Faces of No-Kill: Mama dog beats the odds

It started with an urgent call from an Arkansas shelter: Four dogs and their newborn puppies needed a place to go. Best Friends staff arranged to take in all four canine families, including mama dog Coral. During her time with Best Friends, Coral would make a lasting impression on everyone she met — because if there’s one dog who could claim “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” as her theme song, it would be Coral.

She was barely a year old when she arrived at the Best Friends Pet Resource Center in Bentonville, Arkansas, with eight newborn puppies in tow. Although initial exams found the puppies to be healthy, Coral didn’t have the same luck. A blood test revealed that she had heartworms, but treatment would have to wait until she was done nursing.

Coral was also underweight, which is common in mama dogs. “Raising and nursing puppies, especially when you have eight, is energetically taxing,” says Karagan LaJoie, Best Friends clinic coordinator.

Karagan was one of the first staff members to meet Coral. “When we held her babies, Coral wasn’t happy,” she recalls. And whenever another dog would walk by her kennel, Coral tried to scare them away from her little family of puppies.

Coral needed a foster home where she could just relax and raise her pups. So staff called Lorie Comer, an experienced puppy foster volunteer, who was taken aback when she met Coral. “She was in the worst shape of any of the mamas I’d had,” Lorie says. “You could count the notches in her backbone.”

Because Coral was protective over her puppies, Lorie was especially careful loading them into her car and getting them into her house. “I took each puppy, one by one, and showed the puppy to Coral,” she says. At the same time, Lorie talked through the process with Coral, reassuring her that everything was OK.

“I told her, ‘I don’t know your story and I don’t know what you’ve been through, but if you’ll give me a chance, I promise your life will be better from here on out,’” Lorie says. Coral looked Lorie in the eyes as if to say she believed her.

As Coral began to feel safe, she started coming out of her shell, becoming less fearful and accepting love more easily. For Lorie, that’s what makes foster work so rewarding. “Seeing Coral and her babies blossom makes you forget how smelly everything is and how many puppy pads you go through,” she says.

While Lorie was caring for the puppies, she also had her eye on a new concern with Coral, who was itching so much that she began losing hair. She told the Best Friends veterinary staff, who prescribed a steroid injection and medicated shampoo.

Yet there was still the issue of heartworms, and as soon as Coral was done nursing, preparation for treatment began. She started with a month-long course of antibiotics to weaken the adult worms in her heart. As this was happening, her puppies turned 8 weeks old and were spayed or neutered. Then, each one was adopted in no time, off to the next phase of their lives in new homes.

[Dog with incontinence, heartworm proves that love always wins]

With the puppies adopted, Lorie could focus more on Coral, teaching her cues, training her to use a crate, and helping her through heartworm treatment, which involved three injections to kill the worms. During this time, Coral was on strict activity rest, as elevating her heart rate could cause complications. When she was retested for heartworms, the news was good: Coral was heartworm-free.

That wasn’t the only cause for celebration. Coral had shed her shy exterior and come into her own, getting excited to see people, kids included. “She’s the happiest girl who smiles and wags her tail,” Lorie says. Her weight was also climbing — so much that Lorie had to cut back her food. It was now Coral’s turn to go home.

Timneshia Harris’ dog had passed away after a long, happy life with her. The two had been together since Timneshia was in her teens, and she went through a long grieving period for her friend. She wanted another dog and had faith that she’d find the right one for her. “I kept praying and asking God that when the time was right, please allow this other dog, whomever it may be, to show up,” she says.

Timneshia heard about the Best Friends Super Adoption event, which would feature hundreds of adoptable dogs from local shelters and rescue groups. She visited the pet resource center to preview some of the dogs. “I had my eyes on four or five of them, including Coral,” she says. She was searching for a small to medium-sized dog, perhaps even a puppy since she’s a teacher and had the summer free.

On the day of the super adoption, Timneshia and her 4-year-old daughter, Emeri, arrived an hour before the doors opened. Timneshia talked with Best Friends staff, who advised her that a dog who was 1 or 2 years old may suit her lifestyle better than a puppy. That narrowed her choices to two dogs, including Coral.

When they met, the attraction was mutual. “I looked at Coral and asked, ‘Are you my dog? Are you the one who’s supposed to go home with me?’” she says. In response, Coral laid her head in Timneshia’s lap. “I knew then she was the dog I’d been praying for, but I said a silent prayer for confirmation, and that’s when I saw Coral’s tail wagging.” That made the decision official. Coral was the dog for her.

[Young mama dog gets serendipitous happy ending]

When Lorie heard that there was someone at the event who was adopting Coral, she hurried there to meet Timneshia. The two hugged, connecting almost instantly. “It felt like I’d known her all my life,” Timneshia says.

The two have since formed a friendship. When Timneshia travels and needs someone to watch Coral, she brings her to Lorie.

As for Coral, her personality has become even brighter since being adopted. Although she’s a calm, chill dog overall who loves cuddling, she also loves to play and will bust out a zoomie whenever she goes outside. She also fancies car rides, pup cups, belly rubs, “scritches,” and people. “No matter where we go, she’s super friendly,” Timneshia says.

Coral can also be sassy. “She can be a diva, but I love her attitude,” Timneshia says. “She’s the perfect balance of energy and calm.”

Lorie calls Coral the perfect “rags-to-riches story.” It’s easy to see why. The sun really did come out for this girl who’s now basking in the good life.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill in 2025. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.