Members of the Cullman Area Animal Welfare Association received a call on March 9 that a stray mother dog with puppies was running loose in a heavily wooded 60 foot deep ravine in Crane Hill. Volunteers Sue Jones and Trudy Burns were able to catch four border collie mix pups, but were unable to catch the mother dog.
A week later Jones returned to the area to look for the mother dog. She was saddened to find the dog shot dead with three more puppies near by. Two of the six-week-old puppies fled into a dirt burrow at the base of a rock wall about 20 feet high. The third ran into the ravine. After futile efforts by Jones and CAAWA volunteer Linda Morgan to coax the two pups from the burrow with food, the women set a humane trap in an effort to rescue the puppy.
The next morning one of the pups was discovered in the trap. Over the next few days, volunteers continued to search for the remaining two pups, eventually hearing them crying inside another dirt burrow at the bottom of the ravine. Armed with shovels and a small pick/hatchet handtool, the three women began to dig into the bank.
After more than five hours of digging and covered in mud, Burns was able to lay her on her side, reach into the burrow, grab the leg of one of the puppies and pull it out. Thirty minutes later after more digging, Morgan was able stretch her arm into the small burrow, grab the other puppy by the leg and pull him to freedom.
“Trudy Burns and Sue Jones did most of the work on this rescue,” said Morgan. “It was just luck my long skinny arm got the second puppy out. We were also assisted by Sue’s neighbors, Greta and Gary.”
Mugsy, a dog CAAWA had rescued two weeks earlier, got the puppies to respond to him by sticking his nose into the small burrow and making dog sounds to which they responded.
Morgan said keeping the puppies whining and whimpering helped them determine which way to dig.
“It was brutally cruel for someone to shoot a helpless nursing mother dog in the stomach and leave her to die a slow painful death,” said Morgan. “We’re sure her homeless puppies kept going to her body, until we found her, trying to figure out what had happened to their mother – it is truly a miracle the three puppies survived in the ravine for a week by themselves with little food.”
The volunteers buried the mother dog.
Four of the seven puppies have been pre-adopted.
The Cullman Area Animal Welfare Association holds pet adoptions from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays at Tractor Supply on Highway 31 S, just past K-Mart. Those wishing to adopt an animal, make a donation or find out more about CAAWA can contact them at 636-4627.
