The Mighty Five - Abandoned without Mom

"We have 5 two week old puppies, and we couldn't find the mom anywhere." Animal control called late last Saturday pleading for help. They had made several calls but had no takers. One of our foster moms went to pick them up. Five boys, no mom, and no one knew how long they had been without food. Someone had taken them home the night before and given them human baby formula with less than satisfactory results. Yes, it filled their tummies, but it caused some pretty substantial diarrhea in already dehydrated babies.

They brought me Esbilac, bottles, nipples, bottle brushes, and newspapers, not to mention a really fine big cardboard box to put them in. So, approximately 30 years after I thought I had finished making formula, changing diapers, and getting up every 4 hours for a feeding, I was back at it.

Three of the boys had pretty much given up the idea of sucking, so we went to the eye dropper and stimulated them to suck on my finger, meanwhile sneaking the formula into them. After about four days, they were sucking like pros, so we switched them to regular baby bottles, the human kind. These are going to be good sized dogs some day!

They are now approximately three weeks old, have doubled in size, are starting to play a little, eat like a high school football team, starting to cut teeth, are already going to the potty on newspaper away from their bed, and they don't know it yet, but they can crawl out of their box if they want to. Today I'll have to move them to a more spacious open plan condo so they can develop their motor skills and can't crawl out when I'm working out in the kennel and can't monitor them.

We don't know what breed they are. We don't really care. They shouldn't have been abandoned without a mommy. As a matter of fact, the same animal control called yesterday with 11 six week old pups that were found abandoned in a ditch.

My little football players have been fed, cleaned up, and are snoozing right next to me. As for me, think I'll enjoy that first cup of morning coffee and then start mixing formula for the day.