When a man named Junior Cook was simply exploring the waters with his boat near Cross Keys, Manitoba, Canada, he never expected to be a part of a rescue involving a litter of puppies.

Suddenly, though, the boater and his friend heard a couple of strange noises coming from a tiny island that was known to be uninhabited.

Knowing that the island was completely abandoned, he didn’t give it much thought that day. However, the whole thing kept lingering in Junior’s head and he decided to check it out again the following day.

He was definitely worried now and thought the sounds were cries. Junior knew that something must’ve gone wrong, so he decided to get off the water and investigate.

He was absolutely flabbergasted when he found no less than seven puppies stuck on the island!

The poor puppies were alone and clearly distressed, running around and crying on the small island.

The boater got in touch with a local animal organization, Norway House Animal Rescue. Luckily, they were willing to help right away and they certainly have experience saving homeless dogs and cats out of rather peculiar situations.

In fact, they claim that tough rescues like this one happen daily in the city.

“This is not an isolated case and happens daily in Manitoba and all over the world,” Norway House Animal Rescue wrote on their Facebook page.

The organization mainly rescues the animals, and arranges for transports to shelters both local and spread around the country. The ultimate goal is to get all of them adopted.

Finding loving forever homes for every four-footer they rescue is their absolute priority.

Junior and his friend thought the sounds were coming from distant wolves at first. It’s a good thing the boater decided to return to make sure!

“He and his friend were out and it was getting dark already, and they heard some noises on the island. They took their binoculars and they couldn’t see anything but some dark shadows, and they heard a bunch of crying. They thought originally it was wolves,” Director of the rescue organization, Deb Vandekerkhove, recalls the story to CBC.

Even though the rescue organization was able to assist immediately, arranging transport for this particular case was trickier than with most other rescues.

That’s why they decided to deliver daily food packages and make sure all seven pups were okay before they could get them off the seemingly abandoned island.

The poor puppies were completely malnourished.

Junior kept assisting during the whole rescue process and even brought the food packages to the pups every day.

The first day, they were so hungry that they ate an entire large bag of dog food in one go. They were absolutely starving and on the brink of death – Junior spotted them just in time.

As for the dogs themselves, they seemed quite timid and had the tendency to run away every time they saw Junior’s boat.

The situation started to improve, however, and the litter of pups were getting used to having people around and even warmed up to them.

“They’re getting better with people now, which is a good thing because they were terrified of them when they first came.”

After traveling for 330 miles to Winnipeg, these seven siblings are now looking for their loving forever home.

“They will be the Gilligan’s Island crew — four boys, three girls,” the director told.

If you’re a fan of the Gilligan’s Island television show, you’ll definitely recognize their names: Skipper, Gilligan, Mary-Anne, The Professor, Ginger, Lovey, and Mr. Howell.

They were finally safe but still needed medical care.

“They are receiving medical treatment for lice, tapeworm and malnourishment at this time and will be placed up for adoption when healthy.”

You can check out some footage of the rescue in the video below.

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Source: Manitoba Animal Alliance, Norway House Animal Rescue, CBC, The Animal Rescue Site