Aspen
The girls are growing fast! Now 8 weeks old, they are all eating hearty, getting plumper and furrier, and having a blast exploring their world. Housebreaking is coming along – but of course, they are all typical puppies & get busy playing and oops! They suddenly stop and pee, but for such tiny girls, who can complain? They’ll figure it out (and their tiny bladders will get bigger). Meanwhile, they are all good little girls in their crates and ex-pen. (The lucky trio goes to work each day with foster dad Scott, who has thoughtfully converted part of his office into a puppy playground.)
Aspen now tips the scales at nearly 8 pounds, up from her intake weight of just barely over 4 pounds. She’s bouncy, playful, starting to chew things. The most people oriented of the three girls, Aspen loves everyone! She already comes when called and just loves to be loved. Scott has a private school behind his office, and the high school girls come over and play with the pups occasionally. Aspen loves it. She likes her older doggie brother and sister, too, but knows how to read them—she’ll climb all over Sassy, but respects Rusty as he’ll growl if the puppies overwhelm him. She likes to play with toys and will instigate playtime with her sisters… and can hold her own, but she’ll take a time-out if Bristol and Cypress decide to go for the throw-downs.
No kitty exposure, but she’s afraid of the house rabbit, Saylor! When he’s hopping about the backyard, she just sits back and watches.
Aspen is just a delightful little girl. She has the sweetest face. She doesn’t have a full-length tail—it hasn’t been docked or caught in a car door or anything, she just didn’t get a “full dose.” That may put off those who must have a dog with a classic Golden “plume,” but there are plenty of people who are going to feel like we do—that funny half-tail is just one more charming special feature of this cute little lady. She’ll make someone a wonderful, loving companion.
The rain has come to Central Texas!
… and we don’t mean the weather, either.
No, at GRR it’s raining PUPPIES! In just four days, TEN adorable Golden pups from two litters have arrived in GRR care…
Litter #1: Rocky and Friends
The hotline call came in on Tuesday, September 8th: a few days before, a Good Samaritan had found seven pups abandoned by the roadside as he was heading to his ranch outside of Austin. He had a Golden himself and recognized the floppy-eared little charmers as Goldens. But what to do once he had the whole crew home? Taking in a single pup is one thing, but seven all at once? Time to send out an SOS! Volunteer Jacki was on the case and headed out to meet the pups that same evening. “Four girls, three boys, maybe 4 1/2 to 5 months old, all adorable, but they’re wet and dirty and need to get into rescue pronto,” she reported. In fact, the smallest boy looked pretty miserable. Turned out he hadn’t eaten for over a day and was coughing and listless. “I’m taking him to the ER right now,” said Jacki, as she scooped up little Rocky (“because he’s had such a rocky start”)—“and I’ll be back for the rest of you pups tomorrow!”
…. And just as promised, with Rocky already resting comfortably at the clinic, the Great Puppy Convoy began to roll the very next day. SUVs? Check! Crates? Check! Lots of towels? Leashes? Six more collars in different colors? Check! The wonderful Tanglewood Animal Hospital notified and ready to receive & examine & microchip six more 25-pound, dark gold “packages”? Check! Foster home hunt begun? Check! Ready, set, GO!
With plans in place (after a sleepless night for the intake team and an early morning featuring too much coffee), the collection and transport went like clockwork, and GRR welcomed its newest members: girls Gillian, Mystic, Jewel, and Pearl, and boys Trooper and Mica. Meanwhile, Rocky had been diagnosed with pneumonia and giardia (an intestinal parasite), but with just a few days of vet care he’s feeling much perkier and has already been discharged from the clinic and whisked into a foster home. The other pups are in foster care, too (Trooper, Pearl and Mystic in one home; Gillian and Jewel in another; Mica in a third), and we’re just starting to see personalities. Girl Pearl is social & a leader & thinks “It’s all about me!” Miss Gillian is another confident one, “super active and alert even though she’s the runt of the litter!” Jewel and Mystic are more timid than their sisters, but becoming more curious and active. Mica stayed with the vet one day longer than his siblings to be treated for dehydration, “but he was still droopy. Dr. Abbott thought he was depressed without his dog family & urged me to bring him home. Once he spotted our canines, he perked right up! All the big dogs really like him. We are really enjoying him... such a sweetheart.”
Litter #2: The ABC Girls
… After such a whirlwind start to the week, we figured we were due for a break. BUT – who should show up in the shelter’s photo gallery on Friday, 9/11, but an adorable Golden fluffball of a tiny puppy? She was shown in three different shots, each cuter than the last. The pound is no place for a young pup, and a foster family quickly stepped up to take her in. However, Tracy looked at the photos again and e-mailed, “Uhhhh, are there THREE? There are three different shelter numbers??? And three different links?” !!!!!!! That’s right, “she” was really “they” – three tiny puppies, likely just 6 weeks old, only 5 pounds each, turned into the pound by an owner who couldn’t keep them.
OK, action stations again! Jeanae promptly organized a second convoy, heading north this time. And by Saturday afternoon, 9/12, the puppies had been to the vet, travelled to their foster family, chowed down with great enthusiasm (several times), spent an exciting afternoon meeting new dogs and people, and then suddenly keeled over, puppy-fashion, for a much-needed nap. So as to do it all over again tomorrow! And of course they got their rescue names, too:
“A” is for Aspen, the littlest girl.
“B” is for her sister Bristol.
“C” is for her other sister, Cypress.
…and “E” is for our exhausted but elated GRR team, admiring ten lucky puppies, now safe and sound and on their way to great new lives.
The next few weeks will be eventful ones, as all the puppies continue to feel better, grow, learn, and entertain their foster families with all those puppy antics! Do you want to adopt one of these girls or boys and watch her or him grow up firsthand? If so, just let us know.
You may also find it extremely helpful to review the puppy-care information from Dr Ian Dunbar's website; go to http://www.dogstardaily.com/free-downloads and review "Before You Get Your Puppy" and "After You Get Your Puppy."