Happy Dog/Sad Dog Story

Thank you, The Daily Mail, for delivering to readers not one but two gripping dog-related stories today. One is heartbreaking and sad. The other? Heartwarming and joyous. And both include photos of gorgeous canines. Get ready to melt/feel outraged/feel good inside.

First, the Sad Dog Story.

A gang of children aged as young as 10 were caught trying to roast a pair puppies over a bonfire. Passerby Melanie Johnson spotted them kicking the pups and holding them over the fire on a canal bank. The youngsters fled, abandoning the dogs, when she challenged them.

Has there ever been a more gut-wrenching opening line to an article in the history of journalism? I think not. I want my mummy. But it’s okay! The puppies are fine!

Ms Johnson, 32, took the puppies home, then passed them on to an RSPCA centre where staff treated the dogs and are now looking to find them new homes. The seven-week-old dogs, have now been named Guy and Cinders by RSPCA staff.

I am glad the puppies are okay, and my GOD they’re cute… but I’m just not sure I can agree with RSPCA staff calling them Guy (presumably as in Fawkes) and Cinders. Honestly! That’s like nurses calling a newborn baby left outside a hospital Mummyfreakedout, or police deciding to name a toddler abandoned by her criminal father Pumpkin because her real name was foreign and confusing and shit.

Onto the Happy Dog Story!

A fireman who helped his German Shepherd give birth to seven puppies was astonished to later return home to discover the dog was in labour again. Andrew Louis, 26, stayed with three-year-old Lila as she delivered a further six puppies over the next two hours.

Andrew Lewis is clearly the most dedicated pet owner ever. Also, he makes very detailed notes.

‘The first arrived at 5.10am followed by the second at 6.50am, and others at 6.55am, 7.20am, 7.28am, 7.45am and 7.58am. Lila had everything perfectly under control. She was licking her pups clean as they arrived and proving a super mother. From what I had been told I thought seven pups would be her labour completed and I felt confident enough to take Jen to work. But when I returned home Lila wasn’t settled and at 9.40am started giving birth again. Pup number nine arrived at 9.56 and the next at 10.14am. I had to give her a hand with number 11, which seemed to get stuck but at 11am I managed to pull it out. Number 12 arrived at 11.45am and again we thought she was finished. But, to our amazement, at 2.15pm she gave birth to number 13.’

And would you just look at them!

This makes me want to have a baby. A really hairy blonde baby.

MORE:
Gang of children – some as young as TEN – caught slowly roasting puppies over bonfire
Fireman moonlights as midwife to help his dog deliver 13 puppies