RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. (CNS) - The Helen Woodward Animal Center will put a group of orphaned puppies who participated in the organization's Thanksgiving Day Puppy Run up for adoption Friday.
The shelter took the Shar-Pei-shepard blend puppies in from a partnered organization in Palm Springs in October. The mother of the then-newborn puppies had been hit by a car and killed, and the group needed round-the-clock care to survive without their mother. The Helen Woodward Animal Center subsequently secured foster homes for the puppies and began highlighting them on the shelter's Instagram page.
The litter, now known as the "W Puppies" because their names all start with W, became some of the most popular animals on the shelter's social media network in the six weeks since the shelter took them in.
"We are getting an incredible number of calls for these puppies," said Dora Dahlke, the shelter's assistant manager for customer service. "We haven't seen an excitement like this in a long time. I think that our followers have been watching them grow up and have been rooting them on since things looked really dire. It's definitely a celebration for us all."
The shelter will officially put the puppies up for adoption at 11 a.m. Friday. All nine puppies in the litter have received regular check-ups and been spayed and neutered. Residents interested in members of the litter can download an adoption application at animalcenter.org and visit the puppies at the shelter at 6461 El Apajo in Rancho Santa Fe until 5:15 p.m.
