A 15-year-old from Marblehead was a quick-learner and helped a dog in need as he and a friend delivered nearly a dozen puppies while on their way to a veterinarian’s office.
The two-person delivery crew, teenager Felix Regnault and MaryEllen Fletcher, a dog breeder and Swampscott select board member, first met during the pandemic when Regnault and his family were interested in adopting a dog.
The two became good friends soon afterwards and both later embarked on taking care of a pregnant dog named “Keke,” whose water broke earlier than expected on Christmas Day.
“When I saw signs of, really, distress and serious problems, I just knew we had to get to the vet as soon as we could,” Fletcher explained.
MaryEllen helped deliver the first puppy at home, but Felix took over on the way to the vet’s.
“Felix had never even seen a newborn puppy and, in the back of the car, he had to – I just walked him through as I was driving, what’s going to happen next, and he just started delivering,” Fletcher told 7NEWS. “We just kept having puppy after puppy after puppy.”
“I thought I was just going to hold Keke’s hand and say ‘Push,’ but MaryEllen guided me through very well and the puppies came out safely,” Felix Regnault said.
“I just gave him instructions, you know, how to cut the umbilical cord – he would pass the puppy up to me, I would start to dry them off, clear out the puppy’s mouth,” MaryEllen said.
10 of the 11 puppies delivered survived and are now three-weeks-old. Keke’s caretakers say the dogs will start to go up for adoption once they reach the eight-week mark.
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