Shelter Diaries Special: Mia

Rather than repost the blog in it's entirety, here's a link to Mia's page. She was a shelter dog, now she's being fostered by us. I know the best way to help find her a forever home is to start spreading the word now.

Mia's page
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Rufus!

Just a couple of weeks after we began volunteering at the animal shelter, Sophie ran across this tiny ball of fur. It looked to everyone like a cross between a Husky and a potato (because up until a certain age, all dogs look pretty much like potatoes). As Sophie sat with the puppy, named "Rufus," snuggling and comforting it, the Shelter Director walked up and nodded in their direction.

"That puppy's too young to stay here. It'll need a foster home." She punctuated the latter sentence with what novelists refer to as 'a significant look'.

After discussing it with Sophie, we agreed that - ready or not - someone would have to step up, and it might as well be us. Thus began two months' worth of attempted house-training, socializing, and looking for a good, stable owner to adopt him. The sleepless nights came as an added bonus. Four aborted adoption missions later (and five other foster animals come and gone), we finally threw in the towel and declared him a "foster failure," as the shelter employees teasingly refer to it. Since he had spent 75% of his life with us thus far, we figured he could stick around for the rest of it.

Rufus has his own Blogger page, "Raising the Rufus," where we basically natter on about some of the ups and downs of bringing up a puppy (now an adolescent dog) in our bizarre little world. Maybe we'll even discuss some things that we learn along the way about what to do - and what not to do - when forging a relationship with (hopefully) the furriest member of your family.

Naomi and Her Puppies

It was love at first sight. One of the shelter employees told me to go take a look in the last kennel in the very back: I did and was greeted by a pair of the bluest eyes I have ever seen, a heartbreakingly sad face and eight beautiful one-week-old puppies. Knowing that new moms can be protective, especially around strangers, I approached as politely as I could. She didn't seem defensive at all, only somewhat vigilant as I picked up one of her puppies. She was nursing four of them and another four were burrowing under the dirty blanket her owners had left with her when they ditched her and her puppies because they "can't afford them."

While she let her pups nurse, I picked up the non-nursing ones and set them on my lap where Naomi could lick their little bottoms to stimulate them to pee. Yes. On my lap. But that's okay. We were a team, and just as soon as she was done with one, I'd bring her another one. Like any other octomom (yeah, I had to use that lame joke) she's going to need help raising her family. She needs a spare room, access to food, water and a yard. She's a fantastic mother and very gentle and trusting of humans. Hopefully, someone will come to her rescue and give her a safe place to raise her puppies until they are old enough to be adopted out. She appears to be a mix of shepherd and ??? I think her card says "Cattle Dog" but I have no idea. What I do know is that she's a great dog, and her puppies are soooooooooo freaking CUTE! The shelter is no place for them, though. They don't even have their eyes open yet. If anyone can be a dog-nanny, now is the time to step up and rescue them.

Four of the eight puppalumps

NOTE (From Tim): Naomi's situation is dreadfully serious. Sadder still is the fact that her situation is dreadfully common. Every Spring and Summer, people drop off litters of dogs and cats that their "little angels" have managed to somehow produce. More often than not, when faced with the fact that their animal can and often will reproduce without being neutered, they simply discard their original pet as well. Think spaying or neutering is too expensive? If she could talk, Naomi would say that surgery was the cheap end of the equation.

An animal shelter is no place for a pup or kitten; there's just no denying the necessity for a foster or rescue. And somehow, if one can't be found, or if Naomi and her puppies are lost to illness or the crushing reality of overcrowding... somehow, those same owners will likely point an accusing finger at the people who took up the burden of their irresponsibility.

UPDATE(7/20): Although this past weekend was pretty much a nail-biter regarding Naomi, a rescue group stepped up today and took her and the puppies in. It doesn't really change the way we feel about the circumstances of her arrival, but we're thrilled and relieved beyond belief that they're all at least safe now.