Four days.
That’s how long Daisy had been in foster care when her labor started.
And almost immediately — everything went wrong.
She’d Already Given Enough
Daisy is a Saint Bernard who was surrendered to rescue when her owner could no longer afford the costs of her delivery. What Jeremy and Ella of The Golden Kobe Family quickly learned, though, was the full picture.
This was Daisy’s third litter in three years. Three pregnancies. No real recovery window between them.
She arrived underweight, calcium-depleted, and carrying a body that had been asked to give far more than it should have. She needed months of rest before another birth. She got four days.
The Moment It Started
There was no warning. One day Daisy was a large, quiet dog slowly adjusting to an unfamiliar home — sharing space with Kobe, a golden retriever, and Moki, a Doberman. The next, Jeremy and Ella were calling the vet.
The birth had begun.
What the Checkup Found
At the vet’s office, the picture clarified — and not reassuringly. Daisy was underweight. Her calcium levels were dangerously low. She had been overbred, and it showed.
And then: the clinic’s hours ended. She was mid-labor.
The Emergency Run
There was no waiting it out. Jeremy and Ella transferred Daisy — an enormous dog actively in labor — to an emergency veterinary clinic. Whatever was going to happen next, it wasn’t going to happen in a closing vet’s office.
The night was just beginning. And it was going to be a long one.
One. Then Another. Then Seven More.
Over the following hours, Daisy delivered nine puppies.
Not quickly. Not easily. One at a time, each one a small, exhausting victory.
A dog who had been given no real recovery time between litters was now delivering her third — under emergency vet supervision, with people she’d known for four days holding the room together around her.
Nine.
Every Two Hours
Nine puppies is not a self-sustaining situation. Jeremy, Ella, and their team began bottle-feeding all of them every two hours — a rhythm that doesn’t care about sleep or daylight or how spent everyone is.
Worth understanding: Low calcium during and after whelping is a serious risk for large-breed dogs — especially those who have been repeatedly overbred, since each pregnancy depletes the body’s reserves. A dog like Daisy, delivering her third litter without recovery time, was at real risk.
In the weeks following birth, low calcium can escalate into a condition called eclampsia — a life-threatening drop in blood calcium that VCA Animal Hospitals classifies as a medical emergency.
Daisy’s vet involvement throughout the birth wasn’t optional. It’s what kept the night from becoming something much worse.
Three Households Caught Them
Caring for nine newborns and one exhausted mama required more hands than any single home could provide. The litter was divided three ways.
Five puppies went to a foster family with another Saint Bernard, who accepted all five as her own. Daisy and a few of her pups went to a second foster home.
Jeremy and Ella kept three to hand-raise themselves — continuing the two-hour schedule that kept every tiny body fed and alive.
It was the only way to give everyone the attention they all needed to survive.
All Nine. And Daisy Too.
The documentary that came from this story has been watched more than four million times. People recognized something in it: the particular weight of watching a living thing fight to hold on when everything is working against it.
All nine puppies were adopted. And so was Daisy.
The dog who arrived with nothing working in her favor — a body already stretched thin, a third litter she hadn’t asked for, a home she’d been in for four days — made it through that night. All ten of them did.
Daisy had already raised litters for people who didn’t keep her.
This time, the people who took her in — and the family who adopted her after — chose her completely.
All nine puppies found their homes. So did their mom.
Watch Daisy’s story (video by The Golden Kobe Family):
Story and footage: The Golden Kobe Family — rescue documentation on YouTube and Apple TV. Support their work via their GoFundMe.
Reviewed by Brianna York, Former Veterinary Technician.
