STRUTHERS, Ohio (WKBN) — Outside of the I Promise School in Akron, a teacher found three totes, all containing guinea pigs inside. A man who works for the school district started making phone calls. Eventually, he found local rescue New Lease on Life to take the guinea pigs.

Matt Frame is in charge of all the Akron Public Schools building and maintenance. He received a phone call Saturday morning about the totes full of guinea pigs outside of the I Promise School.

“I took it upon myself to start calling around — found this organization, and the rest is history,” Frame said.

In total, 23 guinea pigs were brought in to New Lease on Life — males and females of all different ages.

“We definitely weren’t expecting to get this many guinea pigs today. But we received a phone call that they have been dumped at a school and we happened to have a low number of guinea pigs,” says Maria Guyan, director of New Lease on Life. “They lucked out, and we were able to take them.”

Frame says he couldn’t find a place near Akron that could house them.

“It didn’t matter what the distance was really. I wanted to make sure they were OK,” Frame says. “I never had a guinea pig, but it’s a creature, so I wanted to make sure they were all right.”

From the moment the guinea pigs were found, they’ve been stuck inside the totes. But overall, Guyan says they seem physically healthy.

“But, of course, they are cramped because they are stuck in these little tiny totes, and they are very dirty right now,” says Guyan. “It looks like it was probably a case of someone getting guinea pigs and not realizing they had multiple genders.”

There were some babies inside the totes. Guyan says the babies are old enough now to be separated from their moms.

However, when Guyan was looking them over, she discovered that two of the males were mixed in with the females.

“There is a high chance that the mommas are pregnant again, because they can actually get pregnant right after they give birth,” says Guyan.

But for now, these pets can have a second chance at a good life.

“It means everything to me. It’s God’s creatures, and there’s not enough kindness going on in this world — if I can make it a little better, then I will,” says Frame.

If you wish to adopt a guinea pig, you can set up an appointment with New Lease on Life, through the group’s Facebook page.