Just in time, a man finds six abandoned pups, which had been dumped in a sealed container.
RUMFORD – Six puppies abandoned Saturday owe their lives to a good Samaritan who heard their whimpers and rescued them, police said.
His curiosity was aroused after reportedly watching someone put a sealed, blue plastic tote basket into the recycling bin behind American Legion Post 24 on Saturday morning, then drive off, said Officer Douglas Maifeld.
Then, when the unidentified man walked up to the recycling bin on Lowell Street, “He heard whining, whimpering sounds coming from inside the bin,” Maifeld said. Maifeld responded at 9:05 a.m. after the man walked into the police station to report the incident.
The lively lot of mixed-breed puppies, estimated to be 6 or 7 weeks old, were taken to the police station first, then later picked up by animal control officer Marsha McKenna and taken to her McKennel’s Animal Adoption Agency on Hall Hill Road in South Rumford.
“They are in good shape,” McKenna said Monday afternoon, “but they would have been in rough shape were they not found so soon. It was a hot, sunny day and the idiot left the cover on. I’ll never ever figure out people. Thank goodness, somebody thought to look and found them.”
Police have a description of the man who abandoned the animals and of his vehicle. Cops are investigating the incident with the intent of filing a cruelty to animals charge, Maifeld said.
“It’s like leaving a baby in a dumpster. They were the cutest little things,” he added.
The addition of six unexpected visitors, however, created a puppy food shortage problem at McKenna’s agency, which is overflowing with puppies.
Two abandoned and pregnant female dogs, who were rescued and taken to the agency, gave birth recently to a total of 16 puppies, she said.
“There’s absolutely no need of it. Those two dogs could have been spayed,” McKenna said.
Besides the six “Tupperware puppies,” so dubbed because of the tote storage basket they were found in, McKenna has been caring for seven shepherd-mix pups born two days after the mother was rescued, and nine other mixed breed pups.
“I’m looking for donations of puppy chow like Purina, Agway or Pedigree. No generic puppy chow food. Puppies have to eat six times a day,” McKenna said.
While she was helping two people with animal adoption paperwork, a Dixfield woman who’d been in earlier to drop her dog off to be washed returned and donated two large bags of puppy chow.
The shepherd pups are 2 weeks old. The others, hound-mix puppies, are 7 weeks old. Seven of them have been adopted and “will be going out to good homes,” she added.
McKenna hopes to get an appointment next week with a local veterinarian to get the Tupperware puppies neutered and their shots completed before putting them up for adoption.
For more information, people can contact McKenna at 364-7176.
tkarkos@sunjournal.com
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