Golden Retriever Rescue Puzzles All After Unusual Puppies Are Birthed

If there’s one thing that’s universal, it’s that people everywhere love baby animals. You can see evidence of that with just a quick look at YouTube or Instagram, where videos and photos of adorable kittens and puppies are the norm.

Rosie is a Golden Retriever who was abandoned by her owners in October 2017. The former owners left a very pregnant Rosie at a shelter and didn’t give an explanation as to why they were disowning her.

Rosie’s situation was clear to the staff at the shelter. The soon-to-be mama dog needed caring owners as quickly as possible. But could they find a home for a heavily pregnant dog? It’s challenging enough to find homes for adorable puppies, much less an adult dog who’s coming in with baggage.

Fortunately, the manager of the shelter knew of a rescue organization for Golden Retrievers. Neuse River Golden Retriever Rescue is a nonprofit organization that helps find homes for Golden Retrievers in Raleigh, North Carolina. The organization rehabilitates Golden Retrievers and gets them into good homes.

Fortunately for Rosie, the organization knew of a couple who was willing to care for Rosie and her special needs. One of the volunteers picked Rosie up from the shelter the next day after they received the call. By then, Rosie was dangerously close to giving birth, and the volunteer even worried that she would give birth on the way to the veterinary clinic!

The rescuer knew what their next task would be: getting Rosie into a good foster home where she could receive assistance with giving birth. That’s where a caring couple named John and Katie Black entered the picture. The Blacks have fostered more than 20 dogs since they first started fostering in 2009.

John and Katie ended up taking Rosie into their home on October 28, 2017. It was just enough time for the sweet girl to get comfortable and settled in. She had been abandoned at the shelter just five days before, so making all of this happen so quickly was a kind of miracle.

Although Rosie was “very preggers,” as the Blacks described in their Instagram post, she was still shy and scared. Nevertheless, despite the uncertainty of her life, Rosie kept a sweet disposition about her at all times. When it came time for her to give birth, John and Katie were on hand to help the new mama.

The birth had difficulties, but it wasn’t anything that the birthing team (Katie, John, and Rosie) couldn’t handle. Mama and the puppies all were absolutely fine. In fact, the puppies were the correct weight and size for Rosie’s breed, or at least what people had assumed was Rosie’s breed.

Besides being a smaller litter of puppies, Rosie had another surprise for the couple who helped her deliver her little ones. In another viral Instagram post, Katie hilariously said that their foster dog who was a Golden Retriever mix gave birth to “baby cows.” And that’s exactly what they looked like!

No one knew what type of breed the father of the puppies was, but one thing was clear. These little pups were adorable. Katie and John named them Clarabelle, Daisy, Moo, and Betsy. This is a funny play on names traditionally given to cows, so it’s very cute that the Blacks thought of these names.

Katie and John Black became even more curious about what breed of dog may have fathered these cute black and white puppies. Honestly, these pups look so different from their mom, Rosie, that it’s hard to believe they’re even her biological offspring. Not a hint of Golden Retriever seemed to be in these little dogs.

People on social media wasted no time in trying to guess the ethnicity of Rosie’s little ones. Theories were all over the place, with some people suggesting that the father was a Dalmatian. Other social media users came up with wetterhound, bluetick coonhound, and even English setters.

Katie’s dad was having the most fun of everyone, or so it seemed. She said that her dad loved the mismatch so much that it was his idea to post the photos online. He even joked around, saying that they would go viral. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened when Katie put the photos on social media.

Katie posted the photos to Reddit first, and that is where she got all of the upvotes and comments. However, when she posted the photos on Instagram, things really went crazy. Rosie was a sensation and the world fell in love with her cute puppies.

One organization, the Australian Shepherd Health and Genetics Institute, reported that dominant genes will always outrank genes that are recessive, and this often determines a dog’s appearance. That makes a lot of sense. It’s safe to assume that Rosie definitely passed on the puppies’ recessive genes and the father (whoever he is!) gave the dominant genes to his offspring.

People from Reddit were astonished at the spotted puppies who were born to a Golden Retriever mom. Some users even attempted to translate the expression on the adorable Rosie’s face. She looked confused in some photos, and one user suggested she was saying that there had been some sort of “mixpup” (pun intended).

The Reddit user who suggested that Rosie looked outraged jokingly said that everyone was being a “Karen” because having pups that look different is not such a big deal. She said, “Are you really that closed minded???” The comments showed that everyone got a huge kick out of the funny suggestions.

When someone suggested that Katie and John intentionally bred two of their dogs who are in foster care, Katie was horrified. She had to explain that Rosie came to them already very pregnant and that it just wasn’t something that she and John would ever do.

Rosie was still suffering from poor health and as it turns out, she had an infection. The poor sweet girl had to be on antibiotics for several weeks, but she did get better. Rosie was suffering from a bacterial infection called Metritis, which can happen after a difficult birth.

Eventually Rosie became healthier and was able continue with her motherly duties. She was finally able to feed her babies herself without the assistance of John and Katie. Rosie was one proud mama and she loved those babies deeply.

The couple knew they couldn’t keep all five dogs forever, but they found good homes for them. The Blacks were of course sad to see these unique pups go, but they were happy knowing that each dog would be with families who could properly love and care for the growing pups.

Rosie had to say her goodbyes to her pups with each new adoption. While Rosie was properly spayed and won’t be able to have any more puppies in the future, she’ll always have the memory of her four unique “cow pups” that crashed the internet in delight and confusion.