Ruff Start Rescue is a charity rescue organization based in Minnesota. When they rescued a pregnant stray dog named Poppy, they had to find a foster volunteer right away. The canine was about to give birth and they needed someone with experience so the dog mom and her litter would get good care. The person they got was one of their long-time volunteers named Lexi Johnson.
The animal lover quickly accepted the challenge.
One week after staying with Lexi, Poppy gave birth to ten adorable puppies. Because of the large number of babies, the pooch suffered through long hours of Labor. Her foster mom was there to support the dog all the way. But in the end, the dog’s fragile body gave in.
Poppy died.
Motherless
Even though Lexi had the dog for only a short while, she was crushed when Poppy perished. But her grief soon turned into panic. She had a large litter to take care of, and she had to hand feed each of them. That would mean spending every minute of the day looking after the puppies.
The rescue group arranged to have several other volunteers care for the babies. But because they had a lot of dogs in their care, they had to find a better solution. A setup that would not require so much time and manpower.
Surrogate mom
It just so happened that another stray canine in the group’s care had also recently given birth. And this time, their fate was reversed. The mama dog, Pepper, lost her babies, and the pooch grew depressed. The rescue staff hoped that putting the orphaned litter with the dog would help make things better for all of them.
They were right.
When Pepper met the puppies, she immediately went to them and started nursing the litter. The pooch instinctively knew what to do. For the next few minutes, Lexi watched over them, making sure that everything would be alright. To her relief, Pepper acted like a good mom and just let the puppies be by her side. She would even lick them clean.
As the days passed, the rescue group knew they had made the best decision. The puppies will stay with their surrogate mom until they are big enough to get adopted.
Source: Lexi Ruhland Johnson via Facebook
