After-hours search and rescue operations are not something that Jessie Tussing often participates in. But when the foster and rescue coordinator for the Heartland Humane Society received a call one Friday evening about a group of puppies that had been abandoned under a barn, she jumped in the car and headed to the out-of-the-way location immediately.
After arriving at the location with her two teenage daughters, Tussing used a flashlight to guide the way through the old building while looking for the puppies. She peeked in every crack while doing so. Tussing took out one of the planks in the barn after obtaining permission from the property owner. Tussing’s search was finally successful, and she could find the pups she had been hunting for. But when she brought the animals into the dwindling daylight, Tussing couldn’t help but notice that these pups looked… different.
I was running through my brain trying to remember what breed of the puppy had that coloring.” “It took me a few seconds before I fully understood what I was looking at,” she said.
The females were tussling, and they were aware that something was wrong. When one of Tussing’s children saw the newborns, she immediately turned to Google in an effort to learn more about the mysterious creatures. Everyone understood what was going on in due time.
“She just started running down the list of species that she knew lived in the area,” said Tussing. “After foxes and raccoons were ruled out, she looked up coyote pups and went, ‘Oh my God, Mom!'”
The three individuals had not come upon a family of young puppies, but rather a family of young coyotes.
Tussing decided it would be best to leave the tiny family where she’d discovered them after consulting with an expert wildlife rehabber and checking the local wildlife center’s stance on coyotes. Tussing had found the family of coyotes in their natural habitat. The animal advocate had seen that both of their tummies were stuffed, which suggested that their mother must have fed them not too long ago. It is possible that the mother coyote was waiting nearby, looking forward to seeing her young again.
“I told my girls, ‘We have to put them back,'” said Tussing. “We have to put them back.” “‘These are not pets.'” / “These are not pets./”
Fortunately, the homeowner was very understanding when he found out about the mix-up, and he agreed that the coyote family should stay away from the barn while they searched for a new place to call home.
Tussing is relieved that everything has been put back in order, and she has high hopes that the tiny family will survive in the wild, where they belong, despite the fact that the rescue turned out to be more unusual than she had ever anticipated.