November 4, 2009 Rare puppies lose mother, surrogate found Play video

(NECN/KDKA) - The staff at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium is working overtime to raise a litter of African Painted dogs. The hardest part is that the tiny puppies don't have their mother.

However, an unlikely surrogate has saved the day.

But, Honey is no ordinary dog. She's now a surrogate mom for these African Painted dog puppies. Their mother died two days after giving birth to them in the Pittsburgh Zoo. That was about 10 days ago.

The chance of these pups surviving is just 50%, and that's with a healthy mother.

The Zoo put out the word that it needed a female dog who was nursing her pups.

This mixed breed was the perfect fit.

Internationally, there is a lot of attention to this litter of nine, but locally the attention also focuses on a dog that came from a local animal shelter.

The next challenge comes when the pups are weaned, because there's no mother to feed them regurgitated food like in the wild. For now, those worries can wait.

There are only three to six thousand African Painted dogs remaining in the wild, so keeping these puppies alive is a very big deal for the zoo staff.