A Lifesaving Tail

It may have lacked the drama usually associated with lifesaving rescues from storm waters.

But quick action by sheriff’s deputies who plucked a plastic grocery bag from a rain-filled gutter in West Hollywood is being credited with saving 10 newborn puppies during Monday’s storm.

“We’re calling it a ‘swift-water rescue,’ ” Lt. Jim Curtis said jokingly as deputies, city workers and jail trusties at the West Hollywood sheriff’s station took turns Tuesday bottle-feeding the 2-day-old puppies.

Los Angeles County authorities were alerted to the palm-sized pups shortly before midnight by an anonymous caller who urged them to check a “suspicious bag” awash in the gutter near Santa Monica Boulevard and Laurel Avenue.

Rain runoff was swirling through the grocery bag when deputies Randy Tuinstra and Richard Diliberti peeked inside to discover the black and brown mixed-breed puppies.

They hurried the whimpering animals to the sheriff’s station and wrapped them in towels while Sgt. Sean Collinsworth hunted for a pet hospital that was still open.

A West Los Angeles veterinarian agreed to examine the puppies free and found them healthy--and hungry.

The pet hospital was out of puppy formula. But it had plenty of kitten formula.

“We said, ‘What the heck--this is West Hollywood. We cross over all the time,’ ” Collinsworth said. “Deputies chipped in and bought $20 worth of kitten formula.”

While others took shifts Tuesday on feeding detail, sheriff’s secretary Linda Mahakian tried to find homes for the puppies. She called about 20 animal rescue groups before reaching the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles.

Officers from the SPCA’s West Jefferson Boulevard shelter hurried over.

“We’ll put them in protective custody,” Officer Scott Denhart assured Curtis and Collinsworth. He said volunteers will bottle-feed the pups until they are available for adoption eight weeks from now.

Denhart said SPCA officers will help deputies hunt for the person who abandoned the puppies. That person could face 10 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals, he said.

SPCA spokeswoman Mary Brankovic said her shelter is prepared to keep the puppies indefinitely while new owners are sought.

Those at the sheriff’s station, meantime, were eager to close the case.

“It’s a happy ending,” Mahakian said. “I hope. I hope.”