CLEVELAND COUNTY, N.C. -- A tiny 5-week-old puppy, only about 3.5 pounds and still unsteady on her feet, walked on her own through thick leaves Monday and fell into a well off Beattie Road in Cleveland County.

“I don't know how she got there. No one has come forward and said they are missing an animal,” said Tina Marques, the well’s owner.

Marques says most likely someone dumped the little puppy in the woods behind her home. Lucky for the pup, she’s an animal lover.

“Yesterday morning about 3 or 4 in the morning my white dog got to the back of the fence and started screaming,” she said.

It was that bark that led Marques and Peter Graham, a family friend, deep into the back yard, where they could hear the pup crying for help.

“We went over there and looked and it was about 25 to 30 feet (down) in the well,” Marques said.

The little furball was covered in leaves.

The fire department had to fish her out with a net, but she wasn't even scratched.

“Perfect. She was scared, but other than that no broken bones,” Marques said.

Since then the pup has clinged to anyone she can get close to.

“She has got to be right up against somebody all of the time,” Marques said.

Her family plans to make a home for the pup not far from where she was found. She already has a new protective big brother, Thor.

“She is a really good kid, a good puppy, and I don't want to see her go somewhere else and something else happen to her,” Marques said.