Charity Stunned As Dog Gives Birth To 12 Puppies Just Days After Being Abandoned

An animal charity, who rescued a homeless dog, was stunned when she gave birth to 12 puppies less than two days after she was rescued.

When Staffordshire Bull Terrier Darla's owners were evicted from their home, she was close to being dumped on the streets.

But luckily, the Blue Cross in Suffolk stepped up and took her in on 10th October, knowing they couldn't put the heavily pregnant pooch onto the street to fend for herself.

Within 48 hours, Darla was in labour at the animal shelter and ended up delivering a huge litter of 12 pups, which all needed re-homing too.

While it was a huge brood, the Blue Cross hoped for a Christmas miracle to have all the dogs re-homed by Christmas.

And the good news is, all the pups have now been reserved and will be in their forever homes in time for the festivities.

SWNS)

SWNS)

Animal welfare assistant Bradley Tovell, said: "When we received a call asking us to help Darla, we couldn't turn her away.

"She was likely to go into labour any day and as her owners were being evicted, she faced having her pups on the streets.

"Thankfully we did have room at our inn, or rather kennels, because within two days of admitting her, Darla's pups had arrived."

But due to the size of the litter, Darla is struggling with exhaustion and trying to feed her litter, so staff at the centre have been helping her as much as they can.

SWNS)

SWNS)

Bradley added: "The team have been helping Darla by bottle feeding her pups and hand feeding her as well.

"Twelve puppies is a large litter for any dog, let alone a dog of Darla's petite size.

"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."

SWNS)

SWNS)

"Poor Darla has been too exhausted to eat, so we've been encouraging her by hand feeding her too."

But in general, the family is doing well and the staff are now biding their time until the puppies are old enough to be weaned and leave mum, after eight weeks.

The puppies, six boys and six girls, have been named: Sun, Star, Galaxy, Neptune, Earth, Jupiter, Moon, Comet, Mercury, Venus, Pluto and Saturn.

The charity is still searching for a new home for one-year-old mama Darla. Paws crossed she'll be in a loving home as soon as possible.

Topics: Dog, Cute, Life, Animals

Lauren Bell

A freelance journalist working for Tyla. After graduating with a journalism degree, Lauren started off in real life magazines before moving into the fashion and lifestyle sector at the likes of Mail Online and Sun Online. Contact Tyla: [email protected]

@lbell4