Meet Melanie…

Melanie showed up at the Cumberland County Animal Shelter just a few day ago, preganant as pregnant can be.    She appreared as if she would bust at the seams at any moment’s time.  How ANYONE could turn away an animal in such a condition is beyond our comprehension…Just LOOK at how CUTE she is!!!  And a personality to match!  No beagle bellows or anything – just trying to be a good mom…Melanie is estimated to be between 6 and 7 years…way too old to be having puppies!!!

AARF was going to pull her out on Friday, June 11th, but circumstances beyond our control forced us to push up the date to Monday, June 14th.  When we arrived to pick Melanie up, she had already given birth to 2 beautiful puppies.

In fear of moving her in the midst of labor, we sat down with Melanie for 3 hours and helped her with the next two…

Appearing as if she was having trouble with the 5th, we contact Best Friends Veterinary hospital, who suggested we bring her in for an evaluation.  We got Melanie out of the car, where she sniffed around for a while and ran around in the fresh, green grass, and then proceeded to bring her indoors.  She squatted on the “Welcome” mat and urinated, and one of our junior volunteers looked down and said “Hey…is that a tail?”.  Within seconds, she birthed her 5th baby, right on the welcome mat at Best Friends.  Dr. Parker came running out the door, along with a number of vet techs.  Dr Parker took the baby to the back immediately, which the Vet techs guided us into the examination room with Melanie.

Dr. Parker explained that it could take quite a while for her to birth all of the puppies that she was planning to deliver…when we asked how many, he did an ultrasound and it was determined that there were another 7 waiting to arrive….12 PUPPIES total!!! 

We packed up Melanie and her pups once again and headed to her foster home in Cookeville.  Upon arriving, she went into the grass to birth 2 more – 1 still born, the second lively and healthy.  A group of volunteers went indoors to setup her pen immediately, while another group worked with Melanie to clean up the one living pup.

We got Melanie setup in her pen with her babies, where she proceded to have another 2 pups back to back.  After sitting with her for a little while, the volunteers decided that it was time to take a short break to eat.  Upon arriving back downstairs, 2 additional pups had been born – only 1 remaining.   Everyone else had left and her foster mom was rubbing her tummy, when the final pup was born at 10:30PM. 

Melanie and her 11 pups are doing pretty well.  There was only a problem with one pup who Melanie continued to reject.  This male pup was transferred today to a foster mom who will bottle feed and try everything in her power to save his life.  She said that he is strong and healthy, but just needs an extra push right now.

Please remember….when it comes time for all of these pups to be able to go home, Melanie will be able to go home as well…many people overlook the mama dogs and go straight to the puppies…when in actuality, you are getting a MUCH better dog from a mama dog than you would from one of her pups.  As Melanie says “I know you love my puppies….but I’m Cute TOO!”.  Think adult adoption!