A female dog lost her six puppies, stopped eating for five days, and a cardboard box changed everything in 47 seconds.
Daniela placed the box on the reception counter and kept one hand on the lid.
« I know I should have called sooner, » she told me. « But I couldn’t waste any more time. »
I looked at the box. From inside came a small moan.
— What are you bringing here?
Daniela took a deep breath.
— Four puppies. They are about twelve days old. They have no mother. And I believe Luna is their only chance.
My stomach clenched. Luna had been lying facing the wall of her cage for five days. Five days without barking. Five days almost without eating. Five days after losing her six puppies.
My name is Teresa Salgado, I’m 55 years old, and for the past seventeen years I’ve run a small animal shelter on the outskirts of Pátzcuaro, in Michoacán. I worked as a nurse for many years before that. I thought that had prepared me to see suffering. I was wrong. I’ve seen hundreds of sick, abandoned, old, frightened, or injured dogs. But I had never seen a mother abandon her like Luna.
Luna arrived on a Monday afternoon. She was three years old, weighed about 28 kilos, and was a boxer mix with a brindle coat with white markings, a black mask, and a left ear that always flopped to one side. Until that day, she had lived with Arturo, a 43-year-old man who kept a few dogs at home. That morning, Arturo was taking Luna and her six eleven-day-old puppies to Morelia. The puppies were traveling in a wooden crate in the back of the vehicle. On a bend in the road, the accident occurred. The crate wasn’t properly secured.
Five puppies died instantly. The sixth, the smallest of the litter, survived only slightly longer and died while they were trying to treat him. Luna had a shoulder injury, but she was out of danger. Arturo handed her over to the shelter that day. When he signed the papers, he couldn’t look at her. « I can’t take her home after this, » he said. Luna didn’t look at him either.
Since arriving in the medical ward, she had been lying on a bed against the wall, her muzzle pressed against it. For the first 36 hours, she barely drank. She refused food. Her body was still producing milk because she didn’t understand what had happened. The shelter’s veterinarian, Dr. Ricardo López, examined her several times a day. On the third day, he found me sitting on the floor in the cage. I had an open book on my lap. I wasn’t reading to Luna. I was simply sitting there for an hour each afternoon so she would know that someone was still near her.
Ricardo observed Luna.
— Teresa, physically she can recover.
— And the rest?
It took him several seconds to reply.
– I don’t know.
Luna didn’t raise her head.
Ricardo lowered his voice.
— There are animals that stop fighting.
That phrase stayed with me for two days. Until Daniela appeared with that box.
The cardboard box and the encounter
Daniela was 27 years old and worked as a veterinary technician at a small clinic in Morelia. She had never been to our shelter. Three hours earlier, a man had found a cardboard box on the side of a secondary road. Inside were four newborn puppies. Someone had left them there. They were cold, weak, and starving. At the clinic, they had tried bottle-feeding them, but they barely responded. They were too small.
“The vet I work with heard that you had a dog that lost her litter,” Daniela explained. “We thought that maybe…”
She didn’t finish her sentence. I knew what she was thinking.
— Do you want to try to get Luna to accept them?
Daniela nodded.
— I know she can reject them.
— She could also hurt them.
– I know.
I called Ricardo. He came to the reception desk, looked in the box, and remained silent. On a blanket were four tiny puppies. Two were black. One was black with white patches. The fourth was brindle and white. It was clearly the smallest. They were just beginning to open their eyes.
Ricardo crouched down.
— They are about the same age as Luna’s puppies would be.
Then he looked at us.
— That could work.
Daniela clasped her hands against the edge of the box.
– Really ?
— This could also turn out very badly.
Ricardo explained that some mothers will accept puppies from another litter when they have recently lost their own, especially if they are still producing milk. But there were no guarantees. Luna could ignore them, get upset, or reject them immediately.
« We have to do it in her space, » Ricardo said. « Without forcing her. And someone has to be ready to remove the puppies at the first sign of aggression. »
I closed the lid of the box.
— So let’s go.
We walked to the isolation area. Alejandra, a caregiver from the shelter who had worked with me for six years, came too. I looked through the small window in the door. Luna was exactly as she had been before. Her back to me, facing the wall. She hadn’t moved for several hours. I opened the door. I went in with the box. I placed it on the floor, about two meters from Luna. Ricardo stayed near the open door. Alejandra held a clean blanket. Daniela stayed in the hallway. I lifted the lid.
For the first eight seconds, absolutely nothing happened. Then the brindle puppy let out a little cry. A short, high-pitched sound. Luna twitched one ear. Just that. Her left ear, the one that normally hung down to the side of her head, lifted slightly. The puppy cried again. Another one responded. Then a third. Luna lifted her muzzle from the ground.
I felt Daniela take my arm from the doorway. Luna wasn’t looking at us yet. She lifted her nose. She sniffed. Once. Twice. Then she slowly turned her head toward the box. No one spoke. Luna sat up. I’d been waiting for this for five days, hoping to see her get up on her own. We’d had to help her out for a few minutes to get some care. But this time, no one touched her. She got up by herself. She walked toward us. Her left front paw was still a little stiff from the injury, so she moved slowly. One step. Another. Another. She reached the box.
Ricardo stretched his arms slightly, ready to intervene. Luna lowered her muzzle. She looked at the four puppies. Daniela began to cry silently. I couldn’t breathe. Luna brought her nose close to the brindle puppy. She sniffed it. Then she stuck out her tongue and licked its head. Just once. The puppy stopped crying. Luna licked it again. Then she moved on to the black puppy next to it. Then to the black and white one. Then to the last one. She cleaned them one by one. Exactly like a mother cleans her newborns.
I thought that would be all. I was wrong.
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