Dogsey

The late-night duties for an Omaha couple grew by leaps and bounds after their pet bull mastiff surprised them with a litter of 23 puppies.

Lamar Williams, 25, said he knew his dog “Little Mama” was “ready to pop” when he took her for a walk the night of April 27.

He and his wife Shanesha, who have two little girls of their own, got up about 3:30 a.m. to be with Little Mama as she went into labor.

“I thought it was done when she had eight puppies, and then there were eight more the next morning,” said Lamar Williams, who is training to become a veterinary technician. “But then she just kept popping them out and I said, 'Oh, my God!' "

When Little Mama was finally finished, she picked up one pup and set it in Williams’ lap. Twenty of the 23 pups survived, and Williams said he couldn’t have been more proud.

“I’m very emotional, and I treat my dogs like kids,” Williams said. “Two of the puppies were born dead and we didn’t see another one until later, because it was caught underneath the mother and died, but I still tried to revive all three.”

Another pup stumbled into mom’s water dish and wasn’t breathing, but Williams revived it.