A hiker in San Diego was going through a canyon when he came upon a surprising sight: a young dog who had been left all by itself.

After looking around, the guy saw that there were no other pups or dogs. The poor tiny puppy seemed to be just a few days old, and he realized there was no way she would be able to live in the wild on her own without help.

He decided to take her home with him and reached out to the San Diego Humane Society to see if they could come and take her in. They were able to come and take her in.

When the rescuers came to retrieve the small puppy, they immediately saw something strange about her — and swiftly recognized that it was because she wasn’t in fact a dog after all.

While it is difficult to differentiate between a puppy dog and a coyote pup when they are so young, the elongated snout of the coyote is the most distinguishing feature, according to Dariel Walker, communications specialist with the San Diego Humane Society, who spoke to The Dodo. “Our officers have received extensive training in recognizing these differences.”

As you might imagine, the guy had no idea that he’d been sheltering a coyote in his house, and he was extremely taken aback when the officers notified him of his error in judgment.

“He was really taken aback,” Walker recalled. “He was under the impression that he had discovered an abandoned puppy, thus the discovery that the thing was really a wild animal came as a major shock.”

Despite the fact that it’s difficult to tell for certain, it’s likely that the coyote pup’s mother was in the midst of transferring her and her siblings to a new den when she accidentally dropped her or was frightened by a passing car and left her behind.

Of course, the small coyote pup was still too young to be left alone, and as a result, she required rescue in the same way that any other puppy would have.

It’s very lucky that the man found her when he did, or she might not have made it — so even though he had no idea that he was rescuing a coyote, it’s wonderful that he did.

The coyote was taken to the San Diego Humane Society’s veterinarian as soon as the humane officers arrived on the scene. During what must have been a very confused period, they also provided her with some formula, feeding her and providing comfort to her.

We assume the pup was just a few days old and that its eyes had not yet opened when it was killed, according to Walker. We had the pup in our care for little more than 24 hours before it was sent to the Fund for Animals Wildlife Center in Ramona, California. “The pup was in terrific health when we took it in,” says the veterinarian.

The coyote pup is now safe and happy in the care of the Fund for Animals Wildlife Center, which is an associate of the Humane Society of the United States, and is now doing very well, according to the center’s staff. Although it is still too early to tell for certain, her rescuers are optimistic that she will be able to be released back into the wild at some point in the future.

For the time being, she is receiving all of the care she needs, due to the kindness of a stranger who had no idea who she actually was.