EVERYONE was cooing and 'aahhing' at Lancaster's Animal Care sanctuary when these seven cuties were brought in.

But manager Val Harwood - who is looking after the border collie cross puppies at her own home - wasn't smiling when she thought about the people who had abandoned them to die in a cardboard box in Happy Mount Park.

Val had to take the six week old pups into her Morecambe home because there was no space at the sanctuary.

She said: "They were very cold and hungry when we got them. I had to try and warm them from the inside by feeding them warm Weetabix. They couldn't eat it quick enough.

"Obviously someone had just took them there and left them to die. I thought the smallest, Pip, was a goner. We had to spend a lot of time with him before he started to come round. Thankfully he's going to be fine."

All the pups were male and Val suspects the owner might have kept the bitches to sell. Val and her daughters have named the seven pups Pip, Little Zap (after an old, battered dog which came into Animal Care recently), Happy, Able Sable, Tipsy, Sleepy and Bug.

Val has been heading down to Forton Services four times a day to try and catch two frightened cats hurled from a car in a serious accident last week.

The cats, Toji and Cufu, were catapulted from a window when their female owner in her 30s crashed into a water filled ditch on Tuesday, November 9. Firefighters managed to cut the woman free with one of her cats and the driver was airlifted to hospital. She is thought to be stable and is recovering in Preston hospital.

"She's in a right state about the cats," said Val, "she's trying to discharge herself from hospital to try and find them. We have traps there and myself and her sister go every day to try and find them. They are Siamese and I've seen one myself very briefly. They must be very frightened and hungry."

Work on the new shelter at Animal Care is continuing - but the charity are still well short of funds to build their much needed isolation unit. You can help the charity and have a good time by attending their Christmas fair at the Church of Ascension in Torrisholme on Sunday, November 28 at 1.30pm.

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