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A RETIRED nurse relied on her medical training to help deliver her pedigree dog's first puppies.
Carol Marsden is more used to specialising in orthopaedic nursing but used her skills to become a vet when her pet's litter of eight poodles decided to put in an appearance.
The 50-year-old of Tickhill, delivered Rosie's first three puppies before the arrival of well-known West Yorkshire dog breeder Malcolm
Fozard, who then took charge of the seven-hour delivery.
As a first-time mum it was a big occasion for the proud poodle whose full name is Sukanto My Fair Lady.
Carol, who lives with husband John, said: "Rosie went into labour unexpectedly at 10.30am and I immediately rang Malcolm who travelled over straight away from his home in Leeds.
"By the time Malcolm arrived I had delivered three of the puppies. It was not until 5.30pm that the last of the eight puppies was born.
"We celebrated the births of Rosie's family by opening a bottle of champagne."
All of the puppies, four boys and four girls, are black like their pedigree poodle father, Alfie, otherwise known as Kertellas on Easy Street at Montravia.
He belongs to Marita Rodgers from Newark who has bred many show winners including a winner of the Supreme Championship title at Crufts.
Carol, who worked at Sheffield's Northern General Hospital, has named the boy puppies Shadow, Victor, Leo and Duke and the girls Lucy, Belle, Duchess and Tess.
She added: "Rosie is proving to be a wonderful mum but we are helping her to raise her offspring by feeding and weighing the puppies at regular intervals throughout the night.
"Our near neighbours, the Stone family, are helping to keep Rosie's strength up by providing her with a litre of milk every day from their pet goat."
One of the boys, Duke, has already found a new home. When he is eight weeks old he will be going to a family who contacted Malcolm to say they wanted a pedigree poodle puppy.
Malcolm was able to make their day by telling them about Rosie's newborn pups - and just by chance the family also lives in Tickhill.
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Weather for Doncaster
Friday 25 May 2012
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Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
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