In October 1998, I received a phone call from a Collie breeder friend telling me that her vet had a two-year-old female Sheltie that the owners had left to be put down. When I called, the receptionist told me that "Princess" had heartworms, and the owners couldn't afford to treat her; they'd kept their other Sheltie, a male who had tested negative for heartworm. I told her I was the Arkansas contact person for the American Shetland Sheepdog Association's Rescue Program, that I needed to contact ASSA's national rescue coordinator, Dorothy Christiansen, but that I felt the rescue would take her. I requested that Princess not be put down.
As expected, Dorothy asked me to save this Sheltie. I
phoned the vet and told them to begin the heartworm treatment immediately.
I picked her up the next afternoon. She was about 15 1/2" tall -- a
fine-boned, mahogany sable with large prick ears and a long thin body (see
photo at right).
By the time Princess went back for her second treatment three weeks later, she had gained two and a half pounds. The vet was very pleased with her weight gain and overall appearance. After listening to her heart, the vet pronounced her almost well. She told me to bring Princess back in three weeks for a final blood check, so we could start her on heartworm preventative and get her spayed.
In the meantime, Princess had made herself at home, getting along fine with my own seven Shelties. She was a sweet girl with a lot of love to give. Still, I knew I would be happy when she could be moved to a permanent, "forever" home of her own.
A week later, November 19, I brought all eight dogs in for the night as it started to rain. All of my own Shelties immediately settled down to sleep, but Princess seemed restless, jumping from the chair, to the floor, to the couch, and back again. She kept looking out the window at the doghouses in the yard and cocking her head. I listened carefully and started to hear what sounded like kittens mewing.
Finally I got a flashlight and went outside into the cold, rainy night. The mewing sounds got louder as I got closer to the doghouses, and I decided the Shelties must have found some very young kittens in the yard and put them in a doghouse. But when I shined the light into the doghouse, I saw.... puppies! Where could they have come from? I knew I'd kept my male, Cody, well away from my bitches as they went through their heats. How did he do it?! Just then, I looked down at my feet, and there was Princess -- Princess, who was not spayed; Princess, whose previous owner had also had an intact male Sheltie....
I was shaking badly by this time. I ran into the house to get a towel, and then ran back outside. I got down on my knees and pulled puppy after puppy out of the dog house. Princess had been away from the puppies for an hour, and they were completely chilled. There were six altogether -- three males and three females -- and they were as cold as ice! I thought immediately that there was no way I could save them, but I knew I had to try.
I ran into the house with the pups and, as quickly as I could, got them on top of a heating pad. Even though it took about an hour and a half before they finally began to feel warm to the touch, they stopped crying as soon as they felt the heat.
Once they were warm, I let Princess begin taking care of them. All of them started eating at once. The smallest was four and a half ounces, but even she started gaining weight within the first 24 hours.
I still don't know how Princess managed to have six puppies with no mess, but I finally decided she'd just done an exceptional job of cleaning herself and her puppies. Of course, I still wonder where she'd managed to hide six puppies inside that thin little body. After having 19 Sheltie litters of my own, I'd never even suspected she was in whelp! I felt a little better that the vets hadn't caught it either.
I called the vet's office the next morning to tell them that Princess had delivered six apparently healthy puppies even after going through the heartworm treatment. Nobody there could believe it. My own vet was less surprised that she had carried the puppies to term. He told me that heartworm treatment now is much less toxic than it used to be. Together, we figured out that Princess would have been five weeks along at the time of her first treatment -- probably late enough to avoid birth defects or other problems.
We will never know the full story. I will always wonder if her owners were aware that their male might have gotten Princess pregnant and if that was part of of the reason they wanted to get rid of her. At any rate, I raised six healthy puppies (photos below at nine and a half weeks). There's no doubt these are purebred shelties, but we'll never know anything about their genetic background. All six were spayed and neutered before the age of three months, and all have been placed in wonderful adoptive homes, where we hope they will have the opportunity for long, healthy, happy lives.
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