Pupdate: Diamond Dogs Edition

An update on Pudding: Still not dead. Despite being told by one vet that she would die and another vet that she probably might have something that would kill her, she didn't die. Hoo-Ray for wrong diagnoses, amirite?  We had a rough couple of weeks, but Pudding Pup pulled through and she even started becoming less bald.  This is her at her most recent vet visit:

Dr. B was listening to her heart and talking about how much healthier P-pup seemed since her last visit, when all of a sudden she said, "HEY, She has HAIR!"  I was proud. Then Dr. B told me, "You know that love did this, right? The medicine helped, but LOVE did this." And I told her to shut up because I can't be crying all over the place. People might start thinking I'm a softie. 

The day after her checkup, Pudding went to another foster home. I had several people ask me why I wasn't adopting her or how I could let her go and I understand why people ask that, I do. But a long time ago, when I first started doing rescue, I had a really hard time letting my fosters go when it came time for them to go to their new homes, especially those that I had spent time nursing back to health. Every time they would leave, I would cry. Every time.  It was emotionally draining to the point where I wasn't sure I was going to be able to continue fostering. Then someone who's been in Rescue a lot longer than I have told me something important:  She told me, "You've got to stop convincing yourself that you're the only person in the world who is capable of loving this dog. Don't be so selfish. Let other people love too."  

And once I thought about it, it made a lot of sense.  Fostering is a huge commitment with a lot of emotional investment but don't let yourself be so caught up in it that you can't recognize that other people are good too. 'Cause here's the thing: LOTS of people are good. And the part where I clean them up and get them ready for a family--that's an important part, yes, but so is the part where someone takes them home and loves them forever. You don't have to do it all yourself. In fact, it's better if you don't! So, yes, I let her go. I didn't want to be selfish.  

She went to a foster home where there's another dog. As you can tell, they hate each other:

And she seems really stressed out. I mean, you can SEE the tension here:

I do miss her though, I won't lie. She's a good egg. She's going to make someone so happy because, while I'm pretty sure she loves me back, she's got a lot of that to spare.

But we didn't really have time to sit and relax after she left because we've taken on a new project: The Diamond Dogs

As you can tell from this photo, the Diamond Dogs consist of a mama dog and five puppies so precocious they ran away from home at the tender age of...six days old. I mean, they seem pretty much like guinea pigs in a coma to me, but the shelter had them listed as "stray" so they had to have come from somewhere on the streets, so I imagine they're only this sleepy because they've been running around, shoplifting, smoking cigarettes.. (kidding, someone let their dog get knocked up and then didn't want to deal with the puppies).

We named them all after David Bowie songs: Stardust, China, Rebel, BlueJean and Major Tom. I would post individual photos, but all I have are blurry ones because Mommy won't let me take them for a photo shoot.  I've discovered that her protectiveness is pretty much for show, however, since she is (for lack of better term): A TERRIBLE MOTHER.

She is supposed to clean them thoroughly and nurse them almost every couple of hours. At this point (a few days in), I have to wipe them down with a warm wash cloth multiple times a day, clean their bedding at least 5 times a day, and I have to either sit with her and hold her down or lock her in a small room with them to get her to nurse. The smallest baby (China), I'm having to supplement feed because she's so tiny and Mommy doesn't really seem to be all that concerned?

In her defense, she's young and stupid and probably not much more than a puppy herself. You can sort of tell she doesn't have a clue what just happened. "I mean, I just went to go poop and the five of them just fell out!" Most of the time, she sort of half-heartedly licks at them and then wanders off.

I'm hoping like hell she continues to nurse at least for another couple of weeks--I'm a little doubtful, but we'll try and make it work til then.  I'll be posting lost more Diamond Dog pup photos once they do something more than sleep 23.5 hours a day. But I must say, it's awful cute with a lot of this going on:

It's always an adventure.