BOGALUSA - It happened as it so often does. When they gave up on trying to have a baby, one came. But that was about all that was typical. And now, Lazarus is four weeks old.
He's an English bull terrier, the little warm, white, cuddly son of American Kennel Club dog show champions "Eugene the Bull" and "Mavis Monroe." All are members of the Danny and Wende Higgins family of Bogalusa.
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"Then one day I took her to (veterinarian) Elizabeth Penton and said, 'She's got worms,'" said Wende. "She said, 'Is she pregnant?' I said, 'She's not pregnant.' She did an ultrasound anyway."
Mavis was already pretty far along.
"We had no idea when they bred," said Wende. "But the pregnancy went on so long, we took her in to have an ultrasound to see if everything was OK. It showed two heart beats."
A few hours later, at about 7 p.m., Mavis went into labor. Wende stayed by her side through the night and into the next day. She was "steadily on the phone with Liz Penton."
At noon, Wende had to go to work, and Danny took over. He had to leave for just a half hour, and, of course, that's when the dog delivered. When he returned, there was "blood all over."
"That's when we knew we had problems," said Wende.
Penton, Mavis' doctor since she was a pup, made a house call. She found that one puppy had been born and died. The second remained unborn, but there was no more heartbeat.
Mavis was rushed to the veterinarian's office. The undelivered pup was in a breech position and stuck.
"He had died," said Wende. "He suffocated in the birth canal."
About 24 hours after Mavis went into labor, Penton summoned the dog's owners into the operating room. The dog was in need of spaying. Her "insides were a mess." She would never bear another puppy.
"I said, 'What's that over there?'" said Wende.
The tiny second pup - Lazarus - was lying limp and lifeless. But "every now and then," a faint heartbeat could be detected. While Penton treated Mavis, technician Lynda Jones massaged the baby. Wende joined her. They gave it oxygen. Occasionally, it would gasp for air.
Even if they could save it, they thought it would be brain-injured because it had been in the canal without oxygen for so long. Still the three women worked. Nothing changed.
"Finally, they basically sent me home to bury him," said Wende. "I kept working, but he wasn't doing anything."
At about 9:30 p.m., Wende ran to the store. Danny held the pup on his lap, planning to bury it when his wife returned.
"He never had any muscle movement at all," he said. "I figured he was dead."
Then Penton called from her home. She had been researching and thinking. She decided maybe the pup needed glucose. She told Danny to try to give it some sugar.
He pulled out some blackberry jam and a Q-tip.
"I put it in his mouth, and by the time I took it out, he started moving," said Danny. "And he hasn't stopped since. It happened in about 10 seconds. It was like I gave him a jolt of electricity."
Lazarus had been "brought back from the dead" - so to speak.
Since then, the Higgins have been keeping a close eye on their newest family member who happens to be a very rare all-white English bull terrier. They've even had to handle the nursing.
Because of her complications, Mavis was unable to produce milk. But she loves and is "obsessed" with her offspring, said Wende. And although Lazarus is the spitting image of dear old dad, Mavis is generally too protective to let Eugene near the little guy.
Often, Wende carries the puppy around town tucked securely in a big purse so he's handy for feeding. She already plans for him to participate in the Bull Terrier Specialty Show in Decatur, Ala., in early November, and she believes he will ultimately "out-do" his award-winning folks.
But for now, the Higgins are focusing on keeping the tiny one healthy and growing.
He's doing just fine, so far. The Higgins are delighted, and they can't seem to praise Penton and Jones enough.
"There was no hope, but they didn't give up," said Wende. And neither did the long-snouted, still largely pink baby bull dog named Lazarus.
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