Puppies rescued after being stranded for days on cliff

MISSION — Two St. Bernard-cross puppies rescued Sunday after being stranded for days on a cliff east of Vancouver are “bouncy” and “adorable,” said a British Columbia SPCA official.

Krista Shaw, the interim manager of the SPCA shelter in Maple Ridge, said the pups snuggled right in after spending about four days stranded on the cliffside.

“I think they were very happy to have been inside last night,” she said of the 16-week-old female puppies now named Duchess and Francine.

“Originally, it was Duchess and King, and then we realized King was actually a female. So, Francine.”

The puppies were picked up Sunday by members of Mission Search and Rescue, who stepped in after learning that a group of civilians intended to try to reach the dogs on the steep terrain in a rural part of Mission.

Area resident Emma Wilfert sparked the search after hearing the pups howling for several days in the bush behind her home.

Searchers were uncertain of what they would find as they approached the cliff but say the enthusiastic puppies literally rolled into their outstretched jackets and curled up while they were carried to safety.

Veterinarian Adrian Walton examined the hungry pair at the staging area as they were brought in and declared them in good shape despite their ordeal. He also noted the dogs’ nails had been trimmed suggesting recent human care.

“The puppies are fine, a little underweight, but otherwise doing OK,” he said in a Facebook post.

“They’re technically wolves and they can go a prolonged period of time without food, that’s actually a normal component for them as their parents are hunting, so they are OK to go that long, but they were on the thin side,” Walton said in an interview.

During the four days she heard the puppy’s cries, Wilfert said efforts had been made to find the owner, but without success.

“We’ve looked on a lot of the missing pets pages and nobody seems to have reported them,” she said.

Duchess and Francine will remain at the Maple Ridge SPCA shelter until a four-day stray hold expires, Shaw said.

If the owner comes forward questions could be asked about how the dogs ended up on the cliff face, but if the pups are not claimed, Shaw said they would be treated as abandoned and put up for adoption.

An extra-comfy kennel is the interim home for the puppies over the next several days said Shaw, calling it the “royal puppy suite.”

Walton, meanwhile, said all the credit should go to the team that carried the puppies to safety, offering a thank you to Mission Search and Rescue for plucking the pups from cliff.