Foster Pups

Over my Christmas break, a family friend came across a litter of puppies in a man's front yard. They were in a very small pen with no food or water and a "free puppies sign". It was really hot outside and they were all very lethargic. She called my mom and told her what she had seen. The news then went to me and I was able to confirm that this animal treatment was a reoccurring thing at that house.

Last year, that same house had another litter of puppies. That litter was taken by several individuals as "impulse buys". I don't know what happened to this litter and I have felt guilty for not rescuing them ever since. I can only hope that each pup was vaccinated, fixed, and loved by someone.

Anyways, my mother also felt guilty about the last litter so she went and grabbed them. At the time, I was at my boyfriends house and I received a call from her saying "I have three puppies in my car. I swear to god you better have a plan". She came and picked me up. Those puppies were SMELLY. We took them home and one by one I gave them a bath. They then had their first proper meal, probably in their whole little lives, and took a nice long nap. After they were hydrated, clean, full, and well rested, their personalities began to come through.

Spudnik was my favorite of the bunch. He had a slight deformed jaw and multiple cuts on his head. As you can see in the photos, they have scabbed over and are healing nicely. One of the scabs fell off to reveal a scar, so it is likely that they all will be. We aren't sure if the wounds were caused by abuse or his siblings rough-housing. His brother and sister were rough with him though, especially his brother.

When we first got them home, Spud was the most lethargic of the group. The others perked up after their bath and a meal but he did not. When the others began to play as normal pups do (bite, tackle, run), he hid behind the toilet in the bathroom crying.

I decided to bring him into my room and he immediately relaxed. He curled up in my blankets and fell asleep. He spent the night in my room and unlike his siblings, slept through the entire night.

By morning he had perked up and began to play with the others, although not so rough as them.

Lola was the only girl in the litter. My mom grew quite attached to her. She didn't have any open wounds, but her jaw was severely deformed. We kept an eye on her though and since it didn't seem to bother her, we didn't feel the need to rush her to the vet right away. If you look, her jaw curves to the side and there is a large bulge on her left side. She was extremely sweet and loved to be cuddled, but when it came to play time she took it very seriously. She held her own against her big brothers.

Randy was quite a rascal. He did not have any injuries or deformities to slow him down. Just like his siblings though, he has an umbilical hernia. It doesn't seem to bother any of them, but they will probably be surgically fixed when they go get spayed/neutered. He was big on play-fighting. An ear nipper, face chomper, toy thief. He was definitely the dominant in the group.

His story has a very happy new chapter. He was taken in by another family friend as a foster until her sister was able to adopt him after her vacation. He is absolutely spoiled and is at a 70% success rate in potty-training so far.

This is my little brother with all three asleep in his lap. We are going to miss them terribly, but they are in a good place now and hopefully soon they will all be adopted.