'Fat' rescue dog gives birth to ten puppies

A family say their lives have been turned upside down after rehoming what they were told was an overweight dog, only for it to have 10 puppies a month later. Melissa Moroney and her family re-homed "podgy" chocolate labrador Tilly from the City Dogs' Home on February 17.

On a return visit to the Bucknall kennels two weeks later, for Tilly to have a second set of inoculations and be micro-chipped, remarks were passed about a phantom pregnancy, but Mrs Moroney says staff dismissed the idea of a real one.

On March 19, she woke to find Tilly nursing the puppies, of which eight survived. Mrs Moroney, from Waterhayes, is now having to look after them and says she is upset that the City Dogs' Home did not realise her dog was pregnant.



The mother-of-three, who has another dog and two cats, said: "It is really bad not to detect two weeks before delivery that a dog is pregnant with 10 puppies. I was dragging Tilly on long walks to try to get the weight off – why would I think for one minute that I would be given a pregnant dog?"

Mrs Moroney, aged 37, a full-time mum, said: "I've had to use money I inherited from my grandmother to cover the costs. It was fall-back money, but not intended for this. I'm completely trapped in the house because the puppies need constant attention and I have spent two weeks sleeping on the sofa to make sure they are okay."

"I think the dogs' home should cover the cost of having my puppies checked and inoculated so that they can be re-homed. They are absolutely fine and beautiful but we can only say so much because we don't know the history of their parents." Vicky Phillips, manager of the City Dogs' Home, declined to comment.