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SUN CITY WEST, Ariz. — A coyote pup was rescued by golf course employees after running into a cactus Tuesday and being covered in cholla clumps.

The pup was stumbling around in pain when he was noticed by Jose Soto and Shawn Bordine, two employees of the Pebblebrook Golf Course. They said the animal's face was hidden entirely by the plant, with cactus spines at least a quarter of an inch deep in the pup's skin.

"He was right there, he could hardly move," Bordine told AZ Central. "He was covered. It was life-threatening and he would have died within hours."

He and Soto had been called by Gwen Maxwell, an 85-year-old retired school teacher who noticed what looked like a small dog running around in the street Tuesday morning. When she got closer, she realized it was a coyote.

"He'd get up and tumble around with all those chollas on him, and it was just so heartbreaking," she told KPHO.

Bordine and Soto worked to remove the spines from the pup and said the coyote remained calm throughout the ordeal. When they were finished, the pup joined his mother and siblings, who had been keeping watch from Maxwell's yard, and ran back across the golf course.

Top image credit: Gwen Maxwell

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