An angry person saw a litter of puppies stuck in a storm drain and didn’t know what to do but call the fire department for help.
Thank goodness dedicated firemen are used to calls like this and are always ready to help. They ran to help the dogs in the hopes that they could be saved.
Within a couple of minutes, the Colorado Springs Fire Department was able to safely save what they thought were eight black pups.
Imagine how shocked they were when they found out that these puppies were actually red fox cubs!
Captain Brian Vaughan, of the Unexpected Surprise Fire Department, told Inside Edition that the police thought they were “newborn black Labrador Retriever puppies and were actually worried about this case of dog dumping.”
They looked all over the area for the mum, but she wasn’t to be found.
The firefighters had to get the eight small animals out of the storm drain and decide to take them to the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region for care.
That’s where everyone learned that the “puppies” they had saved were actually red fox cubs.
Fire Captain Vaughn said, “They took them to the shelter, and one of the vets there said, ‘No, these aren’t Labradors, these are foxes.'” “The firefighter was shocked.”
The eight puppies were really eight fox cubs with dark red fur.
“Foxes are actually very common in that area,” the vet said, “because the neighbourhood where they found the babies is in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.”
The firemen were shocked to the core. They had no idea that the puppies might not really be puppies after all.
Firefighters in pulled what they thought were puppies out of a storm drain, but it turned out to be red foxes!
Travis Sauder, who works as the Wildlife Manager for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife District, wasn’t interested in all of this.
“A lot of animals are starting to have their young at this time of year,” he told CBS News. “They have them in small dens that we can find.”
Taking Care Of The Fox Kittens
When the authorities found out that the animals were actually young red foxes, they took them back to the storm drain in the hopes that the mother was still nearby.
The animal clinic says it’s sad that the mother did not come back to get her babies.
They were then taken to The Animal Clinic of Woodland Park in Colorado to be treated and cared for.
It’s true that eight red fox kits were found in Colorado Springs and taken to our great rehabber to be raised. “Terri can’t sleep because she feeds them for hours on end, but so far, so good,” the centre wrote on Facebook.
They were all put back into the wild when they were big enough and strong enough to do it on their own.