Starfish and the mystery pups

I've been fostering a litter of three pups and their mom since they were three days old. They were part of a seizure of many dogs that is still part on an on-going court case. We've been asked not to post pictures or say anything about the situation so that the owners can't locate any of the dogs. Unfortunately, just that bit of vague information is all too common such that it doesn't point to any particular case. This mom and her pups are lucky to be somewhere safe where their needs are being met while the court system drags its ass slowly along towards what I have to believe is the inevitable conclusion that the dogs will be permanently removed from the former owners.

I haven't been making blog posts as frequently as I normally would, especially when I've got puppies. One can assume that for every day without a new blog post, there would have been one about the pups. Someone suggested that it would be nice if I had artists' renderings of the momma and pups like they do in untelevised legal proceedings. However, I'm no sketch artist and my own efforts would look like stick drawings. So I'll just have to talk about them for now, but once the dogs are surrendered legally, you can expect a giant blog post spanning now four weeks of puppyhood. 

On Friday I took the momma dog, we'll call her Starfish, to the vet because I was seeing a spot of blood on the pads when she would urinate on them, which she always does, thank you very much. The vet couldn't find any cause for that but we did start her on a course of antibiotics just in case something was lurking below the surface and avoiding detection. I thought it had stopped, actually, but I did see a small spot of blood on the pads again today. The vet also noticed, because it was blatantly obvious, that the  skin on her belly was quite raw and inflamed, which wasn't surprising with puppies. 

The pups were four weeks old on Friday so I began offering them some mush made from pulverized puppy food mixed with warm water, three times a day. I had seen them playing with mom's bowl of puppy food, picking up a few pieces and strewing them about the floor. They weren't really eating it, but they were developing an interest in it. They took to the mush right away, sometimes eating more of it than others, but they always leave some that mom cleans up. We're hoping of course that it will ease the pressure on the mother and help her heal. The immediate effect of the dry food is already beginning to show on the growth chart - the rate of growth has picked up for all three pups, creating a steeper upward slope on the chart.

This litter left their "nest" earlier than others, because the sides of their wading pool weren't so tall and mom didn't really seem to like laying in there. They've been mobile earlier than some but of course they still have that wobbly drunken puppy walk. They are now becoming more interested in me, my shoe laces, leg hair, the food dish I bring, and the puppy toys that I've put out for them. 

With most litters of pups I've had, I would put the puppy pads adjacent to their bed when they first began to move about on four legs. Since this litter abandoned the bed early we didn't really have that experience, so they were just eliminating wherever they were when the mood struck them. Mom was, and still is, excellent about cleaning up after them. Mom has never shown any interest in going outside so I've used puppy pads for her from the beginning. The happy result is that the pups have learned from her and now they too are using the pads at least 90 percent of the time. I don't think I've ever had a litter paper-trained this young.

You can see that in just two days on semi-solid food, the rate of weight gain has begun to increase. Also, the smallest guy is making some headway on closing the weight gap. There had been a one pound gap between him in the next puppy, now it's less than a pound and shrinking. 

Because I can't post puppy pictures, here's a few recent shots of our other dogs.

Sherlock and Maya playing in the front yard.

I moved this fountain into a niche between two boxwoods. 

I like it better here because he's always facing the viewer now.

We had a brief, but very severe thunderstorm this afternoon.

Elvis was the only dog who didn't care. Being deaf has that one advantage at least.

Maya is always in this spot under my desk directly in front of me. But when a massive clap of thunder seemed to hit right outside our house this afternoon, Della pushed her way in and laid behind Maya.

Paisley outside, after the storm.

Della and Elvis

This little shit has been stealing the water hyacinths out of my fountain and chewing them up. I decided he needed some appropriate outdoor toys and I dug out a half dozen or so this afternoon. I spread them around the yard in the hope that he will find, play with, and carry them around instead of going after my water plants and floating solar fountain.

He is a great looking dog, and actually very well mannered for his age.

Here's all four after the storm. Maya declined this outing.

I was sitting in my garden the other day and saw Sherlock just sitting there, watching the road with his tail wagging for no particular reason. He doesn't need one, he's just that kind of dog.