“[She’s] basically the polar bear dog version of Moo Deng.”
Salem was surrendered to a neighbor in a rural area of Mississippi after her family decided they didn’t want her anymore. The neighbor contacted Happy Tails Canine Rescue, who immediately agreed to take her in. When they picked her up, she was malnourished, injured and had several types of worms. Their first priority was taking her to the vet and beginning her healing journey.
As soon as the rescue posted about Salem on their social media pages, so many people wanted to adopt her.
“We agreed to let her be adopted (basically a foster to adopt) while the rescue paid for her spay and her heartworm treatment,” Christina Gómez, director and founder of Happy Tails Canine Rescue, told The Dodo. “She was adopted on October 26th, and her spay was scheduled for November 8th. Well … when the vet went in to spay her, they called me letting me know she was HEAVILY pregnant and due in about 2 to 3 days.”
Everyone was absolutely shocked. Salem had no belly whatsoever, and neither her rescuers nor her new family had any idea she was pregnant. The vet did an X-ray to determine how many puppies Salem was having — and that’s when they learned about surprise number two.
“Salem was pregnant with ONE giant puppy,” Gómez said. “This is called a singleton puppy and pretty rare for dogs, but it can happen. The puppy was literally taking up her whole uterus!”
Her new family was shocked but relieved that Salem was only having one puppy. They agreed to foster her puppy until she was big enough to be adopted out — and about five days later, Salem gave birth to Astrid, the biggest puppy anyone had ever seen.
“[She’s] basically the polar bear dog version of Moo Deng,” Gómez said.
Salem’s family already has two other pets and two children, so keeping Astrid isn’t an option. She’ll stay with her mom until she’s big enough to find a home of her own, though, and the rescue will make sure she finds the perfect family.
“She will provide a special family with so much joy and their own polar bear puppy,” Gómez said.
