Newborn Puppies
Well I definitely got a little surprise the other day while feeding the dogs...I found a small little black rat looking thing beside one of our dogs, Cookie, a Jack Russel terrier mix. I went inside to get a closer look and to my surprise I realized it was a newborn puppy! You can just imagine the shock I was in when I realized what it was. It must have been only 30 minutes old because not even an hour ago she looked normal. It was quite surprising to all of us because she did not look pregnant AT ALL; she was extremely hyper and energetic like the other dogs and she definitely did not look heavier. I tried to take a picture of the puppies but in today's rush...I took a pretty dismal picture, but I tried!
We ended up moving her into a kennel on the inside, not on the adoption side, and made a whelping box for her in a quite and warm area so she could finish giving birth to the rest of her puppies. Dogs can be in labor for up to 24 hours and usually have each puppy within 1-2 hours of each other. So an hour later we saw the second puppy come out - 2 healthy puppies! I also called the vet over to check her out and see if she was ok; he said she looked fine as did the puppies and just to keep an eye on her to make sure she is taking care of her pups. It is not necessary for us to intervene unless we see that the mother is not licking them or nursing them. Cookie ended up having only those 2 puppies and thus far, has been a wonderful mommy! She has been eating well, nursing the puppies, and watching over them like any good mother. Once her puppies are old enough to be separated from her, they will be fostered out until they are old enough to be put up for adoption. Such a cool experience to be a part of and watch! I've seen 3 live foal births and now I can add puppies to that :)
Here's some pictures of Cookie -the last one is a dark pic of her curled up with her 1 hour old puppy snuggled inside:
Rory goes home!
In my previous post I wrote about a wonderful dog named Rory that I was going to work with. In this past week (that I've neglected to write...), I was able to socialize with him and get him to loosen up.
As you can see in the first picture, he was confused and timid and didn't really know what to do with himself. Rory's ears were laid back and he just kind of sat there staring at me...for a good 5 minutes. He quickly figured out what to do in the next few minutes once he realized that all I wanted was to play with him. I couldn't stop him from playing after that little breakthrough and had to coax him to get back on his leash to go back to his kennel! It's like he had all this pent-up chipper energy caged in him somewhere and once he realized that he could be happy, he let all that happy dog energy loose! Silly puppy.
I was off on Saturday and I got a text from a coworker saying that Rory had got adopted. I was so excited he got adopted and that he was able to show someone else what a lovable and friendly dog he is. I think it's a good thing I wasn't there when he left because my sappy self probably would've cried or been sad to see him go...when I am obviously elated that he went home! It's such a wonderful feeling to see them actually walk out those doors with their new family and begin their new life with them.
I thought I would share a video of him on the day I was able to get him to play for the first time. Again, I apologize for the not so great video quality...I'll upgrade eventually!
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