Diary of a Rescue Week Two

This week the pups morphed from guinea pigs to real puppies. They are growling and wrestling and starting to even notice the toys I’ve placed in their box. I tried a few Live Streams but as about 23 hours of their day is spent sleeping both ‘puppy hours’ mostly featured a big pile of pups napping. I will try again this week.

Mia continues to be an all-business mom, getting the job done and getting back out of the box. She is much more interested in what is happening in the rest of the house or the other dogs.

Below are the entries for this week. If you’d like to read them in real time (and maybe catch a puppy hour livestream) be sure to follow my public Facebook page.

Diary of a Rescue Day 8:

Everyone got noisy today. Mia has decided she does not want to be in that puppy room. She would like to come out and play with the other dogs in the house. It’s obvious she is a young dog and being cooped up with those little vultures is getting to her.

I tried to walk her more and to give her time in the hallway instead of only the puppy room. I’m hesitant to allow her access to the other dogs yet. With every other Mama dog I’ve waited until the puppies were weaned to introduce the mama dog to our pack. I still think that’s the best way so likely I will wait but we may try walking her with a Fanny, my young female dog who will eventually be her best playmate.

The puppies are also getting noisier and more active. It makes me wonder if their ears are starting to open. They are still wobbly and awkward but they are beginning to play and wrestle.

Because we all need some more positive stories to follow, I am going to try to post more video of the puppies. I’m going to set up my phone to stream a LIVE hour of puppies tomorrow from 11:30-12:30 EST. Can’t promise there won’t be poop or household noise but hopefully watching puppies will be much better than watching the news!

#stayhomeandsavelives and watch #puppies!

Diary of a Rescue Day 9:

They get a little more active each day. Today I weighed them all and everyone except Usnavi and Cinderella broke the two pound mark. If we have the birthdate more or less right, the growth chart puts them between 40-50 pounds. They seem small to me though so we’ll see if they stay on that trajectory.

Little personalities are starting to emerge. Dolly is very curious and outgoing, Usnavi is mischievous, Mr Mistopheles is very mellow (and the biggest pup), Evan Hansen is charming, and Calamity Jane is a bit of a noodge.

This morning I did my first ‘Puppy Hour’ and live streamed them for an hour. I will try again tomorrow but do it in the afternoon when they are more active.

I am trying to post as often as possible because I know people can use some happy media. Please take care of yourselves and look out for your neighbors.

#puppiesMakeEverythingBetter
#opttoadopt

Diary of a Rescue Day 10:

At almost three weeks old the puppies biggest activity is sleeping. Still, I can spend inordinate amounts of time just watching them sleep- the little twitches, the mewling, the rolling over and getting stuck between siblings. All of it is adorable.

This weekend I thought I’d share a little of their days by live streaming a ‘puppy hour’ each day. I enlisted my son to rig up a holder for my iPhone and then I announced the appointed hour.

Saturday’s Live stream, while probably too far away at least had a little activity when Mia popped in and out of the pen and even settled down to nurse.

Sunday, though, was a solid hour of sleeping puppies, except when the phone holder slipped and then it was ten minutes of towel before Nick fixed it and then it was back to sleeping puppies.

I’ve decided I will give it a few days and then try the live stream again. With all that is going on in our world, I think a puppy hour would be a nice break from nonstop bad news.

Hopefully the next one will be a bit more entertaining.

Mia continues to spend her days at the gate, hoping someone will take her out for a walk. She is definitely ready for the single life.

#puppylife #nappinglife #opttoadopt

Diary of a Rescue Day 11:

It’s hard to get pictures of the pups with eyes open- when they are awake they are busy- stumbling around, nursing, or pooping. I caught a few today, though. They are looking less like guinea pigs and more like puppies.

Mia has been spending a lot of time in the hallway outside the puppy room, lying at the gate that separates the hall from our living room. From that spot she has been watching my husband install a hardwood floor. He says she reminds him of a toddler, easily amused watching ordinary things.

(I think he’s remembering our kids as babies, certainly by the time they were toddlers they were rarely content to ‘watch’ anything- they’d have made a big mess of all the stuff from the living room currently piled in that hallway!)

If we must be stuck at home, home with puppies isn’t such a bad deal. I hope you are fairing well and finding a few silver linings of this situation.

#staysafeandsane #togetherbutapart

Diary of a Rescue Day 12:

Today my kids, Ian and Addie, are in charge of the crew. My husband and I made a quick trip down to our cabin in the mountains of Virginia to cut the grass, address the carpenter bee infestation, and deal with the results of me leaving bananas on the counter the last time I was down here two weeks ago.

Thankfully, the bananas held up okay and the house wasn’t filled with fruitflies (as anticipated), but the bees are out in force and the exterminator is coming tomorrow. (I hate the idea of killing any bees, even ones that are eating my house, so hopefully he will have ideas how to not just evict them but keep them from coming back.)

So far, the meager first-hand reports are that the puppies and Mia are doing fine. Ian sent a few pictures. I’m sure they will seem so much bigger when I see them again tomorrow. I can check on them via our puppy cam and everything looks fine, at least on camera. My kids have helped care for dozens of puppies by now so I’m confident the pups are in good hands.

#togetherwerescue #mykidsareprettygreat

Diary of a Rescue Day 13:

The pups are three weeks old now. Tonight I weighed them. Smallest is 1 lb 11oz (Usnavi) and biggest is 2lbs 11oz (Mr. Mistopheles).

They got their second dewormer tonight and it went much better than last time- everyone slurped it up and looked for more. While I was deworming them, I noticed that there are teeth coming in, so later this week I will introduce some soft puppy mush. Solid food is the first step towards Mia’s independence, which she desperately needs.

Mia is a mischievous one, already trying to figure out how to climb out, pulling everything down within reach, and attentively watching out her gate at all times. She can’t wait to join the other dogs and this household.

Everyone faired just fine in my absence. It is awfully nice to have such competent kids (well really starter-adults).

#puppyhouse #happytobehome

Diary of a Rescue Day 14:

There is little to say beyond the cuteness, so I’ll let it speak for itself…

Thanks for reading!

Cara

If you’d like regular updates of all my foster dogs past and present, plus occasional dog care/training tips from OPH training, be sure to join the Facebook group, Another Good Dog.

For information on me, my writing, and books, visit CaraWrites.com. I have a new book, One Hundred Dogs and Counting: One  Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues, coming out in July. If it sounds like something you’d like to read, I’d be beyond grateful if you’d consider preordering it. Preorders contribute to the success of the book, not only giving me and my publisher some peace of mind but hopefully attracting media attention.

And if you’d like to know where all these dogs come from and how you can help solve the crisis of too many unwanted dogs in our shelters, visit WhoWillLetTheDogsOut.org.

Our family fosters through the all-breed rescue, Operation Paws for Homes, a network of foster homes in Virginia, Maryland, D.C., and south-central PA.

If you can’t get enough foster dog stories, check out my book: Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs . It’s available anywhere books are sold.

I love to hear from readers and dog-hearted people! Email me at carasueachterberg@gmail.com.