One doesn't have to be an animal lover to empathize with other species. All it takes is a common understanding of others' pain. The ability to know the right time to act upon a certain thing is what mankind needs today.
Suppose you are doing what you've planned. And all of a sudden something distracts you to an extent that you not only fail to go ahead with the plan but also turns the plan upside down. A group of people was busy in their own work when they heard noises from a nearby dumpster. At that moment they left everything aside and did the right thing. But their good deed is just the beginning of the story. What was hiding inside the trash is the breathtaking part.
It was pre-decided to clean up the neighborhood area that day. The people of that locality used to conduct one such cleanup program once a week. Previously they never needed to do anything as the entire area always remained neat and clean. However, from the past few months, they started noticing that their surroundings were quickly turning into a dumping zone. Obviously, no one would like to live in an unhygienic environment and that's how the people came up with the idea of weekly cleaning.
Concerned people gave their names to volunteer for the cleaning up process and within a month the situation started to look better. After noticing the improvement they decided to make it a monthly thing instead of weekly. So, it was one such weekly clean-up day and this time Craig McGettrick decided to help but who knew he will be embarking on a confusing journey that will lead to a surprising discovery.
So, Craig wore his gloves and took a huge bag and a shovel to clean up all the mess that has been all around. Everyone was assigned different areas to deal with. He started with the roadside trash and then reached to the backside lane of his own house. Looking at the area that he was assigned, Craig assumed it was going to be a long and tiring day.
Craig pulled back his sleeves and started by picking up the broken pieces of glass, wood, and useless cardboard. He was working with a lot of energy and thought he'll finish the assigned job within an hour or two and then help his friends with their areas as well. Little did he know by then that he won't be able to finish his own work.
He was separating garbage from a pile of discarded rubbish. He was supposed to bring everything to a nearby pickup location from where the other assigned team member will take it further. He started with small pieces and left the huge ones for later half. At last, it was time to pick up the biggest useless piece lying there; an old torn mattress.
This big size mattress was giving Craig a hard time. As he tried to pull it, he realized there was a something inside this mattress that was making a weird sound. He left what he was doing to look inside it. After following the noise, he noticed teeny tiny black puppies, wrapped around each other inside the torn mattress. His mind was filled with so many thoughts but not even once did he think that these weren't puppies.
Craig immediately called for help. His friend was working in the lane right next to his, helped him in getting out the babies. They were small enough that they were not even opening their eyes. Seeing at their condition,there were only two things going on Craig's mind...
Craig was thinking if someone abandoned these pups in the mattress knowing that it was the cleanup day and someone would eventually find and give them proper care. Or there was another possibility that these pups were born to a stray female dog who left them and moved on. Whatever must be the reason behind it, he just couldn't leave the puppies behind. Craig was left with only one option.
Craig took the babies and asked his friends to cover up his part of the work as well. Then he called Beccie, his friend and before taking them to the vet they found a fine cardboard box and covered its bottom with a soft blanket. But the blanket won't be enough as the pups were shivering.
In order to keep the pups warm, Beccie brought a hot water bottle so that the just borns' condition didn't deteriorate on the way to the vet. At the vet's clinic, they waited for their number to be called and tried all that they could to keep the babes warm. Finally, when they took the babies for a checkup, things started to turn weird.
Luckily, the vet took the pups to someone who was also a member of an animal rescue center. He told them that their eyes were still closed which meant they won't be able to survive on their own. The pups will be taken cared for properly until they find forever homes. They needed special observation, also, there was a requirement to feed them every few hours. A lot has to be done to save their lives.
As these babies didn't have motherly care, chances of their survival seemed thin. Yet, the vet did everything to save their lives. He fed them the puppy replacement milk at least 5 to 6 times a day to grow healthy.
Craig and Beccie already gave the responsibility of the adorable pups to the volunteers at the Liverpool animal center. Before giving them away, Craig and Beccie clicked a few photos of these little creatures which they later posted on social media. They wanted to know if anyone knew anything about their mother or the person who dumped them or if there was something they have been missing on.
Craig's intention was to know about the cruel person but people's comment on these pup's photos were strange. Neither they were interested in adopting the pups nor they had any information about them... That was the moment when Craig started to doubt the whole thought about these pups.
When one of the Facebook users looked at the images closely, she doubted if they were dog babies. She looked at the nose, tail, eyes and finally commented that these were not babies of any dog. According to her, that's not how a dog pup is supposed to look like.
What started with one comment resulted in thousands of other comments. People grew curious to know what species they were. Everyone was making assumptions but no one was certain about it. So, what exactly were these?
One of the Facebook users said, their nose was longer than usual pups, and that they looked like baby raccoons instead of puppies. It looked like the users were ready to believe that they can be anything but not puppies.
Another Facebook user went on to say that puppies don't have such pointed tails. This person further added that these are a wild rodent. These curious people were only giving assumptions on the basis of the picture in which they cannot be sure of the size. Now, Craig too wanted to know to what extent this fuss was true.
Instead of finding a home for the little fur babies they were now going round and round with these comments. The whole idea of posting the photos seemed to take a different motive now. Out of all the confusing comments, one direct message was different. This could be the big breakthrough they have been looking for.
A person sent them a direct message that seemed to fit well. This message was sent by the welfare authority which meant that what they said was valid enough. After reading the complete message Craig understood that he has to bring these babies from the animal rescue center. He was supposed to take these babies right back where he found them.
Craig and Beccie immediately got in their car and headed to the rescue center to pick up the so-called puppies. They realized that unknowingly they have done a big mistake. They should've never picked up those babies but now they had just one option left.
It was the founder of The National Fox Welfare Authority, Martin Hemmington, who had contacted Beccie and Craig via Facebook and informed her these were not puppies but fox babies. He told them to keep the babies at the same place and wait for their mother to return and feed them. However, there was only one issue with that.
The pile of garbage and the mattress were already removed from that place. This meant there was no place where the mother fox would return to as her den was already gone. So, they needed experts' advice on this and went on to contact the National Fox Welfare Authority. These experts were happy to help them.
He had his own piece of advice to give to them. "Fox cubs don't initially look like foxes when they are cubs, so it's common for people to mistake them for dog puppies," said Paul McDonald, popularly known as The Fox Man. he further added, "they are brown in color as opposed to the red, ginger color of adults."
"Vixens leave their cubs all the time whilst they are in the den, and as they get older they'll begin to explore their surroundings more and more, and become less dependent on mum as they get older," told McDonald. Now they had a huge responsibility to find the newborns' mother.
It was a really long day, and five tiny canines were hungry and a team was looking for their mother in the nearby areas. Meanwhile, McDonald came up with a great idea to reunite the mother fox with her babies.
"I didn't give the cubs any milk in order for them to be hungry so they'd cry out and call for their mum, which they did," explained McDonald. His trick was going to work or not, only time will tell. He added, "I put them around the same place they were found, as I knew the mum would be looking for them, and she'd be checking the place she last had them."
At 4 o’clock, McDonald kept the babies inside a cardboard box that already had a warm water bottle inside it to keep the babies warm. Everyone kept waiting for their mother to appear. As time passed, they were also getting worried if the babies will be able to live without milk for that long...
After a couple of hours, a mother fox appeared slowly. She was checking everything nearby and cautiously taking each step towards her babies. She peeped inside the cardboard box and picked one of the babies by its neck and walked away. She didn't return for a while.
"I believe once she'd picked the first one up and knew the others were safe in the box, she waited until it got dark to get the rest as she must not have felt safe moving the cubs in daylight," told McDonald. She was waiting for it to get dark and returned around 7 pm. One by one, she took all the babies with her.
"Paul texted me a photo of the empty box," Hemmington mentioned on Facebook. "All through this, I was letting Beccie and Craig know and everyone was so pleased that the cubs were back where they belonged ... with mum!" They were happy with how it turned out to be.
"It made me feel ecstatic that the cubs went back to their mum, as it would have been a tragedy not only for the cubs not being brought up by their own mother but for the mother to lose her cubs," told McDonald. He later concluded by saying, "This is without a doubt the best kind of rescue in my line of work when nature is allowed to take its own course."
