A Clearwater family recently started fostering a nursing mama dog and puppies. Mama and puppies are all doing great, but the Johnson family wasn’t sure that would be the case a month ago.

At the end of June, Ruff Start Rescue, a Minnesota nonprofit, accepted Poppy, a dog from Texas. Poppy turned out to be pregnant at the time, and had a big litter of 10 puppies between July 7 and 8. 

Unfortunately, Poppy passed away after giving birth to her puppies. Lexi Johnson, the puppies’ foster mom, said Poppy had tested positive for heartworm, which is deadly for dogs if left untreated. Unfortunately, the rescue was unable to treat Poppy while she was pregnant. It’s not clear whether Poppy passed away due to the heartworm, the stress of birthing such a large litter, or both.

The ten orphaned puppies were split among four different foster homes to be bottle-fed, which can be a challenging process, but there were no other options.

Two weeks later, another dog, Pepper, came into Ruff Start. Pepper had given birth to a litter of puppies two days before, but due to complications all the puppies died. Pepper appeared to be heartbroken and depressed.

Ruff Start took the opportunity to unite the heartbroken mama and the orphaned puppies, but were unsure if the relationship would work.

“Mama dogs can sometimes act aggressively towards an adopted litter,” Johnson said. 

But Johnson united the animals and hoped for the best. And it appeared to be a match made in Heaven.

“Within three or four minutes the puppies were already nursing,” Johnson said.

Pepper appears to be very happy with her new litter of puppies, constantly wagging her tail.

Pepper will be available for adoption along with her puppies, once the litter is old enough. Johnson said the mama is one of the sweetest, friendliest dogs she’s ever met.

“It’s going to take a super special family to take her away from our home,” Johnson said, though she and her family already have three dogs of their own. 

As of the writing of this article, homes have been found for two of the puppies, but the rest are still looking for forever homes. They will all be ready to adopt by mid-September, and listings will appear on Ruff Start’s website in a couple of weeks. 

Johnson says she’s not sure what breeds the puppies are. They appear to be some sort of lab mix, but that’s her best guess.

“They all look different,” she said. Johnson went on to note that a single litter can have multiple different fathers, and since all of the puppies look different, and given the size of the litter, she thinks this is probably the case. 

She said the puppies are becoming more playful every day, and they all have different personalities.

“Some of them are definitely instigators,” Johnson said. “And some of them just like to crash.”

Lexi Johnson and her husband Jordan have helped to foster many animals from Ruff Start over the last six years. They have taken in a variety of animals from those with behavioral issues, to those who just needed a home for a while, to a couple of similar cases of bottle babies. Lexi is a stay at home mom and Jordan works as an RN.

More information about Ruff Start Rescue and animals for adoption are available at RuffStartRescue.org.