I love the passing of time

The more aggressive puppies went on to their next step on the underground puppy railroad on Friday night. I hope that they find nice homes at the adoption fairs over the next few weeks - homes where they are the only dog, or where they are clearly the lower dog in the pack - homes where they get lots of cuddle time & attention, so that they learn to be gentle & lovable.

On Saturday evening, we got these ones… They have an interesting story.

A rescue worker down in Kentucky was at her local gas station. She saw a hitchhiker & an older man standing looking at something between the ice chest & the wall. She went over to take a look & saw a dog, about 2 years old, clearly in labor & clearly in distress. She told the hitcher that the dog really needed to be at a vet, or somewhere warm & nice, anyway, to deliver those pups. He told her that she would be fine, that she had been like that for a few days now, as he traveled on from place to place (he was on his way from NC to CA, I think).

She convinced him, by paying for his motel room, to let her bring the dog to her vet. A few days before Christmas, she delivered 10 pups, but one died shortly afterwards.

A couple days later, he wanted to take his dog & go. Now, when she was at the vet, he examined her & found a gunshot wound on her. Additionally, the rescue worker said that he said he had lots of dogs, but that he did not really take care of them - said that if one died, he’d just go out & get another to replace it. She just didn’t think he was a very responsible pet owner all in all (besides the obvious lack of care for his dog in labor & postpartum)

It took lots of convincing & a promise to send the dog on to him after the pups were weaned, but he finally let her stay with the rescue worker & her babies.

She’s not going to send the dog back to him. Mom is here, with the people who run the adoption/rescue place that we’re fostering for. We’ve got the pups.

So far, they are very well behaved. Most of them know how to go on the paper. A couple of them whine to go outside when they have to go. A couple of them don’t have any clue about going on the paper at all, yet (sigh…).

A few of them like tearing up the paper & running all over the kitchen with it.

Today’s goal, for me, is to teach them all to go on the paper or outside -and- that the paper is not a toy.

They also love romping around outside, chewing up things in the yard that they probably shouldn’t be chewing up.

And, once they settled down last night, all nine of them were quiet in the basement puppy pen until I went down there this morning at 8am!

And, they are gentle, gentle, gentle. No aggression at all here. Very little puppy fighting for position in the pack. Maybe that will change once they realize that mom is gone (they separated from her yesterday afternoon). Annie & Shelby will come in the kitchen & cuddle with them, while they jump up & lick their faces. But, they are a little shy of big people, so far.

One of the big furry brown ones seems to be the one that mom put in charge, in case she was gone. He rounds them up, keeps them quiet, is the first to approach people on behalf of his family, keeping them safe until he’s sure of the person involved. Then, there’s Annie’s favorite - the tiny little one. Smaller than one of our cats, right now, but spunky & not picked on by the others at all.

More pics of them here http://public.fotki.com/gazoogle/2008-march/20080302a/ and here http://public.fotki.com/gazoogle/2008-march/20080302/page9.html