Heidi and Her Puppies

Former Hacienda

One of our volunteers got a call from someone looking to place their Pit Bull and her 10 puppies. We went out to access the scene, and decided we had to do all that we could to get the Mama dog and her pups out of that situation as quickly as possible.

Mama dog, now called Heidi, was living in a converted chicken coop with her 10 two-week-old puppies. They were covered in huge fleas and the pups were starting to become anemic. Heidi was on a diet of rice and garlic, and was approximately 15 pounds underweight.



Daddy Dog

 Oh, and you'll never guess what breeds the puppies are. Heidi is a Pit Bull, and daddy dog is a Jack Russell/Chihuahua mix. Talk about a handful!

Devilyn, the director, took care of vaccinating and deworming Heidi and the puppies. We loaded them up and took them to the Vet Lab at Tampa Bay Technical High School for a much needed bath.

Before giving Heidi her bath, she had blood drawn to run a heartworm test. She was a high positive.

While volunteer Stephanie bathed and picked fleas off of her, Devilyn and Courtney began working on the puppies. Some of them had irritated eyes that were closed shut from fleas running across them. You could bathe a puppy for 10 minutes, think you were done, and find twenty more fleas hiding somewhere else on them.

After baths, we put Heidi and her pups back in the car for their final trip to their foster home. They were greeted anxiously by Glen and Kelly.

When the puppies are 8 weeks old, they will be split into smaller, more managable groups and fostered seperately. Mama Heidi will be staying with Glen and Kelly until she has completed her heartworm treatment.

The puppies will not be ready for adoption until around May. At that time, Heidi will be ready for a foster-to-adopt home while she recovers from heartworm treatment.


UPDATE 3/29/11:
Glen and Kelly are AMAZING! They have started their own blog for the pups here.You can daily "pupdates" on both Mama and babies. You can also see Heidi's progress as she gains weight and learns how to be a dog. They even set up a live webcam so you can watch the pups at play. Check it out!