Slumber party

The owner was breeding English Shepherds. (I had to look them up, but they are a herding breed with a variety of different color possibilities.) Apparently an accidental breeding occurred. (It's really no accident when you have intact dogs living together in a pen.) Owner couldn't sell the resulting mixed breed puppies and agreed to surrender the whole lot, including mother and potential father. There are actually two litters of pups, the oldest five being about five months old, and a younger, more recent litter of four. Another rescue had offered to take the youngest pups but wouldn't take mom. (That's just disgraceful behavior for anything that calls itself a rescue group and I could go on a rant about that for the rest of the evening.) Green Dogs offered to take them all, 11 dogs total, and apparently the owner has agreed to getting the remaining dogs in the home spayed/neutered as well. The four younger pups went to another foster home and I came home with the five older pups, plus mom and a putative father. 

They've always lived outdoors, none of them have ever been on a leash, and they have varying degrees of socialization. Mom and "dad" both seem very sweet and friendly. The five pups are all black and white, some with short tails and some with long tails. I don't know who is male or female at this point and I may need colored collars like we used for very young puppies to tell them apart. The reason I doubt that the adult male is the father is that these five month old pups are nearly as big as the adults already. But at the end of the day it doesn't really matter. 

It was dark by the time we got home and I had to walk/drag them one by one out to Daneland. I had closed the divider earlier today, leaving Kenley and Olivia on the larger side, and giving the "puppy side" that includes the new shed to the new family of fosters. Once they were all in they were happy to be together and seemed to have fun running around and exploring the space. They are rather vocal. I wanted to close them into the shed for the night and finally got them all in and closed the door. There's two large elevated beds, a good sized crate, and a dog house in there so there are plenty of sleeping spots to accommodate them all. 

A couple of them took to the beds right away and seemed quite happy and content to bed down for the night. It looked like a kids slumber party with everyone looking for a spot and someone to share it. 

This is the mother and possible father.