"I fed six, she fed six, and hopefully by the time the other six were hungry, one of us was ready to feed them," she said. "Between their mother and me, somebody was getting fed about every hour."

The Smiths’ daughter and granddaughter helped feed the puppies as well.

Ruggiero-Smith said she mixes her own puppy formula from a combination of evaporated canned milk, corn syrup, yogurt and water.

Ariel also is on a special, high-calorie diet. She eats large-breed Eukanuba puppy chow and ice cream.

"We buy those 2 1/2 gallon tubs of ice cream and feed them to her," Dr. Smith said. "We feed her as much as she’ll eat any time she’ll eat."

Ruggiero-Smith said Ariel began getting anxious when the puppies were a few days old.

"I had puppies in three laundry baskets, and when they started crying, she went nuts," she said. "I said, ‘This dog is going bonkers."‘

"No, she wasn’t," Ruggiero-Smith added. "As soon as I got all her puppies out of the basket and put them around her, she was just fine. She just wanted to see all her babies."

By the time the puppies were a week and a half old, Ariel was producing enough milk to feed all 18 puppies.