A man was walking his dog around Gary, Indiana, when he stumbled upon something that made him stop in his tracks. On a pile of discarded mattresses, he saw something moving.
When he got closer, he realized what he was looking at — a litter of six abandoned puppies left to fend for themselves with no mama in sight.
As soon as he figured out what was going on, he called Silverstray Social, an organization that both rescues animals as well as provides support for pet families. It was the Friday evening before Memorial Day, and the Silverstray Social team wasn’t expecting any more rescue calls. But as soon as they got word of the puppies who needed help, they sprang into action.
While Layce, a volunteer from Silverstray Social, was on her way, the man who’d found the puppies placed them in a makeshift kennel. As soon as Layce arrived, she could see that the puppies were extremely emaciated — they were starving. Based on their size, the rescuers assumed they couldn’t have been more than 2 months old.
Once the puppies’ rescuers had a chance to fully assess them, they were in for a huge surprise about how old they actually were.
“What everybody thought [were] 6- to 8-week-old puppies ended up being 6-month-old puppies … That’s how malnourished they were,” Kelly Carey, founder of Silverstray Social, told The Dodo.
Carey called around to different partner organizations she works with to see who would be able to take the babies. A local foster organization called Guardians of the Green Mile agreed to take them. Before they were transferred there, the puppies had an overnight stay at a volunteer’s home.
In the days since they were found on the pile of mattresses, the puppies have already started gaining weight. They have a light in their eyes they didn’t have less than a week ago.
While what happened to the puppies is horrific, Carey emphasized that Silverstray Social as an organization chooses to focus on equipping the community with the resources necessary to make sure this kind of situation isn’t repeated rather than judging the individual circumstance.
Silverstray Social provides many important services for pet families, including free spays and neuters, free vaccines and microchipping, as well as free TNR for stray cats and dogs. They also partner with local organizations that provide resources for people who are experiencing homelessness, food insecurity and more — they understand that the issues pets face and the issues humans face are inextricably linked.
“If the people were better supported in the community … that might not [have happened],” Carey said.
Fortunately for these puppies, help arrived just in time.
“They’re hanging out in the rescue and doing well,” Carey said.
