Puppies Adopted!

A week after Lisa and I turned our foster puppies over to San Antonio Animal Care Services (ACS), we made a trip back out to the city shelter to follow-up. We had hoped for one last time with our little guys, but that was not to be. We walked through the puppy kennels and did not find Big Boy, Baby or Brownie. We were directed to the adoption office to confirm their adoption. At the office, we gave the clerk their ACS ID numbers and held our breath.

Brownie was the first to be adopted, only a day or so after we dropped them off. Brownie was Lisa’s favorite and she started to cry tears of joy. Baby and Big Boy were picked up by a no-kill shelter, near Austin, called Austin Pets Alive. When we got home we went to their website and learned that Big Boy was adopted on Monday, the day after he arrived. His sister, Baby, is still pending, but I’m sure she will be or has already been adopted by now.

The month and a half that the puppies were in our care were a wonderful mix of early mornings, late nights and worries, but also laughter and amazement. They went from little, furry lumps into active, healthy and very happy little creatures that loved to dig and play.  We miss their little puppy faces of excitement, but we love the fact that they have now found new homes, homes that they would never have known if they had been left to die by the side of the road in the summer heat.

The day we took them back to ACS, I took each puppy in my lap and looked them right in the eye and told each of them that the only job they have to do is to get adopted and to be the best puppy they can be. I gave them each a big hug and told them I loved them. Then I accepted a few licks in the face. I guess they were paying attention.

Well done puppies! Well done!

Love, your foster mom and dad.

Food for THOUGHT…

Puppies Update

Our puppies are doing well. In less than 2 weeks we have watched our little charges go from being furry lumps, infested with fleas and ticks, clinging to life, to frisky, healthy puppies. When we brought them into our home they did not even have their eyes open yet. They rolled and crawled to get around and Lisa had to feed them with an eye-dropper. Once we had formula from Animal Control Services, the puppies were introduced to bottle feeding and they really began putting on weight. With their eyes wide open, they began to wobble around on all fours. They were eating so much formula that Lisa had to go back to ACS for more food. She came back with not only more formula, but bags of dry puppy chow and canned dog food.


Lisa had the idea of doing away with the bottles and letting them learn to lap the formula from bowls. It worked so well that we decided to gradually add solids to their formula. Their teeth are starting to come in so they are ready. We began adding more solids to make the mixture thicker and once again our puppies rose to the challenge by eating and lapping up their food out of their own little bowls, but their feedings have become a lot slower and messier. They like to step in their bowls and wander around to see what the other puppies are eating.

Did I also mention…they are all pooping and peeing very well now? We change a lot of newspapers! Newspapers are like gold to us now! We were getting to the point that we had to hurry and read the day’s paper so that we could turn around and use them. We have enlisted the help of our neighbor across the street. She is bringing over her used papers so we are getting by for now.

The bathtub in our guest bathroom was getting too confining for three active puppies so I built a “playpen” for them in the sun room. They love their new digs. There’s plenty of room to run around, wrestle with their siblings and take naps. Their little personalities are really starting to come out now. Big Boy gets sleepy after he eats and is getting huge. Baby is the most vocal and lets you know if things do not suit her. Brownie is a good eater and loves to play, but she often gets nosed out by herother siblings when push comes to shove.

Lisa takes the puppies out for a bath almost every morning and the same puppies who once yelped “bloody murder,” now love this time with her. They love being bathed and having their bellies rubbed. She puts them in the crate to dry off after their baths. They let her know when they want to go back inside the house. It gets pretty warm by mid morning here.

Yes, we are getting attached to our little puppies, but we also know that we cannot raise and care for 3 grown dogs and two cats in our house. We are just their current stop on their way to their forever families. They are out there and we are doing our best to get our puppies ready. Next week we take them into the ACS vet for shots and work ups prior to adoption. They should be weaned in a few more weeks and our job will be done. They are a lot of work, but they will be missed. Lisa and I would love to see how they turn out as full grown dogs and they lives they will change.

It is truly a shame that many people do not take responsibility for their pets. The animal shelters of San Antonio are doing their best to spay and neuter as many stray cats and dogs as possible. Lisa and I work as volunteers for the Animal Defense League of Texas and its no-kill shelter. Soon we will be trained to go out and work community events to talk about the importance of spaying and neutering pets. Our puppies were lucky that they were found in time. There are way too many kittens and puppies that suffer cruel, needless deaths because owners did not care if their pets roamed the neighborhoods creating more generations of starving and unwanted animals. Sadly, so many or these animals wind up in the pound, unable to be adopted and they are put to sleep.

I urge all pet owners to stop the suffering, give a damn…and do the right thing.

Food for THOUGHT…

We are Foster Parents!

Lisa and I have become official foster parents! We took in 3 abandoned puppies from the neighborhood..


Monday, Lisa was out for her early morning walk when she noticed something in the street. At first she thought it was a dead cat, but as she got closer she could see it was a puppy. It was twitching. She noticed two more puppies nearby in a vacant lot by the street. They were also twitching. Lisa did not have the heart to leave them to die so she went home and got something to collect dogs and bring them home.

The poor creatures were filthy. She put them in a box and set the box in the bathtub while she went to the Internet to get some information on how to care for them. All three puppies did not have their eyes open yet. Puppy's eyes open around two weeks of age so we had some idea of how young they were. She found a makeshift formula online made of milk, egg yolk and oil to feed them. She found an eye dropper to use and learned that they need to be fed every 3- 4 hours. Yikes!

Her next plan was to find a shelter to take them. This is where things took a real turn for the worse! Because of their age and the condition they were found, most shelters will not take puppies under 6 weeks. They need to be weaned and weigh about two pounds. Even the animal shelter where Lisa and I volunteer would not take them at their age. Now what!? We are cat people. We are not set up to care for or raise puppies! Our cats were getting very suspicious of the yips and yaps coming from the bathroom.

When Lisa entered the bathroom to feed the puppies, she noticed they were covered with fleas and ticks. She decided to give them a bath in Dawn detergent to help kill the fleas. Did I mention that little puppies do not like to take a bath? During the ordeal she realized there were a lot of ticks on their underside. Did I mention that Lisa hates ticks? The puppies looked much better but now Lisa had to clean and wipe down the bathroom looking for stray fleas. She fed all three puppies with the eye dropper and they took to the home made formula well. After eating, the puppies had to be burped and their privates wiped with wet cotton balls to get them to pee. She was getting overwhelmed and was beginning to wonder what she had gotten into.

Lisa called our vet to see what to do about the ticks and the remainder of the fleas after their bath. The vet recommended a flea and tick spray that could be used on new born puppies. The problem was I had taken our car to work and had a meeting after work. My meeting ran late and Lisa was about to tear her hair out. When we finally connected after the meeting, I raced to PetCo to get the spray before they closed. When I returned with the spray, Lisa and I took each of the puppies outside and doused them good. We left them outside in a box to dry off while Lisa and I had a much needed glass of wine. Then we took the puppies back inside to feed them with Lisa’s eye dropper. What a day!

The next morning things started to improve when Lisa ran to the store early and picked up some small baby bottles and dry puppy formula to replace the homemade stuff. The dogs took to it and the bottles much better than the eyedropper and they were able to eat their fill. In one day, their strength and activity started to improve a lot. Most of the ticks and all of the fleas were gone thanks to the spray. Puppies were looking good and they were even peeing on their own. Then, the two females opened their eyes for the first time. They had names! “Big boy,” the lone male still had his eyes closed, but he had the best appetite. “Brownie,” the middle female was a fussy eater and looks different from “Big boy” and “Baby,“ the runt of the litter. Big boy and Baby look like a black lab mix while Brownie looks like a German Shepherd mix.

Lisa finally got through to San Antonio’s Animal Care Services and she talked to the foster care coordinator. She told us that if we could keep the puppies until they are weaned and weigh two pounds, they would be able to take them and try to find a home for them. Puppies are adopted fast they said. They asked us to fill out some paperwork and bring the puppies in for a look. While we were there, they gave us formula, bottles and a large cage for when they become mobile. We have to bring them in for a work- up and shots in two weeks. We also have access to vet care while we are foster parents. So here we are…foster parents to 3 adorable little mugs. Are we up to the challenge?

Food for THOUGHT…