A man was shocked when he found something unexpected on his morning walk to work in Alabama.
He passed by a wooded spot and noticed a box in the underbrush, and within that box were 6 small, helpless puppies.
The puppies were in awful condition, and the man knew they had been abandoned there and left to die.
He could tell that they may not survive much longer, so he hurried them to a Sylacauga shelter.
The puppies were truly in a deplorable state.
They were covered in scabies, and they’d scratched everything to the point that they had developed open wounds everywhere.
There was almost no fur on them and they were frozen from the cold outdoors.
They weighed in at only five pounds and were extremely skinny and malnourished.
At the Auburn Veterinary College, the staff did their best to help the puppies recover from their ordeal.
They bathed them and began to give them the care they needed, but the little dogs also smelled so bad that the staff couldn’t handle them without wearing masks!
Eventually, foster homes were able to take the puppies in as they recovered.
But the poor little tykes were still weak and had a long way to go before they would be truly in the clear.
That’s likely why shelter staff and volunteers call the foster families that took the dogs in “angels” – the little guys required a lot of care and help.
They had to be given medicated baths, receive healthy and balanced meals, and be slowly taught to trust and love the people around them.
All that TLC began to pay off! Before long, the little puppies were growing and getting healthier.
In the process, staff began to get curious about what breeds these puppies were.
Because of their tiny size, most thought they have been cocker spaniels, or perhaps even poodles.
But as their fur grew back in, it appeared coarse and long, and very fluffy – nothing like these breeds they had been guessing!
Then the once tiny puppies grew more and more.
Before long, they were getting pretty large.
Luckily, that didn’t deter potential adopters – all the puppies soon found their forever homes!
But they didn’t stop growing, so the mission to find out their breed lived on through the new families.
Eventually, one of the dog’s families decided it was time to perform a canine DNA test.
Then they got the results back, and boy were the initial guesses of shelter staff very, very wrong!
Far from being tiny pups, these little ones were actually Great Pyrenees dogs – a giant dog breed that can grow up to 120 pounds, and that often costs thousands of dollars to buy from a breeder!
These dogs are now very large, and many of their new owners have taken pictures of them that shows just how much they’ve come since being tiny 5-pound critters.
Their forever families wouldn’t have it any other way, though!
The pups sure have come a long way, and we’re glad that they’re happy and healthy at last.