- Nova, a Great Pyrenees, was the accepting adopted mother of the litter of six
- The Labrador crosses, found in Texas, needed immediate feeing from the stray
- The puppies are now being weaned by Nova at a foster home before adoption
A stray mother dog who was found without her litter has melted hearts around the world after stepping in as a surrogate for another litter of abandoned puppies.
Texas-based shelter Fort Bend County Animal Services put out a plea for help with a litter of six puppies, and remarkably Nova, a Great Pyrenees dog ‘full of milk’ for her lost babies was brought in to become a provider for the starving pups.
Thanks to the accepting mother, the litter are doing even better than expected after Nova was able to take them from being ‘bottle babies’ to feeding naturally from an adult dog.
The shelter posted to X on October 26: ‘Everyone meet Nova! The hero mama dog who’s swooping in to save the day and care for these babies!
‘Our D litter of bottle baby puppies aren’t bottle babies anymore!’
Nova, a Great Pyrenees stray mother found without her litter, was able to swoop in and save a set of six puppies who were in urgent need of feeding
The labrador crosses were found without their biological mother on October 24, when Fort Bend County Animal Services put out a plea for someone to bottle feed the litter
The pups are now ‘growing like weeds’ at a foster home with Nova, where they will be until they can be adopted individually
Nova and her six new puppies, who are Labrador cross breeds, have now been moved to a foster home which plans to adopt Nova after the little ones have been weaned – which will take roughly another month.
At that point the puppies will also be put up for adoption, after being neutered.
The hero of the story had been found all alone but obviously missing a litter of her own which could sadly not be located nearby, before the quick-thinking member of the public saw it as a solution to FBCAS’s outcry and carted her to the shelter.
Similarly, the pups had been found healthy but without their mother in sight when they were picked up and taken to the shelter.
Rene Vasquez, director of FBCAS, told PEOPLE: ‘They were tiny, needing immediate bottle feeding and care, they were just about a week to 10 days old.’
But Vasquez added that they are now ‘growing like weeds’ thanks to Nova.
And the adopting mother has also seemed more than happy with the arrangement.
‘Nova was so happy to see the puppies!’ Vasquez added.
‘She took to them right away, and they were very happy to have a mama and food!’
However, the shelter’s director said that not all cases she is faced with have such happy endings.
She said that the industry is facing a ‘crisis’ as the number of animals being abandoned increases to a point which fosterers and shelters cannot cope with.