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…
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