Pet Sitter Assured that Pregnant Dog Won’t Go into Labor During Her Stay, Ends Up Delivering 14 Puppies

A woman who agreed to pet sit for her brother ended up with an unexpected responsibility — helping deliver 14 puppies.

Rhian Boxall, from the U.K., offered to watch her brother’s Labrador retriever, Tilly, while he was on vacation. She knew the dog was pregnant but didn’t expect the birth to happen while she was in charge, according to BBC and ITV News.

When Boxall originally agreed to help out, Tilly wasn’t even pregnant yet, she told the BBC. A later scan revealed the dog was carrying around seven puppies and was expected to give birth on September 3.

Boxall still agreed to look after Tilly, reassured by her brother that the birth wouldn’t happen during his trip. But the dog surprised everyone by giving birth a week early — and not to seven, but 14 puppies.

“We thought a few times that that was it, especially considering it was meant to be five or six, but it wasn’t. Quite overwhelming really, at one point we lost count!” Boxall told ITV News.

She said she, her husband Steve, 48, and their two children Nia, 7, and William, 10, went through a “rollercoaster of emotions” as the puppies arrived over 15 hours.

Sadly, two of the puppies did not survive. The surviving 12 were each given different colored collars to help tell them apart.

“I was shocked,” Tilly’s owner, Meirion Thomas, told the BBC about learning his dog had gone into labor early. “It was so frustrating being stuck all those miles away.”

Thomas said that as soon as he got the news, he flew back from the Canary Islands, where he was vacationing with his wife Tracey and their three foster children. He collected Tilly and the puppies from his sister’s home just hours after the birth.

Boxall told ITV News that her family is even considering adopting one of the puppies since they were there to welcome them into the world.

“We’ve thought for many years about having a dog, and the kids are keen. After going through this and falling in love with the pups, we just have to,” she said.

Thomas joked that he might return the favor by dog sitting one day, “although hopefully not a pregnant one!”

While Tilly’s litter was large, it wasn’t a U.K. record. The Guinness World Record for most puppies in a single litter belongs to Tia, a Neapolitan mastiff who gave birth to 24 puppies in 2004 in Manea, U.K.