Litter of puppies rescued after being dumped on remote, uninhabited Canadian island

A group of seven castaway puppies have been rescued after being dumped on a remote Canadian island.

The litter, thought to be around four months old, were discovered last week on the tiny isle by a boater near the rural community of Cross Keys, Manitoba.

Concerned, he contacted Norway House Animal Rescue, which began drawing up a plan to get the dogs back to safety.

Deb Vandekerkhove, director of the centre, said the boat driver had first heard noise coming from the island the evening before the discovery of the puppies.

“He and his friend were out and it was getting dark already, and they heard some noises on the island,” she told CBC.

“They took their binoculars and they couldn't see anything but some dark shadows, and they heard a bunch of crying. They thought originally it was wolves.”

The dogs were delivered food for several days until they were rescued from the island on Saturday and have since made the 330-mile trip to Winnipeg, where they will be offered for adoption.

“They were a little bit skittish at first when the volunteers that went up there found them on the island,” Jessica Boeckler, adoption coordinator at Norway House told CTV News.

“It did take them a little bit of time to gain their trust, but with food anything is possible with hungry dogs right?”

All puppies now appear to be in good health compared to when they were first discovered on the island looking thin and hungry.

Rescuers have few clues as to how the dogs ended up stranded on the small island, which is around a 25-minute boat ride from the nearest inhabited area.

But they have used the situation as inspiration to name the puppies after characters from Gilligan’s Island, a 1960s sitcom about a group of shipwrecked castaways, with names including Jonas, Wentworth, Ginger, Professor Roy Hinkley, Thurston, and Gilligan.