She had to act fast.
Published on July 9, 2026 at 2:29 PM
This past February, rescuers at Fur Fun Rescue picked up the phone and received heartbreaking news. The caller told them he’d seen a stray mama dog and her puppies cowering under a trailer in Gilman City, Missouri. The small city had no animal control, and so the dogs were forced to live out the cold winter months on their own, facing increasingly aggressive responses from community members who wanted them gone.
Luckily, the pups didn’t have to live in fear anymore — the Fur Fun Rescue team was ready to help.
Volunteer Stacy Whitt was the first to arrive on the scene, and she quickly found two of the puppies alone in the middle of the country highway. The pups ran from Whitt, and the rescuer followed them all the way back to where their mom and siblings were hiding.
With help from animal control officer Kurtis Cox, Whitt eventually managed to catch all of the nervous dogs.
“Mama was very protective of her puppies,” Fur Fun Rescue president Roxanne Hoover told The Dodo. “It took her a bit to realize we were there to help and not harm.”
Rescuers named the mama dog Frankie. They were pleased to find that Frankie and her puppies were in good condition, despite the months spent living outside.
Fur Fun Rescue team members ensured that Frankie and all her puppies were vaccinated and spayed or neutered. Today, every member of this fuzzy family has found their own forever home.
According to Hoover, stray pups like these often fall through the cracks in small communities, not for lack of care, but because there aren’t enough resources to help them. This is why small, meaningful steps like providing temporary shelter, posting on local lost-and-found pages, checking for microchips, contacting nearby rescues or fostering pets can make a huge difference.
Certainly, for these pups, one call changed everything.
“Rescue doesn’t always look like opening a shelter door,” Hoover said. “Sometimes it looks like a neighbor stopping to help a dog on the side of the road, someone offering a spare room for a few weeks, or a community coming together to share a post until the right home is found.”
To help other animals like these dogs, you can donate to Fur Fun Rescue.