Puppy love It was partly due to the care provided by these Port Aransas children that 10 puppies have survived after they were discovered in a dumpster where someone had dumped them on a recent day. From left are Lauren Gleason, 13, her brother, Christian, 11, and their sister, Sydnie, 16, and their friend, Trevor Thompson, 11. Police are investigating the possible case of animal cruelty. STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Port Aransas police are investigating the possibility of animal cruelty charges after 10 puppies were found recently in a dumpster.

Rescued unharmed from the dumpster, the mixedbreed pups now are with their mother at the Port Aransas animal shelter.

Benji Tweedy of Port Aransas said he was the one who rescued the pooches – softball-sized little critters believed to be less than two weeks old.

It happened on the evening of Friday, Oct. 7, when Tweedy was working at Beach Lodge, where he is employed as a cook. A co-worker told him that a customer had mentioned hearing what sounded like puppies in the area of a nearby dumpster, Tweedy said.

Tweedy said he walked outside to the dumpster, raised the lid and saw little inside, other than a closed cardboard box.

He jumped inside, opened the box and found 10 fuzzy little puppies staring up at him, he said.

“I was just like, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” Tweedy recalled later. “I just shook my head. I couldn’t believe anyone would actually do this.”

Tweedy carried the box back to the restaurant. He and a bartender, Rick Gleason, agreed to split up the puppies, with Gleason taking four of them home and Tweedy taking six.

The puppies were too young to be weaned from their mother, who was nowhere around, so the Tweedy and Gleason families dedicated themselves to feeding the puppies with bottles. They figured they would care for the pups until they were old enough to adopt out.

Word of Tweedy’s discovery eventually made its way to Connie Beane, president of Animal Friends of Port Aransas, a non-profit group that helps out at the Port Aransas Animal Shelter. Beane contacted Jim Williams, an animal control officer with the Port Aransas Police Department.

After a little investigating, Williams found what he believed to be the puppies’ mother and brought her to the animal shelter on Sunday.

Williams contacted the Gleasons and the Tweedys and persuaded them to bring the puppies to the shelter, too. They did that Sunday. The puppies will be much easier to care for if they’re with their mother, Williams said.

“That was one happy mama dog when she got her puppies back,” Williams said.

The Port Aransas Police Department is conducting an investigation to determine who put the puppies in the dumpster. It’s possible that a charge of animal cruelty will be filed, he said.

No arrests or citations had been made at press time on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 11, according to Darryl Johnson, an investigator with the Port Aransas Police Department. The case still was under investigation, Johnson said.

Williams said he expects to have the mother dog and her puppies adopted out when they are old enough. The mother appears to be a shepherd Labrador retriever mix.

Questions? Comments? Contact Dan Parker at (361) 749- 5131 or dan@portasouthjetty.com.