Karma’s fortunes turned around

Hours away from giving birth, Karma found herself in desperate need of a roof over her head.

The Staffordshire bull terrier’s owner was in a race against time to make sure her much-loved pet was in a safe place for labour, as she was sadly no longer able to keep her.

Thankfully, she brought 18-month-old Karma to our Victoria animal hospital in central London for the urgent vet care she needed, and she gave birth to eight puppies just five hours later. 

Heartbroken but wanting the very best for Karma, her owner asked us to care for both mum and litter and find them all loving homes once they were ready.

Under the care of our expert team, they all thrived – and soon, we transferred the family to our Bromsgrove rehoming centre near Birmingham.

Animal Welfare Assistant, Caroline Oram, didn’t hesitate to step in to provide round-the-clock foster care for Karma and her pups, to ensure the new mum had all the support she needed and provide a crucial home environment for the youngsters to grow up in.

Under Caroline’s expert care, the puppies – named Spirit, Buddha, Asher, Kaleb, Joy, Lotus, Faith and Serenity – went from strength to strength, and Karma took well to motherhood.

She says: “Karma needed a centre space or a foster home immediately, so I offered to take her in and give her all the TLC both her and the pups needed. 

“They were just a few hours old when they arrived and Karma was, understandably, quite bewildered. So, I put on meditation music and kept everything calm and quiet for them all.

"As their mum was called Karma, we decided to give them all names that meant something. So Asher means blessed, and Kaleb means dog faithful.

"My job was to give Karma all of the care she needed so her puppies could thrive."

Despite the upheaval she had endured, Karma very quickly learnt to trust Caroline.

She continues: “She didn’t come out of the conservatory for the first week but quickly started coming in to see me and bonding with me. She has really trusted me with her babies. We became a real team together, it was lovely.

“She would sometimes come to me for a bit of support and would want me to stroke her and give her reassurance while she was feeding. 

“She is so young herself but the most amazing, caring and loving mum. She’s done such a good job. When there are new people around, she’s always checking her puppies are all okay.”

The puppies – four girls and four boys – quickly went from forming “puppy piles” to keep warm to walking and exploring the world around them, with Caroline and the team always on hand to show them the sights and sounds needed for them to grow into happy, confident dogs.

“Their personalities soon started to come out. Asher comes and finds me and Buddha always wants a fuss. Faith is the more worried one but she's grown in confidence,” says Caroline.

Now seven weeks old, the puppies will soon go off to their new homes.

Caroline adds: “This is a wonderful example of our Clinical, Behaviour and Rehoming teams coming together.

"I’m so proud that Blue Cross was there for Karma and her owner, who loved her very much and heartbroken to have to say goodbye to her.”