Abandoned puppies left in box ate paper while waiting to be rescued

Two abandoned puppies were forced to survive off paper and rocks after they were left to fend for themselves inside a cardboard box, a Texas resident has revealed.

Toni Taylor was in Cleveland Texas when she stopped by her local post office and came across the unusual container tipped on its side.

Written on the top of the box was the message “FREE PUPPY”, prompting the Good Samaritan to check the vicinity for signs of any dogs.

Low and behold, hidden under some metallic mailboxes were two German shepherd-mix pups sleeping soundly.

“These two GSD-mix puppies were abandoned at some [PO] boxes in Cleveland, Texas. There was a box marked ‘FREE’ with them,” Toni Taylor later explained on Facebook.

The caption continued: “They were so hungry that they ate paper and rocks to survive. These beautiful babies need help […]. They’re 14 to 16 weeks old.

“They need a foster, rescue & pledges, Please foster. It’s much easier to get a rescue if there’s a foster,” she pleaded at the end of her post.

Having been left to survive in the scorching heat, the rescuer brought the dogs to the safety of her home where they recovered for two nights.

Though Taylor could only able to keep the dogs for a limited amount of time, she moved heaven and earth to find them foster homes.

Just as hope started dwindling, Taylor and fellow rescuer Zully Vasquez Ventura found the perfect foster home for the dogs, and a Shepherd-specific shelter to look after them.

Ventura eventually explained on Facebook that the pups were taken under the wings of the Saving Shepers Rescue, adding “I will transport [them] to foster [care] tonight”.

The case comes shortly after Zully Vasquez Ventura made headlines for rescuing another dog from the side of the road, which led her to six of her puppies at an abandoned house.

Ventura documented her rescue efforts in a TikTok clip that went viral with nearly one million likes, showing the dog – later named Nala – lead her rescuer to the derelict property.

At the end of the clip, Ventura was visibly baffled as she discovered six of Nala’s puppies waiting to be saved.

Three of the puppies were later welcomed into their forever homes, while the others remained at a rescue center in Houston with their mother, waiting to be adopted.