A rescue group in Los Angeles, California risked their safety to save the lives of 9 desperate young puppies.
Rescuers at Hope for Paws Animal Rescue had just attended the funeral of their dear friend when they received a call about feral puppies who needed to be saved.
When they arrived, they came upon several brown and black puppies, with no mother in sight. At first, the rescue team attempted to coax the pups out with cheeseburgers.
This initially worked to entice the puppies, but after the humans picked up one pup, the rest became spooked and ran into their hiding spot – a deep, dark, and extremely narrow cave.
Hope For Paws founder Eldad Hagar followed them in, only to discover that the cave quickly became too small for a human. He took cameras in, which show how the puppies had taken a quick turn into a very narrow dwelling.
Eldad followed after them, crawling in through dirt and darkness to get to them. He even exclaimed, “there are weird bugs in here!” but he wasn’t dissuaded from remaining in the dwelling.
Using a gentle snare, Eldad was able to secure a few more puppies. One by one, Eldad would snare a puppy, and fellow rescuer Lisa Arturo would work to pull him out in order to pull the dogs with him – there was not enough room in the cave for both to occupy space at the same time.
With each puppy that emerged, their screams and cries became greater and greater. The dogs were not in any pain, but they were terrified; none of them had ever been touched by a human. But the rescuers were gentle with them, and each puppy soon calmed down enough to stop crying once they understood that they were safe.
After puppy number 4, Eldad returned to the save to discover with dread that the remaining dogs had managed to go even further into the dark cave. Eldad had to dig into the other side of the cave to meet them. He had to be careful digging, because the entire dirt cave could have collapsed onto the puppies if he dug too high.
Again, one by one, he grabbed the puppies, and Lisa (along with one other female rescuer) had to pull Eldad by his legs out of the cave while he held on to each dog. By dog #7, the women were struggling with the weight they had to pull – but everyone kept it up anyway. A third rescuer soon arrived to help the two women pull Eldad out.
After pup #8, the rescuers believed they had gotten all the dogs. But Eldad did a thorough check of the cave just in case – and heard something. Cameras show that he couldn’t see anything, but he wasn’t giving up. Eventually, he spotted a NINTH puppy.
After they pulled the one remaining, silent runt puppy out of the cave, it was concluded that they had indeed retrieved all the puppies from the cave.
The next day, the puppies were placed with a surrogate dog mom, Olive. They are seen joyfully playing with her in a nice backyard.
But Hope For Paws is not giving up on their mom. She has been evading rescue for an astounding 5 years. But this group of dedicated souls is returning until they get her.
The puppies have been named in honor of the rescuers’ dear friend who passed away, Lisa M. Ashe. Each puppy received a name beginning with a letter of her name:
To apply to adopt any of these puppies, please visit LoveJoyFoundation.org.
