A heavily pregnant dog was abandoned just hours before she gave birth to 12 puppies.
Darla the Staffordshire bull terrier was taken in by animal charity Blue Cross in Ipswich after her owners were evicted.
But 48 hours later staff were shocked when one-year-old Darla had a huge litter of puppies, and they all need rehoming.
It’s the largest litter the Blue Cross has ever had, but they’re hoping to find them all forever homes before Christmas.
Animal welfare assistant Bradley Tovell, said: ‘When we received a call asking us to help Darla, we couldn’t turn her away.
‘She was likely to go into labour any day and as her owners were being evicted, she faced having her pups on the streets.
‘Thankfully we did have room at our inn, or rather kennels, because within two days of admitting her, Darla’s pups had arrived.
‘The team have been helping Darla by bottle feeding her pups and hand feeding her as well.
‘Twelve puppies is a large litter for any dog, let alone a dog of Darla’s petite size. It’s certainly the biggest litter we’ve ever had at Blue Cross.
‘She is doing amazing and we’re so proud of her. Because she has so many mouths to feed, we’ve been helping her out by supplementing the puppies’ mealtimes with bottles four times a day.
‘Poor Darla has been too exhausted to eat, so we’ve been encouraging her by hand feeding her too.’
The whole family will stay in Blue Cross care until the puppies are old enough to be weaned and leave mum, after eight weeks.
The puppies, six boys and six girls, already have homes to go to and one will be found for Darla.
The male pups are called Sun, Star, Galaxy, Neptune, Earth and Jupiter while their sisters are Moon, Comet, Mercury, Venus, Pluto and Saturn.
