Puppies cheer up rescue staff during lockdown

It has been a ‘ruff’ year, but the staff at Birmingham Dogs Home have several reasons to smile, having welcomed two litters of puppies during the local lockdown.

“Both mums and puppies are doing extremely well with one litter being the biggest seen in their history, 16 puppies!” a statement says. “This is a large litter for any mother to have, she has been an amazing mum and very attentive.

“The puppies are a welcome surprise to the staff at Birmingham Dogs Home who have had to shut their doors since 23 March due to Covid-19. The pandemic has brought many challenges along the way as the charity continues to care for over 150 dogs at any one time but saw the cancellation of all its community events which helps to bring dog lovers together to raise the £2.3million needed to run the charity every year.”

Staff at both centres based in Solihull and Wolverhampton have worked behind the scenes ever since, and some cheering up is certainly welcomed.

Centre Manager Karen Doy said, “These puppies were a lovely surprise. With demand for dogs increasing during the pandemic our team have found it extremely hard to ensure our dogs were going to the right homes where we knew they were getting a life-long committed family who will love them like we do.

“Our procedures had to change in line with government guidelines to help keep everyone safe and we also introduced a questionnaire to ensure we could match the right dogs to fit people’s lifestyles.”

She added, “We are so lucky to work with such beautiful dogs and having two litters born here has helped even more to keep our team smiling and realising that homeless dogs have somewhere to go to find help and a safe environment to bring up their young.”

 You can visit the Birmingham Dogs Home social media pages for updates on the puppies and to help give them all a name.

The charity is launching its ‘It’s been a RUFF year’ Christmas Dinner appeal soon which helps provide warm meals to homeless dogs during the festive season. To help dogs in need this Christmas you can donate by heading over to their website, or donate £5 by texting RUFF to 70970.