When most people think of firefighters, they think of brave men and women running into burning houses to save whoever’s inside. Although that’s a big part of what they do, it’s not everything. 

Colorado Springs is a city of nearly 480,000 people in central Colorado. In March 2018, the firefighters were going about their business as usual—sweeping, mopping, and cleaning the fire trucks—while keeping an ear out for any emergency calls.

Even if something crazy did happen, the CSFD crew was sure it wouldn’t surprise them. Many crew members had years of experience and saw everything from forest fires to people trapped in floods. If it was an emergency, they were prepared for it and knew what to do.

Suddenly, the station phone rang. A CSFD member picked it up, and others waited nearby to see what it was all about. On the other end was a woman. She said a trapped animal was stuck nearby and needed some help. 

When the woman on the phone gave them an address, they checked to see if it was within city limits. It was. So, they drove over assuming it would be a relatively straightforward rescue mission: something like a curious cat who scrambled too high up the telephone poll.

The crew had plenty of experience dealing with trapped and distressed animals. Most of the time, it was a small puppy or kitten stuck somewhere it shouldn’t have been. Although – for them – it was an old routine, they approached each new distressed animal call with a fresh approach.

Shortly after arriving on the scene, they learned more details. It turns out that the distressed animal was trapped on the other end of a storm drain. They could hear its whimpering cries. 

Although they didn’t have to battle with poor weather conditions, that doesn’t mean the firefighters were home scot-free. They still assessed the situation properly and carefully took off the lid. Inside, the storm drain was quite dark and very small. 

The animal cries certainly seemed distressed, so the crew knew there was no time for dilly-dallying. They had to act now. Luckily, it being a familiar situation, they knew what to do. Step one: open the storm drain.

If a cat gets stuck in a tall tree, it’s fairly easy to figure out what happened. Usually, the cat ran up a tree to chase or evade something. Then, it got stuck and meowed for help.

Immediately upon pulling them out of the storm drain, the firefighters recognized that the animals were very young—only a few hours to a few days old. At such a vulnerable time in their life, it was crucial to find the mother and reunite them. There was no way these newborns could survive on their own. 

Although the CSFD crew—just like firefighters nationwide—deal with highly distressing situations regularly, that doesn’t mean they’re completely desensitized or devoid of emotions. In fact, quite the opposite. 

The crew knew very little about these newborn lives, and the fact that they didn’t share a mutual language made it much harder. Would the mother come back in a few minutes? Or was she gone for good? It was hard to get a definitive answer to either question.

One of the biggest dilemmas the firefighters faced was the whether these animals were domestic or wild. They had no idea what species they belonged to – and, therefore – no idea what their specific needs were. 

As the crew knelt to look at the newborns in more detail, they began to see a familiar set of bones and fur. Most of the firefighters were pretty sure that these whimpering newborns left in a storm drain were puppy dogs. 

That uncomfortable possibility was human cruelty. Maybe the pup’s owner couldn’t afford them, couldn’t adopt them, or was simply cruel and decided to put them in a storm drain. Although they had a hunch that this might be the case, they wanted to investigate further to see if it was correct. 

Later on, Brian Vaughan, the captain of the CSFD crew, was interviewed on Inside Edition. According to him, the rescue mission took about 20 minutes. Right after the rescue, their minds turned to the possibility of a dog dumping.

As noted before, the weather was mild in late March when the CSFD crew showed up at the storm drain to hear the whimpering cries of small pups. Although the temps were warm outside the drain, they were cold and damp inside. As a result, the pups were freezing.

Despite having a huge breadth of dog-rescuing experience to draw upon, the crew was unable to pinpoint what kind of dogs these were. They looked like nothing else they’d seen before. The fact that the pups had been left in a damp storm drain also didn’t help.

So, after concluding that the rescued newborns were pups and black Labs, the CSFD crew took them to The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region. With loads of experience caring for dogs, cats, pigs, rats, and the occasional chicken, the Humane Society would know what to do.

Although the firefighters didn’t forget about the rescued pups, they didn’t have them at the forefront of their minds, either. After the crew made it back to the station, they continued life as usual. Then the phone rang—it was a vet from The Humane Society.

Since the firefighters weren’t trained veterinarians, they had limited experience with different kinds of animals. Based on that experience, they made an educated guess about what kind of newborns they rescued from the storm drain. That guess, however, turned out to be wrong.

The reason the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region couldn’t do much for the rescued newborns is that they’re only licensed to deal with domestic animals such as cats and dogs. Wild animals like baby foxes are beyond their purview.

So, they called the Animal Clinic of Woodland Park (a nearby town) to see if they could care for the baby foxes. Luckily, they could. When Terri Collins, co-owner of the animal clinic, took a look at the kits, she said they were only a day or two old.

It turns out the CSFD crew weren’t the only ones baffled by the rescued animals’ identity. Shortly after receiving the kits from the Humane Society, Terri Collins posted a photo of them on her Facebook page. Then, she asked friends and family to guess what species they were.

How did these young foxes end up in an urban area? The firefighters and others were puzzled, but Travis Sauder, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife District wildlife manager, said that it wasn’t out of the ordinary. 

Although the Colorado Springs Fire Department is full of experienced firefighters, their rescue of eight young red foxes made them realize there’s always more to learn. Firefighting is a job that never stops surprising you.

When Terri Collins first got a hold of the young red foxes, she spent all day and night caring for them. In addition to four hours of feeding, she looked over them to ensure they were safe.

Both Collins at the animal clinic and Sauder at the Colorado Parks and Wildlife District knew that reuniting the kits with their mum was the right thing to do. So, they returned them to where they were found.

Although the foxes’ ultimate fate is unknown, plenty of generous people helped in their rescue mission along the way. These include the woman who made the initial call, the CSFD crew, the Humane Society, Terri Collins, and Travis Sauder.