When Craig McGettrick volunteered to help his neighbor clean up the local garden, he never dreamed what he’d find. While digging through some weeds he found an abandoned litter of puppies. The five babies were tiny, and worried about their well-being, McGettrick knew he had to do something to help them.

With the help of his friend Beccie, they loaded the puppies up in a cardboard box filled with a warm water bottle and blanket to keep them cozy. They took them to a local animal shelter, Freshfields Animal Rescue, so they could be properly cared for.

Hoping to find who had abandoned the litter of puppies, McGettrick posted a photo on Facebook of the babies. It wouldn’t be long before he got a response from someone, but it wasn’t the response he was expecting. The response was from Martin Hemmington, the founder of the National Fox Welfare Society.

Hemmington informed McGettrick that the litter he had found wasn’t a litter of puppies. Instead, it was a den of fox cubs. With people wondering why the mother had left the cubs, Hemmington went on to explain that as well.

He said that the mothers, called vixen, leave the cubs safely in the den when they are tiny. As the cubs get older and begin exploring, they become less and less dependent on their mothers.

Realizing the mistake he’d made, McGettrick went and picked up the fox cubs from the rescue and took them back to where he found them. He knew they would still need the help of their mother and he planned to put the family back together.

With the fox cubs hungry, McGettrick sat the box full of cubs down close to where they had been found. It wasn’t long before the mom heard their hungry cries and came to find them. She found them safe and unharmed, but waited until it was dark to move them back to the den.

McGettrick says that by the end of the night, all the fox cubs were safely back inside the den with their mother.