On the night of the 23rd day of December, almost everyone are all set and ready to spend the holiday weekend with their families and loved ones, but not Tessa Lee as she was still on duty, ready and willing to help on behalf of Whitecourt Homeless Animal Rescue Foundation (WHARF) located in the city of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada.
“We were alerted about 5 puppies that were in distress in one private property that’s about 45 minutes outside of west Edmonton. They were all severely dehydrated and emaciated,” said Lee.
Immediately, Lee hurried to the reported location and was allowed entry into the property that was close to Alberta Beach. Although there were other animals on site, Lee was only permitted to bring with her the 5 puppies that were covered with ice because of the very cold weather.
Even without a clue whether the puppies would survive the night or not, Lee picked them up and drove them to her home. She knew that she can’t waste time and needed to act fast in order to save their lives.
“I assessed the puppies’ hydration levels, placed them on individual heat packs and administered fluids via IV,” said Lee. “In order to boost their glucose levels, we gave maple syrup, that’s all we’ve got, and gradually started giving recovery wet dog food on a 2-hour interval with the use of feeding syringes.”
While it is clear that Lee would be spending Christmas trying to revive the puppies, her family was not bothered at all. For volunteers and rescue workers like Lee and their families, work never stops even on holidays.
“Our families have come to expect some special animal guests that will be joining us for our Christmas dinner, whether it’s a litter of puppies or kittens or even a ‘bottle baby’ lamb,” explained Lee. “Definitely, our phones are always on and never off during the Christmas season.”
Photo Credits to Tessa Lee via The Dodo
Twenty four hours later, on Christmas Eve, the puppies seemed to have coped except for one. The sweet little darling, named Ruby, was in a crucial state and needed closed monitoring. She wrote on the WHARF’s Facebook page:
What Lee hoped for was for a miracle to happen, and on Christmas morning, that’s what happened. She updated WHARF’s FB page with Ruby’s improvement.
A lot of individuals and families has since expressed their desire of either fostering or adopting Ruby and her other 4 puppy siblings and as soon as they are all healthy enough, spayed and neutered, all 5 pups will be up for adoption by February.
