The Maria Project - Part One

"Maria" as she has come be to me known far and wide was the very first pregnant dog to be sent to foster care from Town Lake Animal Center. She came in as a dreaded "bite dog" - after having been reported as biting someone who had been feeding a bunch of stray dogs in his neighborhood along with his other dogs.  When I met Maria for the first time she was timid, a little nervous and she looked to have a bloated belly - a sure sign that a "street dog" had an advanced case of heart worm disease and that dim prognosis along with the "bite history" made the chances of her leaving TLAC alive pretty slim.

When I got back to my desk to look at her notes in the database I was surprised to find she was heart worm negative! I also took a very close look at the bite record. It seemed to me like this could be a case of mistaken identity. For one thing, the victim of the bite said the "brown pitbull" that bit him had been lactating. Maria, clearly was not . . . . yet. Uh oh. I put two and two together and realized we had a pregnant dog on our hands. Regardless of whether or not she was "guilty" she had to be quarantined for 11 days to check for signs of rabies as state law insists. After the 11th day, I met her again and she was showing signs of a cold. Even if it was early enough in her pregnancy to spay her, we couldn't spay her if she had any sort of respiratory illness, it just wouldn't be safe. So another 14 days of treatment go by and now, she is clearly about to "pop" any day.

But who would take a pregnant dog? I didn't want her to have to deliver puppies at the shelter, but not many rescue groups could take on a good sized dog about to have a large litter of puppies - the larger the dog, the bigger the litters. And one of my foster homes? Yikes, I didn't know if ANY of them would be equipped for such a big long job. But I had to try.

I circulated her story and this video far and wide, in an attempt to get someone to take her. Finally a foster application came through that was interested in fostering her. But they lived far away - in Adamsville. How was this going to work? How would the puppies get their regular shots? What if someone got sick or needed to be seen by our vets? I called up the potential foster home and voiced my concerns. Bess stated they lived on an organic farm and came to Austin EVERY Wednesday and Saturday to sell their wares at the local Farmer's Markets! Problem solved!

The next day, her partner Carlon came to Austin to pick up Maria. I took Maria back to vet services to get her rabies shot and microchip and walked her up to meet Charlon for the very first time. While usually timid with new people, she crawled right into his lap. My eyes filled with tears as I saw the look on his face - it was literally love at first sight! They cuddled together in the lobby as I ran to get my camera.

Carlon told me all about "The Farm" and how she would have a big brother Ollie and a little sister too. How he'd been around dogs his whole life and delivered many a litter of various animals. I knew Maria was in extraordinary hands. He told me he was at the farm all the time, she would rarely be alone and they had already set up a little place for her inside.

I couldn't believe my luck. Tears of joy were streaming down my face as he gently lifted her into the truck beside him and headed back to the farm.

And that was just the beginning.