Animal services arrives to help sick “dog”–but it’s not what they expect!

In July, the City of Folsom Animal Services in California received a call to retrieve a sick, elderly-looking dog that was curled up on a family’s porch. But when they arrived at the house, they were in for a surprise!

Video: Animal Shelter Gets Surprise Donation

While the pitiful creature turned out to be a pup, it wasn’t of the canine kind–it was a coyote!

The 4-month-old pup was suffering from mange and malnutrition. Since she was in desperate need of help, Animal Services called in the experts, and the young coyote was taken to the Gold Country Wildlife Rescue.

There, they started to rehabilitate the sickly youngster back to health. She was dubbed with the nickname “Princess,” although she was not treated like a domesticated pet. From the beginning, the goal was to send this girl back out into the wild once she had recovered.

Watch the news story here:

The pup began to grow stronger, but the Gold Country Wildlife Rescue had no other coyotes for her to socialize with. So when she was well enough, she was transferred to the Sierra Wildlife Rescue. There, she was able to play with two other young pups as she finished her rehabilitation.

The three bonded, learning to play, eat, and live together.

On September 10th, about two months after Princess was rescued, all three pups were finally ready for their big day: they were released back into the wild!

“I have to tell you, those release days…I tear up just thinking about it,” Sallysue Stein with the Gold County Animal Rescue told ABC 10 (clip above).”We send them back. We don’t know what’s going to happen to them. But we’ve given them a second chance.”

These may not be the same “pups” we love to live with at home, but as animal lovers, we wish these coyotes the best! Thanks to everyone involved with this rescue and rehabilitation, and for giving these beautiful animals a second chance!

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