‘Hero’ golden retriever steps in to help endangered pups at zoo, adorable photos show

A “hero” golden retriever stepped in to help endangered puppies at an Indiana zoo, adorable photos show.

Bleu, an African painted dog, gave birth to her litter in late September. But when she wasn’t “caring for her pups the way she should have,” the Potawatomi Zoo said it started to hand-raise them.

“Because it’s so important for painted dogs to be raised in a canine social structure, Indiana Council for Animal Welfare helped us find a surrogate dog, a golden retriever mom named Kassy,” the zoo wrote Dec. 13 on Instagram. “She immediately accepted the painted dog puppies and cared for them for the first critical month of their lives.”

Photos shared online show three pups with Kassy, who nursed them and treated them as her own. Social media users couldn’t get enough of the heartwarming story — and the pictures of the cute puppies. Within about two days, posts on Instagram and Facebook garnered thousands of reactions and dozens of comments.

“She’s a hero in our eyes,” said the zoo, located in South Bend.

The puppies had an “unusual and challenging start to life” after they came into the world on Sept. 28. The zoo’s website said Bleu gave birth to eight pups, but many of them died.

The zoo’s social media posts focused on three surviving dogs, nicknamed “Blue, Red, and Orange for the colors the staff have used to track them since birth.” Videos shared on Facebook show the “rambunctious” little pups playing with toys.

The healthy babies are African painted dogs, an endangered species from sub-Saharan Africa. The animals, which can weigh up to 80 pounds, according to the zoo, face population decline due to “human-wildlife conflict, habitat fragmentation, and disease.”

The zoo said it originally planned to have the new puppies live with other African painted dogs. But since the adults didn’t show interest in the babies, they’re set to get a separate enclosure and might join the pack in the future.

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