An animal charity was shocked when a dog they’d rescued just hours before gave birth to 12 puppies.
Staffordshire bull terrier Darla was at risk of being left on the streets after her owners were evicted from their home in Ipswich.
Not wanting to leave her behind, Darla’s owners contacted animal charity Blue Cross on October 10, who took the heavily pregnant pooch in.
She was cared for at a re-homing centre but just 48 hours later staff were stunned when the one-year-old pup had 12 puppies of her own – all of which now need re-homing.
It was the largest litter the Blue Cross had ever seen at their re-homing centre, but the charity is hoping to have all of them in their new forever homes before Christmas.
Animal welfare assistant, Bradley Tovell, said:
It’s certainly the biggest litter we’ve ever had at Blue Cross. She is doing amazing and we’re so proud of her. Because she has so many mouths to feed, we’ve been helping her out by supplementing the puppies’ mealtimes with bottles four times a day.
Poor Darla has been too exhausted to eat, so we’ve been encouraging her by hand feeding her too.
Bradley said they ‘couldn’t turn [Darla] away’ when they received the call for help, as she faced giving birth on the streets. He added: ‘Thankfully we did have room at our inn, or rather kennels, because within two days of admitting her, Darla’s pups had arrived.’
Because the new mum has been too exhausted after giving birth to the litter, the team at Blue Cross have been helping the Staffie by bottle feeding her pups and hand feeding her as well.
Bradley continued:
Twelve puppies is a large litter for any dog, let alone a dog of Darla’s petite size.
Of the puppies, there are six boys and six girls. The male pups are called Sun, Star, Galaxy, Neptune, Earth and Jupiter while their sisters are Moon, Comet, Mercury, Venus, Pluto and Saturn.
The whole family will stay in the care of Blue Cross until the puppies are old enough to be weaned and leave their mum after eight weeks.
The animal charity has already managed to sort out new homes for the puppies to go to, and is continuing to search for a forever home for Darla.
Hopefully one can be found before Christmas.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).