Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Soul Puppy

A soul puppy is what I call a dog that touches my heart and soul and will never be forgotten. After over a decade of fostering hundreds of puppies, dogs, cats and kittens, I have had four soul puppies and one soul kitty. I cherish these bonds as I heartbreakingly wish them well in their new homes. That is not to say that I don’t care for each and every animal that enters my home, whether it is for the night or for seven months in some cases, because I do, it’s just there is something more unique about a select few. 
When I offered to foster three 4-week old black lab puppies I was not expecting a soul puppy. I had already fostered several puppies this year and was trying my best to help out as much as I could with the overwhelmingly high number of puppies needing foster homes. These puppies had been dropped off in the TLAC night box at ten days old. There were five total, four black and one yellow. 


At ten days old these babies still needed to be bottle fed, something the TLAC foster program had not done in the past. When two amazing Animal Control officers stepped up and agreed to bottle raise these pups, a new era of the foster program began. The litter was divided into two groups, two pups went with one foster mom and the other three went with another. These pups thrived in their foster homes, growing big, playing, sleeping, crying and pooping. I think it was the three pooping puppies that finally had the foster mom of the group of three pups scream mercy and ask for help. With two young children and pets of her own she had earned a well deserved break! 
This is where I stepped in. I volunteered to take all three pups into my home until they were old enough to find their permanent homes. Knowing that I was a huge black lab lover and had just recently had to put to sleep my 13 year old black lab everyone at the shelter was convinced that I was going to keep at least one of the pups. I, however, was sure I was never going to have a puppy of my own again. Only grown dogs for me! When I got the three pups home, one female and two males, I realized I had absolutely no way to determine which pup was which. They were all three solid black, and short of lifting them up to check their sex, the pups were indistinguishable. So, I headed to the pet store for different color collars. Too small yet for average dog collars, I had to purchase collars from the “purse-sized” dog collar section. Three colors were chosen…blue, green and pink. 

Once the collars were on the pups they were finally distinguishable! Now came the difficult task of naming the pups. Names may seem insignificant since these pups were only to be in my house for six weeks, but it is a big deal to choose the right name for your foster pet. While the majority of the adopters change the pet’s name, a foster pup’s name can help him or her get adopted. While my family debated the value of each name we thought of, we continued to refer to each of the pups by the color of their collars. Within a couple of days the names stuck…”Blue” and “Green” for the boys and “Pink” for the girl, so much for meaning in a name . It was clear early on that Green LOVED water. 

He would dig in his dish nonstop, leaving himself and his siblings soaking wet all the time. Blue was the most self content puppy I had ever met, so comfortable with entertaining himself that he rarely demanded attention. And Pink was the timid one of the group, needing her brothers to lead the way and protect her, and was always the first to be picked up. 

Two weeks into our adventure together, I took the three pups to my pool for a swim. Green was in love! Blue and Pink were natural born swimmers that thought it was way cooler to be sunbathing than swimming. Overall, the pool was a huge success and we began to make trips to swim (and sunbathe) several times a week. We had play dates with other puppy friendly dogs, had plenty of kids and adults to socialize with, and there always seemed to be a new toy that just needed to be played with. 
As the weeks went on, and the piles of poop picked up multiplied, Green became increasing attached to me and my family, or maybe I to him. Anywhere I went, he followed. He was so willing to take on any adventure without fear. He loved to swim and fetch and had learned how to sit. I debated keeping him for weeks. I didn’t want another puppy, but I sure wanted him! 

There were plenty of inquires for adopting these beautiful fosters! At eight weeks of age the puppies were ready to find their forever homes. Pink was adopted by one of my coworkers and Blue was adopted by an amazing family through TLAC, and of course Green is still with me as he adopted me long before I adopted him. The litter is now four months old and Pink, now Maggie, is doing great in her new home. She loves the rain and trips to the dog park and is spoiled by her new family. Blue, still Blue (they liked the name!), is “so very smart” according to his new mom, loves the grandchildren and other pets in the house and takes daily walks. Green, now Diggs (yes, he still digs in every puddle or bowl of water he can find), is my pride and joy. Though he still isn’t completely housetrained, and wakes me up at least twice a night to go to the bathroom, he is so smart. He knows sit, down, leave it and wait. He goes to all the football practices and has quickly become the team mascot. Our next adventure is training to become a therapy dog and visit people that need a good old puppy kiss! 

So, I finally was able to keep one of my soul puppy fosters, and I am so very thankful to both TLAC for deciding to place them into foster care and for the ACOs that decided to take on the monstrous task of bottle feeding ten day old puppies, without you all I wouldn’t have Diggs! 

No comments:

Post a Comment