Dolly Momma

Dolly Momma ("We're Patiently Waiting", 3/5/10) blessed us with 10 healthy puppies on St. Patrick's Day. When we got her, the staff at animal control told us that she was not a good eater, ate mostly dog biscuits and little else. It was obvious - she was thin with ribs and backbone palpable, and since she was also pregnant, it was important to get some weight on her. We also found out she was heartworm positive and needed to gain weight and get healthy to be treated for heartworms, not to mention raising the puppies, and getting spayed along the way.

Normally if a new dog gets exercise and starts to relax, it will start eating on its own. Not Dolly Momma. I use hot dogs to jump start an appetite, and in her case, I went to the refrigerator almost immediately. After all, she was pregnant.

Dolly has gained weight even though she is feeding 10 puppies. She has a diet of 8 cups of puppy chow, three cans of her favorite wet dog food, 18 hot dogs, two multivitamins, and at least a half dozen of either chicken or duck fillets, and a few dog biscuits just for old times. If she leaves anything, it's the dry dog food. She will actually spit the dry food out if it isn't mixed well enough to smuggle it into her. She always has dry food in front of her, but she doesn't touch it.

The puppies are fat, happy, and content. Their eyes are open, and they have gotten big enough to crawl out of the kid's wading pool and start to move around. They are three weeks and two days old, and beginning to respond to my voice. It won't be long till she starts to wean them, and I am determined to make sure that they have better dietary habits than their mother.

If you want to see photos of the puppies, go to http://www.pawshancock.org/info/photos?GalleryID=1270