Oops

Sirius had a puppy-splosion starting about two months ago. Within one weekend, three 5-week-old littermates, a litter of six orphaned 10-day-old puppies that required bottle-feeding, and a pregnant mama dog about to burst were all dropped off. The latter two groups (orphans, mom-to-be) were both from the same rural village and had been dropped off with a traveling veterinary clinic. Alaskan villages have no vets, so veterinary services are provided via traveling vets, and service is provided gratis. They were dropped off with a euthanasia request. The vet in charge of the clinic declined to do this, and brought the lot of them back to Fairbanks. When they arrived at the rescue, the wee babies didn't even have their eyes open. I went to visit (chaos!), and found tiny puppies here, mobile puppies there, half-grown puppies out in the yard under the tutelage of the adult aunty and uncle dogs, and bleary-eyed humans bottle-feeding every four hours. And also the pregnant mama dog, who was due to be sent to a private home to be fostered while she gave birth and nursed the puppies. Mama was extremely sweet! She had no name, so I said we should call her Raven.

However, she gave birth to eight puppies before the foster could pick her up, so she stayed.

She did not like living in the house, so we built a temporary shelter for her in the yard, away from the other dogs, while she was in protective mama-mode.

I went to visit her, and um...

Two of the puppies didn't survive, but the other six thrived, and when they got old enough that she started to relax her GRRRR!-Protective-Mama-Mode, we moved the lot of them to be adjacent to the other dogs. She relaxed and got comfy.

The puppies got biiiiig!

When they got old enough such that she could leave them sometimes, I started taking her for walks. She knew "sit!"

And she never pulled on her leash!

I looked at the calendar and realized that when her pups would be eight weeks old, I'd go off contract for four weeks. Good time to foster her! So I took my girls to take a walk with her. It went well.

Then one day I overheard that somebody was interested in adopting her, and I panicked! It was clear at this point that she was bound to me, and I to her. She started wailing as soon as my car pulled up to the rescue, and would follow me around and wail when I had to pen her so I could do other yard chores and visit other dogs. So I said, "Nonobodycanadopther. Iwanther! Then I called DL and told him, uhhhh... that I had committed to adopting her. And he had not met her since she was a new mama and GRRRRRed at him. He replied, "I'm sure I'll win her over. Anyway I figured we'd end up adopting her. Do you honestly think we could give her back after she'd lived with us for four weeks?" I told him that I thought that that was very sensible of him! I brought her home for a visit a few days later. It seemed to go well.

Yeah, it seems they like each other okay.

I had packed her supper so she could eat with us before bringing her back to the rescue, and there was no food aggression, no competition.

I brought her back to her puppies that evening, and the puppies latched back on with their fangs! At this point, they were 6 weeks old, and well onto solid food, just trying to get whatever they still could. She was very over it.

I brought her home for good the following day. She fits Booger's old harness! Well, for now. Her body will change as her boobs shrink back and she gains weight to a normal, non-nursing body.

Apparently it's not safe to vaccinate pregnant dogs, so she didn't get her shots at intake to the rescue, per normal. I scheduled it with my vet ASAP. I also wormed her myself at home, and wormed Thistle and Cricket, for good measure. Her first vet visit, and she needed the works! I even brought them a poop sample to be sure that she was free of whatever bad things she could have gotten from her time of living in a village with poor vet care. (The Proin is for Thistle, not her. Thistle at 13 is starting to struggle with incontinence in her golden years.)

It's been less than a week, and she's already accustomed to a morning run!

This is our new setup. She doesn't need a bungee since she doesn't pull at all. Also, her line needs to be short since she likes to run right next to me.

Do you think she is comfy with us? I sure hope she is comfy with us.

In the meantime, her puppies are under the watchful and loving care of Aunty Killick. Killick is a resident at Sirius. Not a rescue. She was bred purposefully from a line of excellent working Siberians to run in the resident team. At only 6 months old, she has decided that she wants to be the primary caretaker of these pups, so she moved into their pen and started GRRRRRing at other dogs that get near. :D

And that is my story for today! And yes, three dogs is a lot of work for a non-musher. We got Starbuck when Autumn and Linden were elderly, as part of a succession plan. Thistle and Cricket aren't old enough to start worrying about succession, but here we are. Well, why do birds sing so gay? And lovers await the break of day? Why do fools fall in love?