Two puppies have gone from a busy rural animal shelter to living with two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank — who heard they needed a place to stay, and went and offered up her home.

Emily Gear was pretty convinced the email was a prank.

n her mind, there was no way the 42-year-old actress was getting in touch out of the blue to say she wanted to foster a couple of Gear’s rescue puppies.

Gear is founder of Louie’s Legacy, a New York- and Ohio-based nonprofit that gets dogs and cats out of shelters and places them in loving temporary foster homes until they can be adopted.

Two puppies from a shelter in West Virginia were coming into the group. A call was put out for a foster.

You never know who will step up in such a situation. Still, it was a real surprise when Swank — or, as Gear thought at the time, “Hilary Swank” — sent a message.

At first, Gear tells TODAY, “we weren’t sure it was real.”

But the evidence was quite convincing. Soon Gear found herself chatting with Swank about her longtime commitment to animal welfare, her foundation that brings kids and rescue pets together — and then, finally, the logistics of getting these lucky puppies out to California.

Last weekend, Mulder and Scully were flown out by two volunteers, who kept them in the cabin as — Gear’s description — “carry-on pups.”

Swank has been updating Gear on a daily basis ever since. She says the puppies are settling right in to their fantastic new Los Angeles lifestyle.

Swank takes them out hiking, and they have started working with a trainer.

“They are doing great and she has nothing but good things to say about them,” said Gear — adding that Swank’s intention is to adopt one puppy and find another home for the other, but “she says she has no idea how she will choose!”

Source: http://www.today.com/