I have had dogs all of my life... I was raised on a farm and at 10 years old, had a pack of retired police officer dogs... I've been in rescue for 34 years as of August 2014 ... I have probably had hundreds of puppies in all of the years volunteering with other rescues and those that I have fostered for TLC...
I would say that I have decent enough experience with 'birthin babies'... And with in the background, let me tell you that this is a new one on me...
DesiDoo (who has never had a litter and was spayed at 8 weeks old) had taken to cuddling up with Atom2 now... Atom2 does not try to nurse, but just gravitates into DesiDoo's belly... And DesiDoo will nudge him into place there as well...
OK, 'mother nature', canine dynamics, etc... Now here is the kicker... Atom2 just needed to go potty, he climbed out of the warm bed and went over to the pitty pad... He is 8 weeks old, so this is a good thing... I'm happy to see this... and then?
I was reaching into a drawer for a file at the time and turned my head back to that when out of the corner of my eye, I saw DesiDoo also get out of bed and start cleaning it up like a mom would... I couldn't move fast enough to stop her from doing it until it was too late...
This is not learned behavior 'cause DesiDoo never had a litter... This is instinctual... Aren't dogs the most AMAZING creatures you have ever seen?
It is now 2:45AM... And on a 'middle of the night' potty run, I check in on him... To find Atom2 crashed out and in bad shape... I've spent the last 45 minutes warming him up, syringe feeding honey and water, baby food and doing SubQs...
My idea to have another nursing mom to foster Atom2 failed... He wasn't interested in nursing and she wasn't interested in volunteering...
Now onto plan B - having Atom2 room with the twins and hope this helps him developmentally...
I have just spent 3 hours putting up corrugated cardboard around the sides of my office so that he cannot climb into a nook or cranny that I cannot readily see him or find him... He is the size of a mouse and I'm an old lady with a bad back and bad knees... The sugar babies about gave me a heart attack one night when they went underneath a shelf and I could not get to them... Been there, done that, had the heart attack... Not going there again...
The photos were so cute of Atom2 acclimating himself with the other two small pups (each 3 and 3.5 pounds accordingly), that I had to make a slideshow out of them...
I had not intended to do much with this blog - other than to record my thoughts as we go along here with Atom2 (for as long as I can keep him alive and until he becomes available for adoption)... This is growing into something now, so I guess I better give you all some background...
The 'players' ....
- DesiDoo is sorta/kinda a PITA kind of dog... Has been since she was a puppy and not wanted by the adopter... She can have high energy and is an attention hog... But I have to give DesiDoo her 'due' - she has ALWAYS been exceptional with the foster puppies that have come through my hands on their journey to a furever adoption....
- Commonly referred to as the 'sugar babies', 'the twins', etc. Abercrombie and Sephora are two surviving puppies born in July from a litter of five puppies... Abercrombie is the male - black & white longhaired Chi mix and Sephora is the female sibling - white... Both consistently had sugar crashes from about six weeks old and it has been a major struggle to insure they lived...
- Atom2 was born 9/25/14 in my home along with three other puppies. His mom (Dumplin) came out of the Camarillo shelter pregnant. Dumplin has a grand personality and was a major lovebug and lap sitter. Two puppies were small (GirlySue and Atom2) - two puppies were much larger and continued to grow larger as time went along (TommyRoo and BindiBoo). The two larger puppies became too big and started bullying Atom2 to the point I had to separate them. The photo below is of the litter of 4 - as you can see, Atom2 is at the bottom of the pile, but he is determined to get his fair share1
