Family fosters mama dog and 9 puppies

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

It’s a story that didn’t start very well, but it has a happy ending.

It’s the story of Pasta, a dog that came to the Van Wert County Humane Society in late 2022 via the dog warden. She had been picked up near Van Del in Middle Point. Her owners had given her to other people who kept her in a cage. They let her loose but she was found and brought back home. The owners then let her out again, apparently hoping she would run away. That’s when she was found and taken to the Van Wert County Humane Society.

“We had her a few days and noticed her belly was big,” Van Wert County Humane Society Animal Wellness Director Franki Eggleston said. “At first we wondered if she was bloated or full of worms, then we found out she was pregnant. We put out a plea on Facebook for a foster home. We wanted the puppies to be born in a quiet place…Karla Dumire and her family were our choice.”

“My husband (Josh) and I had been discussing getting a third dog but hadn’t come across the right one yet,” Dunmire, a Defiance resident explained. “We are huge dog lovers and wanted to rescue our third dog. All of our dogs are rescues. My friend shared the Van Wert Facebook post about Pasta and I asked my husband and he was all for it.”

Pasta, a Dalmatian-husky mix, was thought to be pregnant with four or five pups, which turned out to be a low estimate.

“She had the pups on November 5 and ended up with nine of the sweetest babies ever,” Dumire said. “We loved on her until the babies were born and she was a natural wonderful mama. I’m not going to lie, nine puppies was a lot but we were committed to making them a great first home and giving them all so much love. We gave them and mama so as much love and attention as we could.”

The original plan was to keep Pasta and put the puppies up for adoption, but as often happens in life, plans change. The family decided to keep a male pup whose eye had to be removed at five weeks of age. However, that pup, Creed, nicknamed Skunkers, is doing fine.
“It broke our hearts not to keep the mama, but he needed extra care and we couldn’t abandon him,” Dumire said.

The rest of the puppies and Pasta were all adopted and Dumire said one of the adopted families started a Facebook page called The Pasta Pups! for the families of those adopted puppies. Anyone with the puppies is encouraged to join the group.

“We have a few on that page but there are a few missing,” she said. “If anyone would like to get in touch with us if they adopted one of the puppies, we would be happy to talk to them and possible future play days, etc.”

Overall, the experience of fostering Pasta and her puppies was a very positive one for the Dumires and it could lead to future fostering experiences.

“We have discussed fostering in the future either pregnant dogs again or even senior dogs,” Dumire stated. “It was an amazing beautiful and rewarding experience. Our friends, family and children were supportive of our journey.”