When Craig Mcgettrick decided to help clean up a backyard with a coworker, he had no idea they were about to uncover a mystery hidden beneath an old mattress.

As they cleared out trash and debris, they lifted a worn, dirty mattress—and were stunned to find five tiny animals huddled underneath. At first glance, Craig assumed they were abandoned puppies.

“I figured someone must’ve known we were hauling trash and thought this was a safe way to leave them where they’d be found,” Craig said.

Not sure what to do, Craig took some photos of the little creatures and shared them on social media. Then, wanting to make sure the animals were safe, he brought them to a local animal shelter.

But just a few days later, he got surprising news.

After someone from a fox rescue group saw the photos Craig had posted, they reached out to him with a surprising theory: these weren’t puppies at all. They were fox cubs.

“A kind woman messaged us on Facebook,” said the founder of the fox rescue group. “She sent comparison photos of fox kits and asked if we thought they could be foxes. As soon as I saw them, I knew they were.”

It turns out the mother fox had been using the space beneath the mattress as a den.

The shelter staff and rescue group agreed the best thing to do was try to reunite the cubs with their mother. So they returned the cubs—safely placed in a box—to the same spot in Craig’s backyard.

And then the most incredible thing happened.

Before long, a wild fox cautiously approached the box. After a few moments of sniffing and checking, she gently picked up one cub at a time and carried them off—back into the wild where they belonged.

Thanks to a lucky discovery and some quick thinking, the five little foxes got a second chance at life with their real mom, right where they were meant to be.