Ashington couple call it puppy love

Posted by The Journal on May 28, 09 12:54 PM in News

A couple from Ashington are caring for nine newborns.

When their beloved British bulldog Olivia died after giving birth two months ago, John and Shirley Ramm vowed to do everything they could to help her huge litter of orphaned puppies to survive.

John and Shirley Ramm with the pups

The couple, both 43, of Keeble Court in Ashington, have since acted as surrogate parents, feeding the tiny puppies with a tube every hour and even being granted special leave from work.

John, 43, said: "Olivia had an unusually large litter of 11 puppies by caesarean, but died of heart failure due to the stress. Two of the puppies then died as well.

"She was part of the family and it was heart-breaking to lose her but we knew that we had to do whatever we could to keep her puppies alive, as otherwise she would have died for nothing.

"We had to feed them with plastic syringes and by the time the last one had been fed, we had to start again.

"They now think Shirley is their real mother and they respond to her voice when she comes into the room. We've had absolutely no life over the past two months but it's been worth it to see them thrive."

Normally British bulldogs only carry four to five puppies and vets have said that it was having such a large litter that killed Olivia, leaving her devastated owners and their son Declan, 11, to battle to save the lives of the orphaned pups.

"Our employers were excellent and we were given time off to care for the puppies," added John, who works at the Alcan aluminium plant in Lynemouth.

"They couldn't have been more supportive. Instead of paternity leave, it was 'pupternity'. Not every employer would be so understanding."

The puppies have now moved on to solids and go through four tins of Carnation milk and several tins of semolina, puppy formula and Pedigree Chum every day.

The Ramms intend to keep two of the dogs and eventually re-house the rest when they are old enough.

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