10/20/2013
A few months ago, a dog was brought to The Kid Ranch Foundation/Boo's Bully Haven, from a woman whose son had rescued her. She was extremely pregnant, and the woman said that her Queensland Heeler was the father. A week later, she gave birth to 11 puppies. I was there for the birth of these little canines, and 3 were born blue. I watched Ashley massage their lifeless little forms until they all came to.
The next day, the mother rejected them, and killed one of the puppies. The remaining 10 were separated from her. They needed to be bottle fed every two hours. Ashley was mainly in charge of this labor of love. She and Mike slept in the living room by the puppy nursery with an alarm set for every 2 hours. I was her relief person; I came in at 6 a.m. and sometimes 8 a.m. to feed them, so she could get some sleep. I also helped feed them during the day.
One more puppy failed to thrive, and died. When yet another showed the same symptoms, we thought there might be something beyond failure to thrive, and took it to the vet. It stayed there overnight in an oxygen tent, and was diagnosed with Brucellosis, which usually means that all the pups should have either been aborted spontaneously or stillborn. The vet gave Ashley antibiotics for the remaining pups, as well as a sad prognosis: We would be lucky if we saved just one. Even with the medication.
Well, we saved 6. SIX puppies saved from tireless efforts, punctuated by the sorrow of losing 4, despite the medication, as the Vet had predicted. Three of them have been successfully adopted, and one is being fostered.
