AARCS Update

Aspen and Sweetpea went to their forever families about 2 weeks ago. That was so hard for us because we saw them through so much and they were with us for a long time. When Aspen left, he was 5 1/2 months old!! My DD took these artistic shots of them;


If you are new to our passion for fostering rescued dogs, click here for when Sweetpea and Aspen started with us, and click here to see them much smaller, but in the midst of recovery. I still tear up when I see all of their pictures, from start to finish. We considered keeping Aspen, Sweetpea and Cosmos during their sojourn with us, but I'm confident that they are in good homes now and that always makes the parting easier.



Now, we have another new family in the garage. We have Rosie and her 4 puppies and a spare.

The puppies were not emaciated like we sometimes see, but Rosie was so painful skinny! I hate to admit it, but I think we are getting used to seeing this when our fosters come. Lily is under Rosie, and Tiger is the one with the spot on his back next to Rosie. This is a good shot of Sage's hiney...


Here, Poppy is under Rosie and Lily is in front of her head. In this shot you can see Rosie's ribs, but not her hips or how narrow she is through her middle. Compared to Violet, Rosie is much healthier!

May I take a moment to say that the spots on Tiger are really gross IRL!! I can't even begin to tell you that it is just not right. Puppies should be chubby and cuddly and soft and playful. This litter and the spare all have mange. This is a new ailment for us, but nothing outside our comfort zone, I think.

This is Sage. She is the runt and definitely the sickest of the lot. Her mange is the worst and worse now than when this picture was taken. We have to bath these babies every few days with an anti fungal shampoo to kill the mange. When I first bathed Sage, the spot of mange on her back was the size of a quarter. By the end of her bath, 1/3 of the hair on her back had fallen out. She has very scaly mange spots on her face now as well and I can't wash her face with this shampoo. However, she looks better today than she has to date.

The mange these puppies have is due to a compromised immune system, not the highly contagious mange that can wipe out a herd of cattle. I am helping them with the shampoo, giving their immune systems a fighting chance against this mange. Without being rescued, they would have died before the end of October, I believe. Their fur is falling out and the weather has turned cold. Rosie was struggling to feed them and all these circumstances combined would have been their death sentence.

Hannah is holding Lily. The puppies were approximately 4 weeks old when they arrived and are now about 6 weeks old.

Now, about that spare I keep referring to;


Get a load of the size difference here! On the right is Lily, one of Rosie's puppies. On the left is Apple. She's a chow cross and we don't know where she came from. She was approximately 7 weeks when she arrived and she is such a bundle of FUN!!!! She has the same mange as the other puppies. The really impressive thing about Rosie is that she is willing to let Apple nurse right along with her pupppies. Apple is beyond the typical age for nursing, but if Rosie is willing, who am I to interfere.



Apple tended to bully the babies at first, but is mellowing a little now. She likes to play with Rosie more than with the babies now. Apple boings along more like a Tigger than a puppy and she is really funny.



I know this is a blurry shot, but there is a story here. I had put away my camera, and came back out to where the puppies were in the driveway to be greeted by Apple raiding my rose bush! She had a mouth full of rose and hot footed it under our car.


She shook the day lights out of that poor rose. This is what was left of my rose when Apple was done with it!



And I had a little pile of rose petals left under the car! Let the latest installment of our adventure begin...