WITH HER red hair and 18 children, Anny Holey confirms two long-held German stereotypes about the Irish.
Yet no one expected the first-time mother to deliver 18 children at once. Now it’s a dog’s life for Anny, the four-year-old Irish red setter from northeast Germany and what is already being dubbed the “litter of the century”.
“She was very big and I thought, maybe six or even 10,” says Gerd Holey, from Neverin in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
“It started at 1pm and I felt ill after the 14th arrived but could see more were coming.
“The last came at 5am the next day. It was very stressful and hard on Anny, but she’s running around again now.”
The joy was tinged with sadness: there were 19 pups but the seventh was still-born.
The rest – 11 girls and seven boys – are in rude health, with the smallest just under 2kg.
Gerd has organised the pups, born last month, into a three-group feed rotation. Every four hours one group feeds with their mother, while the two other groups are bottle-fed.
Sometimes the feeds can take so long that, once finished with one group the feeding has to start again from the beginning.
To prevent anyone getting seconds, each puppy has an individual number.
It’s been an adventure for Gerd and wife Marita: they have owned red setters for 16 years and like their “sweet, social nature”, but this was the first time they decided to breed.
“Definitely a baptism of fire,” says Gerd. “My wife has been doing laundry non-stop, we’re busy round the clock, but they’re all healthy and happy.”
For Gerd, Anny’s connection to Ireland isn’t just a matter of her breed: her official name is “The Red Pride of Kylemore”.
“We saw a film about the abbey and liked it so much we thought, ‘why should we give Anny a German name’?” says Gerd. “We’ve never been to Ireland but everything I’ve seen in books and film I’ve always liked.”
New homes have already been found for four pups and Gerd hopes to find loving owners for the other 14.
Anyone keen to follow the pups’ progress can check out their online diary at: irish-setter-neverin.de/