When Donna Lochmann from Stray Rescue of St. Louis (SRSL) passes an abandoned building, she doesn’t just see crumbling walls — she sees the possibility of life inside.
As the organization’s chief life-saving officer, she’s found countless dogs hidden away in forgotten corners of the city. But her most recent rescue was anything but hidden.
This time, the first sign of life came right to her — barking from the yard.
“A mama dog barks at us, protecting her puppies who are inside an abandoned house,” SRSL wrote in a now-viral video.
The gray pit bull was standing guard over her litter, unsure of the two women approaching.
But as Lochmann and fellow rescuer Natalie Thomson inched closer, her fierce protectiveness gave way to cautious trust. She allowed them to enter the yard — and into the ruins of the house her puppies had been calling home.
Navigating past tornado debris and entering through a broken window, the rescuers found the inside of the house even more hazardous.
Trash piled high, holes in the floor, and walls torn open. It was the kind of place no one — human or animal — should have to live in.
“The house was full of hiding places and mounds of trash,” SRSL wrote in a second Facebook video.
The two-story home wasn’t just littered with trash; it was in a severe state of disrepair with holes in the floors and walls. The rescuers stepped through the first floor carefully until they reached a staircase covered in layers of discarded lottery tickets.
And then they saw them.
At the top of the stairs, heads tilted and eyes wide, were several tiny, orange-tinged puppies watching the strangers below.
When Lochmann and Thomson climbed up the stairs, the puppies ran into an old bedroom filled with debris and an unused bed.
“They scatter and know all the best hiding places,” SRSL wrote.
The rescuers followed the puppies into the bedroom, wondering if they’d be able to find them easily through all the mess. Then, a set of eyes poked up from behind the discarded mattress.
The rescuers carefully entered a trashed upstairs room, finding puppies tucked behind a mattress, burrowed under the bed, and even emerging from inside a broken wall.
Because of the unstable flooring, they had to wait some of the more elusive pups out — placing food as bait and patiently watching.
You can see more footage from their rescue here:
One by one, all seven puppies were safely pulled from the ruins.
But the rescuers still worried. With so many hiding spots in the house, what if one pup was left behind? So they made a tough decision: leave Mama behind for one more night, just in case.
They set up trail cameras and left food, trusting that if any puppy remained, Mama — now named Miz Lotto — would care for them until morning.
The rescuers drove the puppies to SRSL’s headquarters, where the tiny babies were soon bathed and cleared for emergency foster care. Since they were no longer nursing, and the filled shelter was too chaotic for them, going to foster homes right away was the best choice.
After saying goodbye to the puppies, the staff closely monitored the trail cameras for the rest of the night, keeping an eye out for the mother dog and any potential puppies they might have missed.
By the next day, the cameras confirmed it: no puppies had been missed.
Miz Lotto was soon safely in a humane trap and on her way to rescue, joining her babies in safety — though not in the same home.
You can see footage from her rescue and updated photos of the puppies here:
Because her pups had already gone to foster homes and were no longer nursing, Miz Lotto began a fresh chapter of her own.
“She is sooo cuddly,” SRSL wrote. “And she’s not just doing great — she’s thriving.”
While they didn’t get a final family reunion, every member of the Lotto litter is now safe, loved, and surrounded by warmth — a far cry from the crumbling shelter they once called home.
“[Miz Lotto] is not just doing great, she is thriving,” SRSL wrote in a Facebook comment. “The most important thing is they are all safe, happy, healthy and ending the cycle.”
To inquire about adopting Miz Lotto or one of her “Lottery” pups, you can submit an application here.
To help pups like Miz Lotto and her babies the care they need, you can donate to Stray Rescue of St. Louis here.
