Record-breaking litter born at NC rescue days after Great Dane mom arrived. See it
A Great Dane made a grand entrance at a North Carolina rescue by giving birth to a record-breaking litter just days after walking, or waddling, through the door.
Meadow joined Perfectly Imperfect Pups, based out of Raleigh, on Oct. 8 after bouncing around from home to home, including five different homes since February, according to the rescue.
“In February she had a litter of pups and that started her journey through no fault of her own,” Nicole Kincaid, founder and director of Perfectly Imperfect Pups, told McClatchy News in an email.
Kincaid said staff at the rescue had seen the “sweet girl” posted on a local social media site and they reached out to see if she was available for rescue.
Meadow, a 2.5-year-old Great Dane, had been spoken for already, Kincaid said, but then two days later the person said the situation “wasn’t working” and asked the rescue to take Meadow.
“We jumped into action right away and got her, got her to our vet,” Kincaid said.
Meadow was very pregnant, so time was of the essence to make her comfortable before the big arrival.
Just two days after Meadow walked her giant body through the front door, she went into labor.
Then, 15 puppies lay at her feet.
“Danes tend to have a little larger of litters, but 15 is a lot,” Kincaid said. “Usually with a litter this large you will have one or two not survive the birth, but all survived and all are thriving.”
“It’s record-breaking for us,” Kincaid said, as a litter of 10 is the largest the rescue has had before.
Meadow and her brood are living with a foster mom, Kincaid said, who is supplementing the milk Meadow can provide with extra feeding to make sure all 15 puppies grow strong.
Kincaid said the puppies are weighed every day to make sure they are gaining weight.
Pending a healthy stamp of approval, all of the puppies will be eligible for adoption once they reach 8 weeks old. Prospective adopters have already started submitting applications, Kincaid said, but the rescue will begin screening potential homes and allow people to visit the puppies once they are 6 weeks old.
“They can be great dogs. Personally, I have a deaf Great Dane and he is so good,” Kincaid said. “With any dog, you want to socialize, train and desensitize the pups starting at a young age. We do as much of this as possible within the rescue and an adopter should continue that.”
Kincaid said the rescue is looking for potential adopters who have experience with large breeds of dogs and understand the amount of food, medical care and training they require.
But the puppies aren’t the only ones looking for a forever home.
“We are taking applications now for the pups and Meadow, but we won’t start processing the (applications) for a few weeks,” Kincaid said. “Meadow is on a similar time frame (as the puppies).”
More information about the rescue and the adoption process can be found on the Perfectly Imperfect Pups website.
This story was originally published October 17, 2023 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Record-breaking litter born at NC rescue days after Great Dane mom arrived. See it."
