In the hollow of a tree trunk, 11 little babies waited for their mom to return. One or two of the braver pups poked their fuzzy heads out of the opening and looked around the Missouri yard. It was cold, and they were hungry.
The pups yipped in excitement when their mom finally approached, drawing the attention of the nearby homeowner.
“Hey, um, there’s this mom dog over here on Eighth Street … and there’s, like, 12 little heads sticking out of this tree trunk,” the homeowner told Tanya Meeks, president and founder of Ozarks Pet Rescue, over the phone.
Meeks was relieved. She’d been tracking the mama dog for weeks but hadn’t been able to pinpoint the location of her babies.
Meeks, along with a few other rescuers, rushed to the tree, where they were able to scoop out the first two babies. Then, things became challenging. Not only was the mama dog not happy with people near her den, but the rest of the pups retreated deeper into the tree trunk, tucking themselves away in crevices too small to be reached by adult hands.
Meeks knew she had to get creative, so she called one of the rescue’s board members. The board member arrived with her young son, who was game to help.
“He climbed up into the tree and started pulling the puppies out one by one,” Meeks told The Dodo. “He barely fit inside there, but once he was able to squeeze into the hole, he was able to get down into the dips and dives and started grabbing.”
Finally, all 11 puppies were safe in the rescuers’ care. But just when everything seemed to be going well, the mama dog got scared and bolted out of the rescuers’ hands.
The puppies were rushed to the vet to be evaluated. Unfortunately, help came too late for the smallest of the litter, who was too severely anemic to survive the first night. The rest of the puppies were deemed healthy, and Meeks started working on reuniting them with Mom.
“We just kept going back every day with her babies, trying to encourage her,” Meeks said. “We tried putting them in the live trap, and we’d cover them up with a blanket so she’d have to go through the trap to see them. But, yeah, she was just not falling for those antics.”
Then, one day when it was too cold to bring the babies outside, Meeks asked the puppies’ foster mom to record their little howls and cries. Meeks was getting ready to place the Bluetooth speaker in the trap when suddenly she felt something.
“All of a sudden, I felt little licks on the back of my neck, and it was her,” Meeks said. “And I’m just like, ‘OK, but I don’t have a leash with me.’ So I had to go grab a leash, and she freaked out and ran again.”
But, to Meeks’ surprise, the mama dog ran right in the trap. It was like she finally understood the rescuer was there to help. “It just brought tears to our eyes when we finally caught her,” Meeks said.
When the mama dog, whom Meeks named Aida, was finally reunited with her babies, she was so excited and overwhelmed she didn’t know what to do. She kept returning to Meeks for pets and reassurance as her babies literally jumped for joy around her.
“She kept running up to me and licking me, like, ‘Is this real? Is this real?’ And the puppies were just screaming and running towards her to get reattached,” Meeks said.
You can watch the family’s reunion here:
Once Aida was safe with her puppies in a real home, her entire personality changed. She was finally relieved of the day-to-day hardship of prowling the streets in search of food and protecting her babies from predators and the elements. With the support of her foster family, Aida and her puppies have flourished.
“She’s just a just the sweetest girl,” Meeks said. “She’s doing just absolutely amazing.”
Now, Aida and her puppies are soaking up all the love and attention possible until they’re ready to find their forever homes.
If you’re interested in adopting Aida or one of her puppies, you can fill out an application here. To help other dogs like Aida get the help they need, you can make a donation to Ozarks Pet Rescue.
