VANCOUVER—A group of five puppies “rescued” by firefighters in the North Okanagan after being found wandering on the road, will return home on Tuesday afternoon, the owner says.

Owner Heidi Lang told StarMetro that the road where the 12-week-old puppies were found runs through her 640-acre farm.

“I’m glad I finally get them back after all that. It was just a bit unbelievable,” Lang said in an interview. “It was very difficult to find out where they were.”

Lang said she discovered the puppies were missing from the barnyard on Sunday morning. She had last seen them on Saturday evening, but said she did not believe they were taken. Instead, Lang said she assumed they were out with the other animals.

It wasn’t until she was notified about a B.C. Wildfire Service Facebook post — which garnered thousands of shares — that she discovered where the puppies were. Lang contacted a local media outlet on Monday asking for her “dogs back.”

Lang is also the owner of both parents of the Great Pyrenees pups. The dogs are a type of pastoral dog bred meant to protect livestock from predators.

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According to Lang, it was difficult to get any information about the puppies whereabouts. The original social media post stated the firefighters found a group of puppies wandering on the side of the road.

“After contacting local authorities and determining that there were no houses or properties nearby that the dogs could have wandered from, the crew decided to bring the pups back with them,” the post read, noting the SPCA was contacted and the dogs were being “well-fed” and “cared for.”

But Lang said she contacted the SPCA on Monday and that they did not know where the dogs were. Lang said she only got information when the police “finally” called to notify her that the puppies would be available at the BC SPCA on Tuesday.

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“Though they told me I could get them from the SPCA today, they didn’t tell me where they actually (have been),” she said. “They only got to the SPCA last night or this morning.”

StarMetro reached out to the B.C. Wildfire Service for comment but could not receive a response by the time of publication.

The firefighters were part of an initial attack crew working at the Monashee Complex in the Kamloops Fire Centre.

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