Mum of 15 who’s got an awful lot of puppy love!

MUMS are meant to relax on Mother’s Day — but there was no such luxury for Poppy the Irish

Setter. The two-year-old had an astonishing 15 pups . . . almost twice as many as the eight her owner Lisa Wardle was expecting.

The total is just one puppy short of the record Irish Setter litter of 16 registered with the Kennel Club.

Mrs Wardle, 40, says: ‘Poppy is doing brilliantly considering it’s her first litter. The vet told us she would have between eight and ten.

‘I couldn’t believe it when we counted them. The pups — eight boys and seven girls — are doing well, too, but as you can imagine things are rather chaotic for us around here right now!’

Mrs Wardle, a care home worker, lives in Galashiels, Scottish Borders, with husband Peter, 50, daughter Abi, 17, and sons Ben, 15, and Jack, seven.

She plans to keep one puppy and sell the rest — and that could mean a £12,500 boost for the family finances.

For Becky Box, secretary of the Irish Setters Association, says: ‘The current price is around £900 per puppy. They are one of the most popular breeds for showing — a lot of people love the colour and the quality of their coat.’

Mrs Wardle adds: ‘I’ll be heartbroken when they’re all gone but we don’t really have the space.

‘It’s not about the money for me. I just love how good-natured Poppy is and I want other families to have dogs just like her — that’s why I wanted to do this. She’s beautiful.

‘I’ve had a lot of interest in them — from people on Facebook to people just stopping me in the street.’

The largest UK litter recorded was in 2004, when Tia, a Neopolitan mastiff, from Manea, Cambridgeshire, had 24.