In the cool morning hours of the May 23 long weekend, a good Samaritan found this tiny 6-pound Pomeranian wandering in a school yard. They brought her to the Richmond Animal Shelter where staff quickly realized she was very pregnant and rushed her to the veterinarian. X-rays revealed she had 3 full-term puppies inside and was ready to deliver at any time. Taking her back to the shelter, our little dog (now named Rita) was made comfortable and the wait began.
By 4:00 p.m. she began vomiting and appeared to be weak and in distress. All regular veterinary hospitals had closed for the holiday weekend leaving our only option the Mainland Emergency Hospital in Surrey. Little Rita was quickly loaded into a RAPS staff member's car. During the long drive, she suffered motion sickness and, by the time she arrived at the hospital, she had vomited several more times and was having diarrhea. She must have been lost and wandering for several days, as the only content in her stomach and intestines was green grass.
After examining Rita, the Surrey veterinarians decided she was too weak and would be unable to deliver the puppies on her own. She was obviously having contractions but could not push or even lift her tiny head. Blood tests were taken and she was immediately placed on intravenous fluids preparing her for an emergency Caesarian delivery.
Within minutes three little puppies were delivered, however only one could be saved. Emergency staff did all they could to revive the tiny babies, but finally had to accept defeat and give up. Rita was put on oxygen and her condition remained critical throughout the night.
The next morning, our new mom and tiny little Randy (named after the vet who delivered him) were discharged into the care of a RAPS employee and taken home to recover. There were many tense days ahead as Rita would not eat or drink and continued to vomit grass. Her caretakers had to care for both mom and baby as she was too weak to care for herself or clean her new puppy. After 4 days of intravenous fluids and force feeding, she finally took her first small bites of food and lifted her feeble little body up and began to groom her wee puppy. Everyone at RAPS breathed a sigh of relief and rejoiced that one more little animal had been saved to enjoy a better life.
