Rescued Puppies Karen Read found an adult Labrador retriever and 17 puppies at the side of a road at Indiana Dunes State Park. The dogs were rescued, and will be up for adoption at Lakeshore PAWS in Valparaiso. (Photo courtesy Karen Read)

Rescued Puppies Karen Read found an adult Labrador retriever and 17 puppies at the side of a road at Indiana Dunes State Park. The dogs were rescued, and will be up for adoption at Lakeshore PAWS in Valparaiso. (Photo courtesy Karen Read)

Rescued Puppies Karen Read found an adult Labrador retriever and 17 puppies at the side of a road at Indiana Dunes State Park. The dogs were rescued, and will be up for adoption at Lakeshore PAWS in Valparaiso. (Photo courtesy Karen Read)

Rescued Puppies Karen Read found an adult Labrador retriever and 17 puppies at the side of a road at Indiana Dunes State Park. The dogs were rescued, and will be up for adoption at Lakeshore PAWS in Valparaiso. (Photo courtesy Karen Read)

Rescued Puppies Karen Read found an adult Labrador retriever and 17 puppies at the side of a road at Indiana Dunes State Park. The dogs were rescued, and will be up for adoption at Lakeshore PAWS in Valparaiso. (Photo courtesy Karen Read)

Updated 05/14/13 – 10:55 a.m.

PORTER, Ind. (STMW) — A woman from Portage, Ind., found 17 puppies abandoned on a dark road in the Indiana Dunes State Park last week, after someone dumped the puppies and their mother on the side of the road.

Karen Read said she hates to think what might have happened to the puppies if she hadn’t spotted them while she was driving through the park Friday night.

She said she saw a gold-colored SUV parked with its lights off before it took off.

“I saw some eyes in the roadway,” she said. When she got close, she realized the eyes reflecting her headlights belonged to 17 mixed-breed puppies and an adult Labrador retriever.