Last Friday, staffers at the Sacramento SPCA (SSPCA) in California came across an unexpected sight when they arrived at work. In front of the shelter’s adoption center sat a mother pit bull, along with her entire litter of puppies.
The pit bull mother was not chained up and she was left without food and water. Even so, for an undetermined amount of time (the shelter estimates all night), she remained by the side of her days-old newborns.
“We’re not sure how she came to be at the shelter,” Sarah Varanini, foster care coordinator at the SSPCA, told The Dodo.
“Although she was still bleeding a little, there wasn’t the large amount that you would usually see from a birth, especially of 10 pups, so we are assuming that she gave birth some place else and was dropped at the shelter shortly after,” she said.
Varanini said that, while finding foster care for a family this large is often difficult, this mom and her pups were able to get squared away on Monday at a home with a thrilled foster dad.
Apparently, he’s been Snapchatting photos of his new guests …
… since their arrival.
The pit bull mom is estimated to be about a year old and has been “amazingly sweet” to both the SSPCA staff and her current foster dad, Varanini said.
She’s allowed strangers to handle her babies without any problems.
The family is expected to remain in foster care for two months, until the puppies are old enough to be separated from their mother and put up for adoption.
“She [was] … just left there,” Varanini noted about the mom. “It’s a testament to the bonds of motherhood that she didn’t up and walk away during the night. She’s very dedicated to those little babies.”
If you live in or near the California area and are interested in adopting one of these dogs, click here to learn more about the process.
Watch this video about a blind bulldog dumped at the SSPCA who eventually found a big brother just like him: