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Newborn Puppies Trapped Under Salinas School Classroom Rescued

SALINAS (CBS SF) – Three newborn puppies have been rescued after their cries caught the attention of students inside a portable classroom at a Salinas school, according to the SPCA for Monterey County.

Officials said they received a call from Gavilan View Middle School earlier this week, reporting that students and teachers had heard the cries of the puppies for a couple days.

A teacher and custodian managed to dig under the classroom and find the tiny puppies and pull them to safety.

The three puppies – nicknamed Gilligan, Skipper, and Mary Ann -- were immediately wrapped in towels to warm the up. They were just two weeks old and were dehydrated and very cold.

Unfortunately, two other puppies were found deceased.

The SPCA came and picked up the puppies and took them to a shelter where they were bottled fed and kept warm.

The story took another twist a short time later, when the SPCA officials discovered a lactating adult female dog had been trapped at the school and sent to a different shelter five days before the puppies' rescue.

The Friday the mother was trapped, February 17, was also the same day the major storm hit our community.

The SPCA picked her up the next morning to see if she could be the puppies' mother.

If so, SPCA staff wondered how puppies just two weeks old could have possibly survived five days, in storm conditions, without her. The mother dog immediately and lovingly took the puppies into her care without hesitation and began nursing them.

To help pets like Gilligan, Skipper, and Mary Ann, please donate: www.SPCAmc.org/donate.

Anyone with information about these puppies or the adult female dog found in the area of Gavilan View Middle School was urged to contact 831-373-2631. The puppies will be raised in a foster home until they are ready to be adopted in approximately two months.

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