Puppy-palooza!

It’s a regular puppy-palooza at this foster cottage. I was home from the latest shelter tour only a few hours when the deluge began.

Nancy and I picked up Sampson from the house of a new HSSC foster where he’d been with his mom for the last ten days. Tina told us that he’s a doll but he was driving her older dog a little nuts. She would continue to foster Sampson’s mama (Beatrix’s sister!) because she’s so easy and good, but would be grateful if I could take the youngster off her hands.

Sam is a six month old miniature yellow lab (my own breed designation). He is absolutely gorgeous. He only weighs about twelve pounds, so it’s doubtful that he’ll top thirty pounds full grown. He is a funny guy who might be momentarily stand offish because of his tough beginning, but within minutes he is embarrassingly affectionate. He loves to play and zoom and wrestle with his sister (more about her in a minute).

Sam is solidly housebroken, and doing great with crate training and leash work. We took him to a winery for an outing and he had a blast. Here he is at the winery:

Sampson is neutered, microchipped, up to date on vaccines and preventatives, and READY to find a home of his own. So please spread the word!

Two days later, I got a message from Melisa, the director of the Humane Society asking if I’d have room for some puppies. They were in a hoarding/eviction situation and needed to get out. I followed Melisa’s car about thirty minutes south of us to a house tucked up in the woods near the river. We smelled the situation well before we finally saw it.

There were eight dogs in a small room. The walls were covered in poop and the floor was inches deep in poop. Inside there was a pair of supposedly Scottish Terriers (they resembled Scotties a bit but were too large and long to be real Scotties). They went bonkers at the sight of us peeking over the plywood that was blocking the doorway.

There were also four 8-week old puppies from this pair. Their bellies were enormously bloated with the worst case of roundworms I’ve ever encountered. I’ll spare you the details, and just say that after a few days with them, I’m pretty sure I’ll never eat spaghetti again.

We took the puppies – who were adorable and other than being covered in filth and full of worms, they seemed more or less fine. (Puppies are durable)

Also in the room were two adolescent dogs, purportedly from the same pair of dogs although one of these dogs, Clyde, looks very much like a black lab, and the other, Bonnie, has long silky red hair, a feathery curled tail, and looks more like a fox.

Both dogs had been born in that room and had never left it. We managed to drag/carry them to the car (they were in shock) and wrestle them into crates. We have a long road ahead, and I’m going to tell you all about them in another post. I’m sure they’ll be here a while. If you want to hear some of the gory details of those first few days, you can read a few posts on my writer Facebook page where I’ve been chronicling the experience as a form of self-therapy.

Back to the puppies – a much more fun topic. Now that we have gotten them cleaned up, rid of worms, and rehydrated (they were severely dehydrated), vaccinated, and fed them some high quality food, they are just as darling as any of the puppies who have come through this cottage.

The four of them couldn’t be more different. Only Velma resembles a Scottie. The alleged dad of this bunch (also in foster care elsewhere with HSSC) is named Scooby, so I went with that theme. Velma has wiry fur, a beard, a rectangular head, and weighs about 7.5 pounds (at about nine weeks). She likes wrestling with her siblings, but she’s also happy chewing on a toy and is always excited when I add new toys to the pen.

Daphne has super soft, long hair similar to a Bichon or another of those small, long-haired, mop-like dogs (I’m not very familiar with small breeds). It’s possible she’s nonshedding (open the adoption floodgates). She is the boss of the bunch, but very friendly and happy and loves attention. She weighs 8.4 pounds at nine weeks.

Shaggy is the life of the party. This guy is a blast and loves people, especially me. He is definitely my biggest fan in the puppy room, serenading me from the other side of the fence when he sees me. He has wiry brown fur, a beard, a rectangular head, gorgeous eyes and weighs over ten pounds at nine weeks.

Fred is my favorite (I know I shouldn’t have favorites, but I always do). He is the runt of the litter at just six pounds, with the most endearing face and more smarts than his siblings. He’s already learned to sit for treats (only Daphne can do that and not consistently). He does his best to keep up with his siblings, but he’d much rather be snuggled.

But wait! Before I tell you how you can get your hands on one of these puppies, there’s still one more!

The day after the Scooby pups moved in, there was a request from the same overloaded trailer where we got Beatrix, her puppies, Sampson, and his mom Delilah. Could we take one more puppy so they didn’t get evicted? Nick and I drove over and picked up the puppy, Sampson’s sister.

Sugar is a little bit bigger than Sam at about 15 pounds (my guess). She’s more outgoing and maybe a little more wild than him. She also loves to zoom and bounce, but while Sam tends to hoard toys (carrying anything I leave out that isn’t moving out to the puppy yard to his piles), she is content to chew on all kinds of toys (and so far nothing she shouldn’t chew). They both love to play and wrestle, but they’re taking a break because Sugar was spayed on Monday.

Sugar is solidly housebroken, just like Sam (and Beatrix and Delilah) and having seen where they came from I’m sure it was not done using fear-free methods. She is getting the hang of her crate and leash. Sugar is spayed, microchipped, up to date on her vaccines and preventatives. She’s ready to go home Sunday.

And speaking of Sunday…if you’d like to meet the gang. All six of them, plus Delilah, will be at the Winery at Kindred Pointe this Sunday May 5 from 1-3pm. Come out and snuggle a puppy or pick one out to adopt. (And enjoy a glass of good wine!)

If you’ve got questions, fire away. You can apply to adopt any of these puppies (and Bonnie and Clyde and Delilah) at www.hsscva.org.

Until Each One Has a Home,

Cara

For information on me, my writing, and books, visit CaraWrites.com.

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

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 and subscribe to our blog where we share stories of our travels to shelters, rescues, and dog pounds.

If you can’t get enough foster dog stories, check out my book: Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs. Or its follow up that takes you to the shelters in the south One Hundred Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues.

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

If you’d like to support the work we do (and save the rescue and me some money), shop our Amazon wishlist. Right now we could really use puppy treats and puppy food.