We here love our pets so much that we simply cannot fathom why anyone would do something cruel to any animal, let alone one that they are charged with caring for. Every time we read a story about someone abandoning puppies or kittens, our hearts break a little more each time.
Well, our hearts started breaking again as we read this recent story out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Luckily for us, this one just happens to have a happy ending.
According to KSFY, last week a Sioux Falls woman saw a man dumping something in one of her garbage cans. She walked out into the freezing cold night to investigate and what she found shocked her to the core.
Inside of her garbage can, the man (who police are still searching for) had dumped a trash bag filled with six adorable puppies less than 10 days old. Thanks to her eagle eyes and quick thinking, those puppies are now at the Sioux Falls Humane Society, where they are being given 24-hour care by the staff there.
At their age, the puppies still cannot see or hear. They must be bottle-fed every three hours and cleaned after every bathroom break. Much of this care has fallen to Sioux Falls Animal Control Officer Missy John who told KSFY that she has "never seen a case of someone throwing puppies in a garbage can in Sioux Falls."
While the police search for a suspect that they say is either Hispanic or Native American, and was wearing a Carhartt-type coat and red cap, the puppies are starting to move more and more each day, while also growing and beginning to speak up a bit.
In the meantime, Officer Johns will continue to be their puppy-mother as they get their bearings.
"They stay with their mom for the first eight weeks of their life," Johns told KSFY, "and the importance of that is they get different nutrients from their mother's milk. But moms also teach them different obedience skills, keep them clean, do the motherly things they're supposed to do that is out there for nature that we're only able to simulate now at this point."
It's amazing that this story was able to go from potentially heartbreaking to positively heartwarming in just a matter of minutes and with the help of a guardian angel that was simply keeping a close eye on her trash.
We don't know what kind of person could ever do something like that to poor, innocent puppies, but we're glad we have people like the woman who witnessed it, and Officer Johns for taking such great care of them!
Please SHARE this story with all your animal-loving friends and family. Let's help protect and care for all the animals out there in need!
