[Bottom]

Our abandoned puppy

Our abandoned puppy, found yesterday April 1st; yes April fools day!  Carol was driving home and noticed a young puppy just lying in the field.  This field is probably 3/4's of a mile from the nearest home.  This orphaned puppy is probably about 2-3 months old and appeared to have been wandering for perhaps a couple of days.  It appeared quite tired.

Carol was unable to collect the puppy herself so she came home and collected me and we both went back to the field where the puppy still remained just lying curled up into a ball.  (Click the picture for the puppy!)  But when we tried to approach the pup of course it was fearful and started to trot away.  Both Carol and I remained on opposite sides of the cute pup each about 10 feet away.  We could each approach the puppy and even get our hand close to its nose so it could sniff us.  I managed to touch the pup twice, but each time it would start to trot away, so Carol and I would have to coral the pup again.

The abandoned puppy was clearly ready to be completely submissive but it`s obvious instinct was to run.  But I think it was just to tired and ultimately allowed me to first, again let it sniff my hand, and then I was finally able to stroke the orphaned puppies head.  I was then able to pick up the little pup, and it immediately curled up in my arms.

Carol and I drove around to possible homes that might have lost the pup, but the nearest was probably almost a mile from where we found the little guy ( Male; we figured that out this morning April 2nd, we were trying not to frighten the pup in any way ).

So the pup curled up in our bathroom last night and slept all night.  The puppy did appear to be somewhat dehydrated and as a result was having discomfort in it`s mouth. Fortunately for us this morning we were able to coax the pup into first, drinking some milk, then eating some dry cat food, all we had on hand!  We used a dropper at first with some milk and a soon as the puppy had a couple drops in it`s mouth it went right to the bowl and started slurping.  The orphaned pup ate a good bit of food, but we believe it is exhausted from being on its own for a couple days.  This morning the pup is still curled up and just resting in our bathroom.

Today Carol will buy a collar that fits and some appropriate puppy food.  We tried to get an appointment with our vet, but coincidentally he's going out of town for a week, and they simply suggested if the puppy is eating, he's really fine anyway.  From my viewpoint I would rather wait for the puppy to become less fearful and more accustomed to us, before exposing him to whole "vet" experience.

In the interim I made the pup a custom fit collar from some light duty smooth chain I have on hand for hanging fluorescent lights.  I expedited this because we discovered right away when outside, with a makeshift collar using our previous dogs leash, all the puppy tries to do is escape.  It is still fearful of us and probably even the outside world.

An incredible coincidence

Our previous dog Casey passed on last year and Carol's been bugging me for a new dog.  I'm really, really reluctant to have another dog.  They tend to really tie you down.  Some of things we used to enjoy doing we pretty much had to stop doing to properly attend to our dog.  But of course Casey was also loads of fun and great company.  So during the winter I had been saying its really inappropriate to even consider a dog until Spring.  Well now it`s Spring and Carol still wants a dog!  I thought she might get over it but now she was really bugging me, but was probably also ready to give up.  Boom, now she finds an abandoned puppy 1/2 a mile from our house, what are the chances?  Casey's probably responsible!

it`s likely if we can't find the owner we'll keep the orphaned puppy.  I know the SPCA can be really tough with people trying to bring in abandoned dogs.  They always figure the people are just trying to get rid of a dog without paying the SPCA's fee.  So I think they grill everybody.  I've watched it happen, they can be pretty tough on people who may just be good Samaritans, but the people at the SPCA have more experience than I, so I shouldn't complain about what I've seen, too much.

Well anyway I'll probably try to write more about "the pup" in the future.

Bob

Our abandoned puppy
Well here we go again!.