When Pita first arrived at an overcrowded shelter in Los Angeles, her new friends there weren’t sure what to do. She was very, very pregnant and looked as if she might give birth at any moment. They didn’t have the time, space or resources to care for her, so they reached out to MaeDay Rescue, who immediately agreed to take her in.
When Natalie Garcia, founder of MaeDay Rescue, first saw Pita, she couldn’t believe how big her belly was.
“She looked like she had swallowed a watermelon,” Garcia told The Dodo. “It was insane. She could hardly walk. She was so uncomfortable.”
Garcia took Pita to the vet to have an ultrasound done, and no one could believe how many puppies she had growing inside her tiny body. She was going to give birth any day, so her rescuers settled her into a foster home and waited. Poor Pita was nervous from everything she’d been through and exhausted from being so pregnant, but she slowly began warming up to her rescuers as they helped her get ready to be a mom.
Only a few days after Pita arrived in the rescue’s care, her foster mom called Garcia in a panic.
“I was actually at dinner,” Garcia said. “The foster calls me like, ‘I think it’s happening. She’s digging. She’s licking herself.’ I literally just left in the middle of dinner.”
Garcia and Pita’s foster mom spent the entire night helping Pita, and by morning, she had five healthy puppies: Ciabatta, Loaf, Baguette, Focaccia and Rye.
It seemed like the perfect happy ending — until they realized the puppies’ dad, Bagel, was still at the shelter.
Bagel and Pita had arrived at the shelter together, and everyone assumed he was probably the father of her babies. Unfortunately, Bagel wasn’t able to be pulled from the shelter at the same time as Pita, but eventually he made his way into the care of MaeDay Rescue as well.
“I was like, ‘Well, we should just get the whole family, you know,’” Garcia said. “We were making so many jokes about him not helping, like where is he? He hasn’t even sent a card to say congrats on the babies.”
Pretty soon, Bagel was settled into a foster home, too. Both he and Pita were scared of strangers and took some time to warm up to their new lives. They’d been through a lot, but they slowly began to realize they were finally safe.
Since then, Pita and Bagel have gone off to wonderful forever homes, and their babies will soon enough, too. The entire family had a rough beginning, but thanks to their rescuers, they all get to live happily ever.
