Kids grow up, and they do so way too quickly. Each day spent nursing them and watching them seems like an eternity, but the years will have gone by before you even notice. Now convert those years into doggy years, and it gets ridiculous.
Meet Bess. She’s quite the mother and survivor. When they found her, she was in the last place an expecting mama dog should be – on the side of the road.
In what could be called a fate encounter, she was found at the right moment by Tracey and John Stewart in Tennessee.
First stop was the emergency room, and just in time. Bess was due already, and she’d need a lot of care and assistance while she was giving birth. There was a rather impressive count of puppies in her womb, and they needed to get out soon.
Complicating things even more, one puppy – named Burrdie – ended up blocking the birth canal on her way out. She was the firstborn, but earned that title with some challenges. In fact, they ended up placing a pink ribbon on her to remind themselves which one needed the most care.
When they delivered the last puppy, the total count was nothing short of gobsmacking. Twelve puppies in a litter!
But they weren’t out of the woods yet. It may be an uncomfortable truth, but it’s incredibly rare for animals with big litters of their offspring to have each one survive. The odds are already unfavorable with a typical litter of 4 or 6. What more with 12?
Still, Tracey took them to her home and assumed the role of puppy nanny. 12 puppies need a lot of space, and having gone this far already, Tracey needed to commit. So out went the living room furniture to make room for the makeshift puppy nursery.
It wasn’t long before more people, from Tracey’s own home, signed up to be puppy nannies.
There was hardly a single minute when Bess and the puppies were alone. Almost 24/7, somebody was by the puppies’ side.
And by the look of things, it paid off. All 12 of Bess’s puppies survived, in nothing short of a miracle for the animal world. But Tracey and John couldn’t afford to keep Bess and her 12 puppies in their home. Thus, the next challenge began : finding Bess – and each of the puppies -a new home.
Though it’s typically the young ones that move out of home when they’re older, the circumstances made things play out a bit differently here.
The first one to move to a new home was mommy herself – Bess!
After a long journey being picked up from the road, giving birth to 12 lucky puppies, Bess found a new home to settle down in. She found he way to Susan Zaleski, who happily welcomed her into their home. There, she found some other young ones to look after – Susan’s kids.
“The first time I heard about Bess, we fell in love with her right away and knew immediately that this was our dog. Bess’ personality is….she is definitely a Nanny dog. She’s always checking on the kids. I do see a motherly instinct in her.”
Now at 8 weeks old, it was the puppies’ turn to find new homes. The task was definitely a daunting one, but eventually got sorted out.
In perhaps the best course of events, all the puppies were adopted by friends and family.
I’m sure if Bess could have seen her puppies growing up into strong, happy dogs in their new forever homes, she’d be one proud mama. She carried all 12 of them in the streets, which is kind of a big deal! Having all of them survive sounds like a cause for celebration, honestly.
Turns out, Stacey’s friends and family thought the same. Roughly a year had gone by when they decided that such a celebratory reunion was a requirement, and perhaps an overdue one at that. It was time to rectify that!
When the big day came, all 12 dogs showed up to their outdoor party to meet their mom for the first time again since they were birthed.
That of course included Burrdy, the firstborn who needed a special pink ribbon. Seems like all that extra milk did have some results!
Of course, they all had names now. After Burrdy, there was also Ginny, Gracie, Ruby, Osa, Louis, Drake, Rupert, Ranger, Seven, Ruby, and Sandy.
It was like a birthday and mother’s day at the same time.
The 12 spent some time outdoors, thinking this was just a siblings play date. Seems like none of them knew it was a complete family reunion. Bess was waiting to come out from inside, and all 12 puppies and their new human parents stood in excitement to meet mama again.
“Bess appeared, looked out and saw all of her puppies and she didn’t know where to go first!”
Out came mama, and the tails started wagging.
It’s hard to believe that this is technically a birthday party, just one with 12 celebrants. Bess and her puppies were ecstatic to be reunited, and it’s only fitting to have a celebration like this after all this tough mama endured to bring them into the world.
With all her puppies in the hands of her own friends and family, visits and reunions shouldn’t be too hard to schedule every now and then. Let’s throw some love and recognition towards this survivor of a mom. Bess is a fighter, and she’s got 12 really happy puppies to prove it.
And surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, they absolutely recognized each other without hesitation. Now that’s just making things even more wholesome, which I won’t complain about.
If you found this as cute as I did, think about sharing it too. Anything with puppies in it is worth sharing with a friend.
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