Meet the real life ‘Lucky’ from 101 Dalmatians! A tiny puppy who almost died at birth is now living his best life after his owner saved him – mimicking the iconic Disney fairytale.
Second-time dog mother Lucy gave birth to an adorable litter of 12 pups after a long 15-hour labour, but owner Bridget Heffernan noticed that one of them wasn’t breathing.
After mother-of-three Bridget, 40, brought the little hound around and bottle-fed him, she realised her efforts were similar to a storyline in 101 Dalmatians, where a cartoon puppy is brought to life following the efforts of his owner.
The spotty pup is now happy and healthy like his brothers and sisters, and worn-out Bridget can now relax after previously bottle feeding him every two hours.
Pictured: Mother Lucy gave birth to an adorable litter of 12 pups after a long 15-hour labour, but owner Bridget Heffernan noticed that one of them wasn’t breathing
Adorable! After mother-of-three Bridget, 40, brought the little hound around and bottle-fed him, she realised her efforts were similar to a storyline in 101 Dalmatians
Pictured: Vinnie the puppy who is the real life Lucky from 101 Dalmatians. The spotty pup is now happy and healthy like his brothers and sisters
Pictured: The litter of puppies. When the pawsome pups were born, they joined a household of four other Dalmatian dogs – mother Lucy, father Kobe, grandmother Rylie and an elder sister from a previous littler called Lyra
Bridget, a shift leader from Downham Market, Norfolk, said: ‘The minute he was delivered, I spotted straight away that something wasn’t quite right and you could tell he was already really small.
‘He was only 200g at birth whereas his brothers and sisters were around 500g.
‘The mum, Lucy, was busy with the other pups so I broke the bag and brought him round until he got breathing but he struggled to latch on to feed – it was touch and go at first and I was extremely worried.
‘On day three he hadn’t gained any weight at all which is then when we decided to take it into our own hands and bottle feed him every two hours during the day and night.
‘He was bottle fed until he was three weeks old before we weaned him onto food and once he got that, the rest was up to him and he managed to get back on his feet.
‘He nearly died at birth but came back to life, similar to Lucky in 101 Dalmatians.
Pictured: Mother Lucy gave birth to an adorable litter of 12 pups after a long 15-hour labour, but owner Bridget Heffernan noticed that one of them wasn’t breathing
Pictured: Mother Lucy and father Kobe taking a rest from looking after their new puppies
Bridget’s daily routine centred around the dogs, often waking at 4:30am to attend to the puppies – who scoffed through a whopping 12 bags of supplementary food while growing up. But now that they have started to go to their forever homes, it’s gone a lot quieter.
The spotty pup is now happy and healthy like his brothers and sisters, and worn-out Bridget can now relax after previously bottle feeding him every two hours
‘It’s a real life fairytale – he wasn’t good at all and if we hadn’t been about he would have died and I’m extremely proud of how far he’s come.’
When the pawsome pups were born, they joined a household of four other Dalmatian dogs – mother Lucy, father Kobe, grandmother Rylie and an elder sister from a previous littler called Lyra – meaning Bridget had 16 dotty dogs in total in her home.
Bridget’s daily routine centred around the dogs, often waking at 4:30am to attend to the puppies – who scoffed through a whopping 12 bags of supplementary food while growing up.
But now that they have started to go to their forever homes, it’s gone a lot quieter.
Bridget added: ‘Lucy had a scan at around 28 days which showed nine puppies but she then went on to have twelve – it was bigger than her last litter of nine and it’s amazing how much extra work the extra three added!
‘I’m super proud of Lucy – she’s a fantastic mum and one in a million.
‘I had to find the miracle puppy a special little home so I’ve found him an experienced dalmatian owner who he’s very happy with.
‘It’s very rewarding seeing all the little puppies grow up from birth and finding their forever homes – they started to leave last Friday and now there’s only two left.
‘I’m used to spending three hours every morning sorting the puppies out because it’s completely manic but now it’s all a lot calmer – I don’t know if I like calm!’