A sweet-natured Great Dane who was surrendered multiple times has made headlines for giving birth to an incredible litter of 15 puppies. The shelter that took the pregnant pup into its care is determined that her next adoptive home will be her last.
Two-year-old Great Dane Meadow was taken in by Nicole Kincaid, founder of Raleigh-based dog rescue organization Perfectly Imperfect Pups (PIP), after she saw a post from Meadow’s former owner on Facebook. The last owner had adopted Meadow from an advertisement on Craigslist but didn’t want to keep her, as she'd discovered the dog was pregnant.
“I reached out immediately, and I said, ‘You know a pregnant dog should definitely not be given away, would you consider giving her to a rescue?’” Ms. Kincaid told The Epoch Times. “In reality, a dog that’s that far pregnant should not be meeting any new dogs, it’s stressful for her. She’s already hormonal, probably uncomfortable; she just needed a space to decompress.”
However, the owner surrendered Meadow to a different woman, who subsequently struggled to integrate the Great Dane with her other dogs. Two days later, Ms. Kincaid intervened, collected Meadow, and placed her with an experienced dog fosterer, Shari Wilson.
“She was a little bit skinny for being pregnant, in decent shape, but just not as healthy as we would have liked to see,” Ms. Kincaid said. “The next day she went to our vet, and the next day she gave birth, so we got her just in time.”
On Oct. 10, Ms. Wilson contacted PIP to inform them Meadow was in labor. After a little medication to help her along when she tired halfway through, Meadow welcomed 15 healthy puppies after over 24 hours: 13 boys (Otis, Felix, Cosmo, Scout, Finn, Duke, Winston, Bruno, Axel, Mack, Diego, Samson, and Buster), and two girls (Bailey and Fiona).
“Number 15 came out around 3:30 in the morning. [Ms. Wilson] actually had thought she was done, and took her out to go do potty, and the 15th puppy was born on her front lawn!” Ms. Kincaid said. “She cleaned off her puppies as she labored and started nursing right away. ... She’s been a great mom to her pups.”
Although Great Danes have been known to have large litters, having 15 puppies was surely unexpected.
“Definitely not a world record, but it’s definitely a lot of puppies!” Ms. Kincaid said.
After obtaining Meadow’s medical history, Ms. Kincaid discovered PIP was her sixth home. The Great Dane had also given birth to a litter back in February, but, sadly, most of those puppies didn’t survive.
Ms. Kincaid believes the 2-year-old dog who has “been through a lot” will find her forever home with her next adopter because she’s “a wonderful dog and deserves the best.” She implores all potential Great Dane owners to research the breed thoroughly before committing since these big dogs can consume a lot of food and generally have large medical bills.
Seven of Meadow’s puppies, who are 2 weeks old at the time of writing, are still being nursed by her. PIP is taking the eight healthiest puppies away to be bottle-fed, so Meadow can take a break. The rescue already has almost 5o adoption applications and a plethora of support for Meadow and her babies, including various supplies from well-wishers.
“We actually had an Amazon wishlist,” Ms. Kincaid said, “and we got so much stuff at one point, even the delivery guy had blocked out my front door.”
Ms. Kincaid has been saving animals since she was a child. She followed her passion into adulthood and has worked in animal rescue for around 14 years, founding PIP in 2020 to focus specifically on dogs with special needs and specific medical requirements. Through all her efforts, she focuses on helping the public to see how amazing these dogs are.
While there are no laws in North Carolina mandating that dog owners spay and neuter their animals, Ms. Kincaid implores all pet owners to do so since a male dog will “stop at nothing” to reach a female dog in heat, and shelters are overcrowded.
“The shelters can’t keep up, the rescues can’t keep up, and we just don’t have enough people to adopt dogs too,” Ms. Kincaid said. “There’s got to be a breaking point, and we’re close to it.”
