A group of castaway puppies are happy, healthy and well-fed after being stranded on an island in northern Manitoba.
On Sunday night, two men in the community of Cross Lake heard the animals crying. When they took out their binoculars they saw small, dark movements, but chalked it up to the sounds of fighting wolves on one of the islands.
The next morning they heard it again and decided to investigate. After a short boat ride they discovered the cries weren’t coming from wolves, but rather black, Labrador retriever-mix puppies who were scrawny and scared.
“As they got closer, they realized there were seven abandoned, 3 1/2-month old puppies on the island starving to death," said Debra Vandekerkhove with Norway House Animal Rescue.
Afterward, the men along with another rescuer started bringing over food, as well as a dog house to get the puppies to trust them.
"The last thing you want to do is bring them in if they're semi-feral and have them run away on you and they disappear,” said Vandekerkhove.
On Wednesday night the puppies were rescued by boat and are now staying at a home in Cross lake.
“They were a little bit skittish at first when the volunteers that went up there found them on the island. It did take them a little bit of time to gain their trust, but with food anything is possible with hungry dogs right?-“ said Jessica Boeckler, the adoption coordinator at Norway House Animal Rescue.
The seven puppies have now been named after the characters on “Gilligan’s Island,” a famous 1960s sitcom about a group of people who are shipwrecked.
The puppies will soon be transferred to Winnipeg and put up for adoption.
-With files from The Canadian Press
