”
Bumbaca and Bennett breathed sighs of relief when they saw how well the puppies responded to their baths. They almost immediately went from lethargic and exhausted to perked up and ready to eat and drink.
“Once we got some fluid in them and got them some food, boy, they just gobbled up the food,” Bennett said.
For the past few days, Bennett has been giving the puppies around-the-clock care, which they’ve been responding very well to. At first, he wasn’t sure if the babies were going to pull through, but now they’re on a great trajectory.
“[T]hey’re all looking very well by now,” Bennett said.
Rescuing the puppies was a team effort all around, and Bennett is extremely grateful for everyone who took time out of their days to help the babies. He’s planning on naming one of the puppies Cameron after the young man who first spotted the dogs.
“Thank you to all of our supporters, everybody that donated and just sent kind words of encouragement,” Bennett said.
Once the puppies are stabilized and vaccinated, they’ll be transferred to a foster home and be available for adoption. After the difficult start they all had, they deserve to be pampered in loving forever homes.
