Usually, Jessie Tussing doesn’t embark on after-hours missions of rescuing. But when she got a call on Friday evening about a group of puppies abandoned under a barn the foster and rescue coordinator of Heartland Humane Society jumped in the car and headed to the remote location.
She arrived there with her two teenage daughters with a flashlight. Tussing used the flashlight to guide the way through the dark. With the home owner’s permission, she removed one of the barn’s floorboards. Finally, she spotted the puppies she had been looking for this time.
But whenever she brought them into the waning daylight Tussing noticed that these pups are kind of… different from dog pups.
She was running through her brain to remember which breed of puppies has this colour. It took her a minute to realize what she was looking at.
One of Tussing’s daughters Googled to figure out what these babies might actually be. She started running down the list of species that she knew lived there. After foxes and racoons were ruled out, she searched for coyote pups. Bingo! They were the coyote pups!
She then went through many people to ask what she would do next. Finally, after a long conversation with a wildlife rehabber and confirming the wildlife policies about the coyotes, Tussing decided that it would be best to leave the family where he had found them.
They noticed that the pups’ bellies were full and they were sleepy. That indicates their mother must have fed them recently. She might be waiting for her babies to reunite.
As they were not pets, they put them back on where they were. Luckily, the homeowner understood the situation and agreed to avoid the barn until the family move to a new home.
Though the rescue turned out differently than she expected, Tussing was glad to clear everything out. Hopefully, the little family will thrive in the wild.
