Many Tears Animal Rescue

       We all want to love and protect our kids, give them only the best in life, and never subject them to hurt or pain, don’t we? Well yes the intension is there, but sadly poor Leah falls short of this now and then some!
     Last Saturday I had a lovely surprise when Leah and husband Jay turned up out of the blue (having driven 3 hours) to “pop” in. As she walked through the door, and after the initial shock, I asked her if she’d like to hand raise 13 one hour old puppies as a vets had just called them in. Well poor Jason, his jaw dropped, and you could see the look of despair on his face. The whole mother like daughter thing certainly applies when it comes to us.  Leah is great at hand raising but finds the whole homing thing very sad as the hand raises are so much part of your life, therefore poor Jay goes through a battle each time and also has to share in Leah's heartache, sleepless nights and wrecked social life!
       Anyway they were due to leave Sunday morning and the vets had not turned up with the pups, so we presumed they had found a surrogate mum for them. Instead I loaded Leah, and her already packed car, up to the hilt with things that needed dropping off and two foster pups to be taken to their new foster mum.
 
       At 3pm to my surprise the pups arrived from the vets!  Somebody had been walking in the park and had found 13 pups, barely an hour old, dumped under a park bench. They rushed them to the vets who kept them over night, sadly loosing 4 to hyperthermia and the fact that they had not received the essential colostrums that they needed!  I rang Leah, and she kindly agreed to take them (although her other hand raise pup had only gone two days before and I’m sure she was looking forward to a proper night’s sleep!).  Mike and Corrine who was dropping a dog up to us that needed moving agreed to take the pups back with them most of the way and meet Leah on route!
      Since then Leah has had 45 mins of sleep at a time, feeding every two hours (but it takes an hour to feed!) I feel sad when she calls me in sheer despair worried she is going to loose one. I know the heartache she is going through! Sadly she has lost three, I suppose it was inevitable with the start they had in life but it was so unnecessary! If they had given the pups even a few hours, or days on the mum to help them along the way! Imagine how the poor bitch must be suffering!
       Anyway thought it would be really nice to keep a blog on the litter so whilst Leah is here working at Many Tears (I like to get my pound of flesh from her! Ha ha ha) she will keep a blog for you………..

      Well we are all still here. My tiny girl has picked up a little and all seem a little more settled on their milk. Would really like to name them, but know that it is the kiss of death to do that, so until they are older they will have to sick to the identifying spots of nail varnish on their bottoms!
      So far the god send that I have got due to kind souls donating it is a small heated pad that I can plug in, what I really need is a puppy pad that you can put in the microwave that keeps warm for when we are driving etc, although the hot water bottles are good they go cold a lot quicker! The other thing they love is their big cuddly toy! As they have no mum, they spend a lot of time suckling from each other, this is really bad for them as 1) they constantly drink wee and 2) it makes the one being suckled very sore! People keep telling me to separate them, well for anybody who has ever hand raised you will know that they try a lot harder with company, often when they are on their own they will just give up. So anyway the cuddly toy has given them something else to snuggle into.
       I hope that we continue to progress, and I will get more pictures asap.

     The human race never fails to amaze me.......people can be so heartless, such as the people who dumped the pups and then all the amazing people who have kindly donated heat pads for my puppies. The generosity shown has been amazing.........so an enormous thank you from me and my pups.
     We had a relatively good night. The pups are eating well, although their tummies still aren’t fully settled. Whilst feeding at a ridiculous time last night, I found myself studying the pups trying to decide what they will grow into. Well an hour and half later I found myself totally stumped! The problem is that it adds to the problem of hand raising them as I have no idea how big they should be, or will be, which means I have no idea on how much they should be eating. If I was to go on what they would like to eat i would think that they are going to grow into Great Danes!!!!! Arrggghhh!!!
      So for now I’m going on a medium sized dog, maybe collie cross due to the little white tips most of them carry!

Anyway till tomorrow...........

     Well the pups have been totally spoilt with all the lovely heat pads and good wishes that people have been sending.
     They were getting to be grubby little things - I guess when there are 6 they just do get mucky and the main reason is that they constantly suckle off each other. Anyway we were very blessed today to have some great helpers, who have helped bath and dry each pup, once again returning them to their former glory!
     I have had an ongoing problem with feeding the pups, they suck too hard to drink from the bottle that comes with the milk as the nipples already have pre-cut holes (which are too big!) and they end up drowning themselves. So I have been syringe feeding them, but now as they are getting stronger they have now twice sucked the nipple right off, nearly swallowing it!!!!!
      I obviously cannot risk that, but trying to find a bottle which comes with nipples that don’t have pre cut holes; I just can’t seem to find any. Any ideas?
     As they get bigger they also are getting naughtier!!! For their size they are really strong and can heave their way out of the pre-feeding box to mug me feeding the one before. Today they are 15 days (can’t believe it). Bruiser has opened his eyes today, whilst the rest still are being lazy!! They are very late opening their eyes, guess they are onto a good thing, lay there, get fed, cuddled and washed without having to do anything.

 
Well the pups are fearless, I let them out for breakfast and off they go. Herding them up feels like a full time job! We are now on 3 solid meals and 1 bottle. They could come off the bottle, but due to their bad start I want them to get the milk's nutrients for a while longer. So anyway today is the grand reveal.........they have names, they may not be to everybody's taste but they suit my pups!

GOOSE
 
Goose - truly fearless, he is the leader of the clan, always into trouble he plays his way through life. He is a strong solid pup, who eats like a horse! Previously the bruiser i'm not sure which suits him best? He was named goose as a friend of ours fell in love with him and wanted to call a pup Goose so here he is.

GIFT
  
Gift- as the dictionary says......the term gift can refer to anything that makes the other happier! Well she certainly does that. She is an individual ray of sun shine. Gift to me is the biggest fighter, she has been so close to death so many times, but never has she stopped fighting, and now with her poor little leg in bandage it seems that life really is throwing everything at her, but she will keep fighting! She is still the poorest of all my pups, her skin is a bit scabby and her coat not so shinny, but she is improving everyday!

GIDDY
 
Giddy is a beautiful, pretty young lady. She too is fearless, nearly always on her own delving into something she shouldn't be! She has a beautiful red tinge to her coat and she and Gander have slightly more coat than everybody else.

GOSH

Gosh and how stunning he is. What a lady killer. This young man will melt your heart sooner than you can blink. He is the next smallest after gift, but he is the one who was known as the twin to gift. He is very brave too, trotting off to find adventure.

Gander, the bruiser girl! She has a beautiful red tinge to her coat too and like Giddy has more coat than the others. She loves her food and often is trying to out run (well wobble) Goose to the food. She is as bold as brass and was the first the bark, play and howl! She adores exploring but too likes a cuddle as do they all.

GAMBLE
  
Gamble (looking quite mucky after breakfast, sorry!) is a fun, sweet, cuddly, yet appropriately naughty young lady. She too has been through the mill and again is a born survivor. Her nose looks a little better, but we are still concerned for her. She is a happy confident young lady (actually a bit of a tom boy, always getting grubby and playing with the boys!)