Thrown-away puppies find homes

Dogs found abandoned in a Dumpster have all found good homes.

Park maintenance workers Sunday heard whimpering from a Dumpster in Mulberry Acres mobile home park in Fruitland and discovered eight puppies in a Purina dog-food bag.

The approximately 4-day-old lab-mix puppies had been discarded there only hours earlier and were shivering from exposure to the cold. One of the pups was already dead, probably from impact with the steel container, but the others looked healthy.

Jimmy Evitts and another worker brought the dogs to Kelly Wilke, who lives in the park and raises border collies. They buried the puppy that died, and Wilke gave the puppies formula and warmed them up.

"They wouldn't have made it but another couple hours," Wilke said.

Beginning Monday she began calling to find homes for the orphans, whose eyes and ears are still not open.

It didn't take long. Before the day was out she had placed three with workers at the Deer Ridge Animal Hospital, two with Evitts, one with her daughter-in-law and was keeping one for herself.

Evitts said one of the pups he specifically wanted was the runt, the only black one of the litter.

"He's already got a name: Lucky," he said. "Lucky to be alive and lucky we found him."

Wilke said the puppies are even luckier to find good homes.

Wilke, Evitts and the other adoptive parents got help from corporations. Nestle-Purina donated 10 $25 coupons for each of the puppies, and Hartz, the manufacturer of the puppy formula, promised to donate formula and coupons, Wilke said.

As for the person who dropped the bag in the Dumpster, Wilke, Evitts and another person say he was identified and will be charged with abandonment and cruelty.

He was spotted dumping the bag on Sunday by a boy in the neighborhood. He was disposing of the puppies for his sister, who "didn't want mutts."

Animal control officers with Cape Girardeau County could not be reached to confirm the charges.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245