Starving and Alone, Mama Dog Fights to Protect Her Puppies With Everything She Has

When Milan and his co-worker at Dog Rescue Shelter, Serbia arrived in a remote rural area to rescue a mama dog and her puppies, she was far from happy to see them. Determined to protect her babies, she barked, snarled, and fought to keep them away.

Seeing how upset and defensive the mama dog was, Milan knew he had to proceed with caution. They brought out a cage, hoping to safely contain her so they could reach the puppies hidden in a large heap of discarded dead branches.

The mama dog was starving and couldn’t resist the food. They watched as she quickly ran into the cage to eat. Now free to rescue the pups, they began pulling away the dead branches from the tightly woven pile. The mama had been very cautious, hiding her den deep in the tangled heap to keep her babies safe. It took a long time to dig through the wood to get to them.

“It took a long time to reach them,” Milan said. But their persistence paid off. When they finally reached the puppies, they found two little ones—plump and well-fed. They were around two weeks old. Despite being without food or water herself, the mama had done an incredible job caring for them.

To be certain no others were hidden inside, Milan went deeper into the den and double-checked that there were no more puppies.

The moment the mama was released at the shelter, she ran straight to her pups and barked, still upset from being separated. But after being given food and water, she finally began to trust the humans who were helping her.

Now, just a few weeks later, the puppies are growing quickly—and all three are looking for their forever homes. Visit https://dogrescueshelter.org/donate/ to apply to adopt the dogs or to help support the shelter.