8 weeks of puppies: week 1

as many of you know, we have taken on the responsibility of fostering ELEVEN dogs! originally, i thought it'd be 9, but what's two more? hah! so the story is that we have a local woman who owns a store in cameron village called cat banjo, and she runs a dog rescue out of the store - how cool?! well, she always brings her dogs in to work, and we've gotten to see these poor creatures come back from literally death row at the shelters all around the state (and sometimes neighboring states), to happy, healthy, well-loved pups with great homes! they don't have any facility, since it's not a shelter or anything, so they rely on foster families to care for the pups once they've left the hospital.

this dog in particular was so sad to me. she was HUGE with puppies - we thought she had 8 in there, and we thought she'd deliver as soon as she arrived at work. however, her contractions stopped, and a week went by with her hanging out in her "birthing turtle" upstairs. on wednesday, we got the word that they were either going to induce or do a c-section... but the doctors changed their minds. then on friday the same thing, and then finally on sunday, we went through with the c-section. somewhere in there, i found out that this dog, iris, and her puppies did not yet have a foster home... and who in their right mind would take on a dog and her 8 puppies?

well, i thought, i'd love to be useful, and i've always wanted our house to be a home for all - a place where people could come to get away and have respite. it just seems right, since we don't have lots of money and can't give thousands of dollars to charities, and we aren't active in a youth group (something i always foresaw for myself) or busy with church things (since we aren't very close to either of the churches we attend and currently have a car-hating 1-year-old), but we do have a lot of land, and it is a great place to just sit and be. so since i've always wanted our house to be that for someone... and i thought, well, it's not a PERSON, but it would still be helping 9 dogs - and that's good! so andrew and i discussed it, and we decided that if they were ok with having the pups grow up (for their first 8 weeks of life) on our porch, then we'd be happy to have them.

so sunday came and the c-section/spay commenced. the uterus was pulled out of the mamadog, and the babies were peeled out of their birth sacs one by one. 8 or 9 volunteers and i stood around the table, peeling out puppies, suctioning their mouths and noses, shaking them, and rubbing to stimulate them to breathe... and live! usually in large litters one or two pups won't make it, and with SUCH a large litter, i was prepared for that, but when it was all said and done, all of the puppies and mama came out of it with flying colors. we went to counting. by this point, we were actually pretty sure there were 9 puppies. ok, i thought, 10 extra dogs, what's one more? but when we counted them all... for a shocked 3rd time... there were actually 10 puppies! poor mamadog! i can barely handle 1 baby!

so that night, andrew, tess, and i went to andrew's work to build the whelping box to take to our house. it took a long time because once it was built, we had to take it back inside because it wouldn't fit in the van! andrew had to cut the top 3 inches off to get it to fit. but, we got it home and all set up. i went in to work on monday, and brought the pups home that night. unfortunately, that's when the weather decided to start sucking, and we began the days of cold COLD rain. mama and puppies had to stay inside the first few days, but after she pooped in my bedroom and kept trying to break out of the dining room, we decided they had to go outside, like we'd agreed. we set up the box with lots of blankets and towels, and 3 comforters (it's a large box), and put a packing blanket over the top to keep the heat in. we even bought a heat lamp, but after feeling the heat under all the covers, we decided they'd be warm enough through the night. and they were! each day, i checked the pups to make sure they were all still alive, i was so sure we'd lose one or two just from the size of the litter, but they continued to thrive!

thursday, mamadog had been particularly frustrating. though we'd taken her out to go to the bathroom literally 7 or 8 times by mid-morning, she kept trying to (and did successfully once or twice) jump out of the box. not a good idea for a dog that was just split open and sutured up! she also began vomiting. so, i packed her and the puppies and tess into the car, and off to the vet we went. when we got there, it turned out that she was just SO FULL of poop (despite the fact that she'd been pooping like crazy all week) that she just didn't have any room for food and needed to empty out. we deduced that she must have been over-eating. usually an undernourished dog nursing 10 puppies should be allowed to eat as much puppy food as she wants, but it appeared that this mamadog was just so used to being deprived that she thought she had to gorge herself lest the food disappear. so she stayed overnight at the vet for some fluids and no food. and we modified her diet to a limited number of cups per day, and she kept pooping like a champ, stopped vomiting, and we brought them all home the next day.

since then she's been pretty regular, pooping twice a day and eating two cups each meal. she did get stapled up to fix the stitches she'd popped jumping out of the box, and andrew extended the top of the box over a foot higher so that she cannot jump out anymore. so far, so good! mama and babies are doing great after week 1 [click to see each pup on their fb page]. their eyes and ears are still closed, and they mostly sleep and eat all day, but that's what babies are supposed to do!

[some photos blatantly downloaded from cat banjo - credit to debbi cochran.]