In 1999, when we lived in North Carolina, I spent a lot of time volunteering at The Haven, a no-kill animal shelter in Raeford. It was hard work but I loved it and felt I was making a difference to the abandoned dogs and cats. We lived in a house which we were renovating and we had a large, fenced yard so I was able to bring home “foster” dogs. The foster dogs needed special attention to make them ‘adoptable’ ~ some were ill and needed medication, some were unsocialized, and then there was “mama dog.” She was found pregnant, in a ditch, with a belly so big they could barely get her out. The owner of the shelter asked me to foster her. I was very reluctant because I had never been a midwife to an animal before and was more than a little nervous that I would do something to hurt her or the puppies. But the alternative was so bad for Mama Dog because the shelter didn’t have enough room for her and she was being ‘crated’ ~ how miserable to be stuck in a crate when you’re pregnant.
Off to the house we went and thankfully my FM is very tolerant of my animal passion. For the next three weeks or so, Mama Dog was on a high nutrition diet. I pampered her as much as I could and kept her away from FG and my other dogs. FM even built her a whelping crate for her and we kept her in our ‘demolished’ kitchen.
BEFORE:
Mama Dog went into labor at 3 am in early September ~ isn’t that always the way? As FM and FG slept through the night, I helped (OK ~ watched) as she birthed TWELVE puppies. It was crazy. They just kept coming. I think I woke FM up after #8 because I was freaking out. All were healthy, sweet looking and different. Poor dog must have had 12 different encounters because every puppy looked different from the other.
AFTER:
I kept all the puppies until they were ready for adoption at 9 weeks and, as you can imagine, I interviewed each prospective family myself. Many didn’t pass the test. But, because the puppies were so cute and healthy, we had no problem finding suitable homes.
The entire experience was wonderful except that I would like to have kept Mama Dog BUT she didn’t get along at all with my two other dogs and she was very skittish around FG. One thing I did make sure of is that she was spayed before she went back to The Haven.
Sidenote: The weekend the puppies were born there happened to be a “Planet of the Apes” movie marathon on TBS and so there is a dog named “Dr. Zaius” out there.
Nicole: You’re NOT bad for getting Lucy from a breeder (so long as they aren’t a puppy mill) BUT if you allow Lucy to have puppies, I would be very disappointed. There’s just not enough homes!
Sheila: Good for you for saving two kitties from certain death! And I feel your pain with Vet bills and transportation bills. But they’re family, right?!
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We adopted Max and Scooter from the kill shelter here. They are our two precious little kitty boys. We try to do the shelter thing when we get pets too. Scooter was very lucky Victoria chose him. His card was being turned over in a few hours. Gosh I hate even the sound of that. He has been such a joy to our family. I’d have more but these two have been quite expensive since we got them. Our free kitties are up to $1000 in vet bills already!
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I agree 🙂 We went to one of the local animal shelters when we were dog hunting (a place called PAWS) and it made me so sad to be there. I wanted to take them all home…needless to say, we ended up getting Lucy from a breeder. I know, I know…I’m bad. 🙂 Good work, Patti 🙂
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Patti,
That is a great stroy. You told me all about it already ,but I had never seen the pictures.
You made a good midwife.
love Mom
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