TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

As the owner of a dog rescue, Zach Skow has taken in animals that have been beaten, stabbed, shot and suffered a wide array of brutal injuries.

But he'd never seen anything as bad as the third-degree burns several California City puppies suffered in early February. Nothing else even comes close.

"The smells, the sheer sight, it was pretty intense," said Skow, the owner of Marley's Mutts in Tehachapi.

The two surviving puppies are being given a chance at recovery through the help of Dr. Richard Grossman, founder of the renowned Grossman Burn Centers. Grossman himself has been treating the puppies by cutting away dead tissue and performing temporary skin grafts with bovine fetal tissue meant to stimulate cell growth.

While Grossman said Wednesday he still wasn't sure if the puppies would survive, so far they've made an amazing recovery. They've even become a little playful.

"When they first came in I didn't think they had a chance," Grossman said.

The puppies -- females named Phoenix and Natalia -- suffered third-degree burns on their tails, the tops of their heads, backs and legs. Much of the work involved in treating them at the Pet Emergency and Specialty Clinic in Thousand Oaks has involved preventing infection.

Grossman lauded the efforts of the doctors and nurses at the clinic.

"This veterinary clinic is one of the best I've ever seen," he said.

Skow was given the puppies a little more than a week after they were burned. The owners contacted him because the burns were so severe that they couldn't find treatment options in California City.

The owners told him there were originally 10 puppies, and they had been kept in an outbuilding that was warmed by a space heater, Skow said. The space heater apparently caused a fire and the puppies, huddled together in a kennel, couldn't escape.

Of the four that survived, two had to be euthanized, Skow said. He became determined to save the last two.

When they first showed up, their condition was so bad that patches of skin kept coming off in fluffs.

"It was like a sweater was being unzipped," Skow said.

Skow quickly began researching treatment options, narrowed the search to a few facilities and brought the puppies to the Thousand Oaks clinic. Grossman was then contacted and agreed to help.

Grossman, an owner of dogs and horses, said he really wanted to do something for the puppies. While there's a lot of work and recovery remaining and their future is in doubt, he's hopeful they'll pull through.

"When they're together you see there's some life to them," he said.