WATCH: US Coast Guard rescue dog trapped in shipping container for over a week

Last week, United States Coast Guard officer Ryan McMahon and his team were inspecting shipping containers at the Port of Houston when they heard barking from one of the thousands of containers surrounding them.

“Oh, it’s scratching, dude,” one of the inspectors said in a video they recorded as the team looked up at the container, stacked about 25 feet (8 meters) in the air.

A crane was used to bring it to the ground, and out popped a very sweet and friendly dog, The HuffPost reported.

“As soon as we opened it, we could see the little dog’s face poking out,” McMahon, a petty officer 2nd class said. “And she just, she wasn’t scared or anything. She just seemed happy more than anything, to be out of that dark space and in the arms of people that were going to take care of her.”

Coast Guard officials would later determine that the canine — since nicknamed Connie the container dog — had been trapped inside for at least eight days, with no food or water.

She was a little dirty and “definitely pretty skinny,” McMahon said.

Connie was taken to a Houston animal shelter after being found in a container filled with junked vehicles. A rescue group, Forever Changed Animal Rescue, has taken her in and is working to get her healthy and ready for adoption.

The container was likely being shipped overseas for parts, and Coast Guard officials are unsure of its origin.

“So based on that, they think that the dog most likely was in a junkyard, in a car. And that’s how she accidentally got put in the container,” Guard spokeswoman Chief Petty Officer Corinne Zilnicki said.

McMahon expressed gratitude for his team's timely detection of Connie's barking and preventing the container from being loaded onto a cargo ship during their weekly inspections at the Port of Houston's Bayport Container Terminal, which is likely to house over 10,000 containers.

“It would take at least another week to get to where she was going (on a cargo ship) and two weeks without food or water. I don’t think she would have made it,” McMahon said.

The rescue group said in a Facebook post that Connie was a bit underweight, tested positive for heartworm, and would be getting treatment for it.