[MUST READ] Courageous rescue after boys discover puppies in drain on their way to school
What they did would break your heart.
Three learners from Lewisham Primary School walked past a storm-water pipe on their way to school and noticed that a dog and her puppies were living inside.
They walk the same route every day, and on Monday, 14 August, they noticed the puppies emerging from the pipe. The lads tried to catch the puppies, but because of their protective mother wanting to bite them, they decided to inform Friends of Rescued Animals (Fora) which is located on the route they walk to school.
Photo: Facebook
The boys said they were afraid the dogs might be in danger as a busy road runs over the pipe.
In a post on Facebook, Linda Scrace, a member of Fora, described the incident as follows, “The pipe did in fact run under a busy road and it was half filled with soil, plastic, and broken bottles.”
Read more: Watch: Muldersdrift community helps rescue nyala
She said once Coreen Clark had made it to the site, she noticed the far end of the pipe was blocked with a bar. There was only a small space that perhaps a pup could fit through, but they knew that a mother couldn’t.
Photo: Facebook
“We needed ‘stuff’. A very kind gentleman named Wayne Vaudin, who works for Instrumech Engineering, stopped and asked if he could bring us anything.”
They asked for some equipment and soon he returned with a headlamp and a spade.
Linda made a trip back to Fora to grab their drain ‘worm’, cable ties and some other equipment that would help them free the mother and puppies.
“We set up the drain worm to push through from the semi-blocked end to try get mom and pups closer to the working end of the pipe. We started to dig out soil and rubbish from our end.”
She said it was quite a challenge to get enough soil out of the way and it took nearly six men to dig up enough to free the puppies.
Finally the hole was open enough for a grown man to crawl into the drain and grab a puppy.
Photo: Facebook
“One by one the puppies were passed back to the open side of the pipe. By 4pm the man had hold of squawking pup number four, with mom snapping inches from his face.
“‘Pull, pull, pull!’ everyone yelled as they tried to get the man out of the hole and away from the bewildered mom.”
Half an hour later, they managed to get the last puppy out. Sadly, despite trying really hard and carefully to snag the mom with the catch-pole in the pipe, he just couldn’t get her.
“It was a bitter-sweet moment when we had to leave without her. We headed back to Fora, to bath and feed the pups.”
Even though the team was battered, none of them could rest that night knowing the mother was still trapped.
Photo: Facebook
The next morning, Linda called Cora Bailey, founder of Community Led Animal Welfare (Claw) to borrow her trap.
Cora met her at the pipe and in a joint effort they managed to get the mom out.
“My guys had a bit more digging to do to fit the trap in front of the pipe. Cora set it up and we placed two of the pups in a cage behind the trap. We moved away to wait and all we could do was watch. It didn’t take long for the mother to emerge. In fact, within a few minutes, mom was in the trap. She headed straight for her pups. She is a good mom. She is thin and her pups are chunky and fat. She put her all into ensuring that they’re healthy.”
As soon as she was near her pups, milk started dripping from her teats. Back at Fora she was united with the rest of her pups who were absolutely delighted to see her. At one stage they were all piled on top of her head.
“It just showed us that nothing can beat the love of a mom,” said Linda.
“We realised that her growling and snapping in the pipe was purely in defence of her pups, and from fear and bewilderment, because while deworming her, giving her her vaccinations and applying tick and flea treatment, she was easy to work with and showed no aggression.”
Linda and her team thanked the three boys by buying them a bucket of KFC for their concern, help and caring nature.
Fora would also like to thank Wayne Vaudin, who brought them a spade and a head lamp, Cora Bailey for lending her trap, and the Fora team, who dug, pushed, pulled and wormed around in the pipe to free the fur babies.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at krugersdorpnews@caxton.co.za or phone us on 011 955 1130.
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