When volunteer Donna Lochmann received a call about a distressed dog in the basement of an abandoned house, she knew she had to check it out immediately.
What she didn’t know was that there was an entire small family waiting for someone to help them.
“As soon as we got out of the car, we could hear several babies crying,” said Donna, head of rescue at Stray Rescue of St. Louis.
Donna followed the whimpers to the basement and found three scared puppies, about 6 weeks old, howling to be noticed.
At the same time, Donna could hear her mother barking from another part of the house. After picking up the pups and taking them to her jeep, she set a trap for their mother. Instead of investigating the trap, however, the frightened dog fled.
“We never want to leave mom behind,” Donna said. “So I went back a few more times hoping she was still in that area.”
On her first two trips home, the caretaker had no luck finding the dog. Then, on her third visit, she heard a familiar bark coming from the first floor of the house.
As Donna climbed the stairs from the basement to the first floor, she heard a small yelp and looked down to find a fourth tiny puppy at her feet.
“I couldn’t believe it. We looked everywhere the day we were there for the original cubs and didn’t see anywhere else.”
Donna wasn’t sure how the puppies were getting into the basement until she reached the landing at the top of the stairs. There, she found a large hole in the floorboards, through which the puppies appeared to be falling.
When she got to the first floor, Donna found 4 more puppies!
“In total, there were a total of eight cubs, including the three we found on the first day,” she said.
Donna brought all the puppies into her jeep and made sure they were safe before heading back to look for their mother. This time, she set a trap inside the house and waited for her mother to check.
A little later, the caretaker returned to check on the mother dog and found her trapped in the trap.
“That day, we took eight puppies and their mothers off the streets”, he celebrated.
Donna brought the mother dog, whom she named Windy Day, and her puppies to the shelter for care.
The first three puppies went to a dog shelter, and the remaining five found foster homes shortly after arriving at the shelter. Their mother, Windy Day, is still waiting for a family to pick her up and love her.
“I hope someone takes her soon,” Donna said. “She is super sweet.”
Stray Rescue of St. Louis posted Windy Day on their website in hopes of finding her a loving home. Until then, shelter staff are soaking up all of their time with the affectionate mother dog and are grateful that she is never alone and afraid again.