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A foster pit bull's birth plan was the couch
Kathy fosters rescue dogs, so when her local rescue called about a pregnant mom who needed a safe spot, she said yes. With a pregnant dog in a shelter, you have to move fast. more
The dog was Cookie, a little pit bull, and she took to the family at once. She ran up to every one of them and snuggled with everybody. Kathy doubts she spent a single minute in the house not touching someone.
About two weeks in, Cookie started acting a little funky. She was pacing around, and Kathy knew what that meant. The puppies were almost here.
Kathy had a spot set up for the birth and wanted Cookie to follow her there. Cookie stayed put. The couch, it turned out, was her birth plan, so the family piled things onto the sofa to make it safe and let her get on with it.
Cookie kept looking to them for support. So the whole family stayed close, all of them about two feet away while she gave birth, and she loved that. Before long she seemed to decide she had this.
SaveCookie is small, and Kathy guessed there would be about five puppies. They just kept coming. "Nine puppies is so much," she says, "but Cookie is extraordinary."
Kathy was stunned by Cookie in those first 72 hours and first two weeks. She was dedicated and careful, in with her puppies all the time, always cleaning and feeding them. A mother's nature has a big effect on her puppies, Kathy says, and Cookie's calm is huge for hers. She has shown them they can trust everything.
When the puppies turned 8 weeks, the adopters stepped up and every one of them found a home fast. Cookie found one too, with one of Kathy's friends, so Kathy still gets to see the little dog who picked the couch.
