A Mum and Eight Puppies Rescued from a Drain in Mahébourg

On a busy pavement in Mahébourg, a stray mum had been raising her newborn puppies in the only shelter she could find: a drain under the pavement, right beside the parked cars. No bed and nowhere clean, just dirty cement and people walking past a little family everyone tolerated but nobody really saw.

A member of the public shared their photo on social media, asking for someone to help. The Organisation for the Wellbeing of Strays agreed to take the family in, but they had no way of getting them to the shelter. So on Friday 25 September, we stepped in.

Two of our team, Aurelie and Phil, went to fetch them, with Sean bringing the cage and his truck. It was not an easy job. The puppies were tucked away inside the drain, and it took about three hours of patience before all nine were safe: mum and eight tiny puppies.

We were lucky with the weather. Thankfully there had been no heavy rain, because a downpour could easily have flooded the drain and washed the puppies out.

Aurelie took the whole family home for the night, and the next day they were handed over to the shelter, where mum now has a clean bed to nurse her babies on.

A big thank you to Aurelie, Phil and Sean for giving their afternoon, their patience and their love to get this family off the street, to the person who spoke up for them, and to the Organisation for the Wellbeing of Strays for taking all nine of them in. Rescues like this happen because people refuse to look away.