This past October, Fresno Humane Animal Services animal control officer Priscilla Wolcott got a call about four dogs abandoned at an orchard who needed her help. The caller, a worker at the orchard, reported that there were four pups in total: one mama and three puppies.
The orchard was far away from the Fresno Humane Animal Services facility, so Wolcott wasn’t able to get there for two days. In the meantime, the orchard workers took time out of their busy days to care for the dogs.
Priscilla Wolcott
“There’s no one living out there,” Wolcott told The Dodo. “So [the dogs] were relying on these workers that were kind enough to feed them and water them.”
When Wolcott arrived, she was expecting to see just the mama and three babies the caller had described. But after she spotted the first four dogs, she noticed another mom — with her very own litter of newborn puppies. In addition to the two mamas and their babies, she spotted yet another adult dog, which meant there were actually 13 dogs in total.
The workers at the orchard explained that when they’d placed the initial call, the other two adult pups had been buried too deep in the trees to be spotted. At some point in the two days between the worker’s call and Wolcott’s arrival, one of the dogs had given birth.
As Wolcott was still processing the sheer number of animals at the orchard, she was pulled out of her stupor by the dogs running up to her. Despite everything they’d been through, they were super friendly and trusting. They all wagged their tails at her and licked her hands.
Priscilla Wolcott
“It was a shock, definitely,” Wolcott said. “But it was a really nice shock because they were so sweet.”
Although Wolcott hadn’t been prepared to transfer so many dogs back to the rescue facility, she figured out a way to fit them all in her truck by putting one of them in the back seat.
“We don’t typically put the animals in our back seats, for safety reasons and all that,” Wolcott said. “But I was like, ‘I’m not gonna leave one of them out here. We’re gonna make it work either way.’”
Thankfully, all 13 dogs were in good health. The two mamas and their babies were transferred to Ruff Day Rescue, where the puppies got to grow up until they were ready to be adopted. Once they were old enough, unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for all of them to find forever families.
Ruff Day Rescue
The third adult dog, whom the Fresno Humane Animal Services staff named Hope, stayed at the facility until she was adopted. Wolcott is grateful that she got to turn a surprising rescue into a happy ending for three adult dogs and 10 babies.
Ruff Day Rescue
“Seeing them so happy living their best lives, loving their families and being loved by their families — it’s just a big reminder to me on why I do this,” Wolcott said.
