It’s safe to say the party is over. Party and her 14 puppies were all adopted and took the next step. Partey gave birth to 14 puppies on October 25th, which is an incredible number of babies for any dog, but especially since she was a more medium-sized dog (about 45 pounds). After spending so much time together, I have grown to love both the mother dog and the puppies. A 14-year-old baby is big enough to nurse on his own, so we started with supplemental bottle feeding twice a day to make sure everyone was getting enough milk. Four to six puppies were fed milk twice a day.
Unfortunately, poor Partie developed mastitis a week and a half later, and from then on her milk supply stopped. We were hoping that the antibiotics would cure the mastitis and help the milk return, but that never happened. As a result, I ended up going to the rescue three times a day and bottle feeding all 14 puppies in my party. Each feeding took about two hours, but with everyone working together he was eventually able to cut it down to just over an hour. Overall, the pups experienced the best of both worlds. The mother dog was nearby and seemed busy (she let the puppies nurse even though there was little to no milk), and there was a lot of extra care and interaction with humans outside of breastfeeding. It’s an exchange. And bottle fed with me for almost 3 weeks.
As part of bottle feeding, we weigh everyone before and after feeding, and this is how I quickly learned who was who by Mark. He weighs each puppy three times for a total of three times. This way, you can be sure that everyone is drinking the right amount of milk at each feeding, and you can track steady weight gain over time. They can be officially weaned at three weeks of age, when they are fed a porridge mixture, i.e. dried grains ground up and mixed with powdered milk. It took a few days, but they figured it out.
I usually don’t want to ask to adopt a 6 week old puppy, but my party’s puppy was an exception. I loved them so much that I wanted to raise at least a few. I couldn’t save the Horsecoats’ puppies (nine orphaned newborns), and a part of me wanted to give birth to healthier puppies, so I wanted to make a small contribution to “saving” the Party’s puppies. It felt like it was. The mom party was able to attend a spay surgery that was booked early because it was completely dry. This also meant she could find a forever home and I could foster the party puppies.
After raising several puppies, I prefer at least 4 puppies and find that getting them in before 5 weeks of age works best. They are very adaptable for their age and adapt to daily life incredibly quickly. Fortunately, Party’s puppies were not as mischievous as typical 6-week-old puppies (probably as a result of bottle-feeding and consequent increased early handling), so 14 6-week-old puppies Managing a puppy was actually much easier than expected. .
I may have overdone it, but I had no trouble getting through all 14 of them. We spent a lot of time outdoors. This gave the children enough space to frolic and play while being exposed to a variety of sounds. They took up the same amount of linen and pen space as my last fosters (only 4!), so the only place I felt an additional workload was loading all the hairballs into the puppy wagon. When I got home, I was able to load and unload the puppy into the wagon to carry it from the pen to the patio. Oh, and cutting your nails and taking a bath are the 14th least fun things to do 😅
The party puppies partied hard for three weeks at my house, but their adoption date was December 29th, so I brought them back to the shelter on December 27th for vaccinations. I’m a total helicopter parent and control freak, so I volunteer on adoption days (as I do for all foster parents) to facilitate adoptions and help find suitable adopters. We also did some activities.
Incredibly, all 14 party puppies found homes on the 29th. There were double bookings for this day’s rescue operation, so it was really impressive that out of 16 bookings, his 14 were successful. All the adopters came in excitedly and I was following their journey on my Instagram, and although I had a puppy in mind, I was also very reluctant to move towards or away from certain puppies based on their appearance. I was very happy to see that they were open to it. for. The first appointment of the day actually brought me a present 😭 Meanwhile, another adoptee wanted to take a picture with me and my new family.
People often ask me how I can let them go and if I’m not sad to see them go, but that’s not the case. It makes me so happy to see the joy they bring to their new family members’ faces! On adoption day, you can see and feel the excitement as each pup finds their match. I love knowing that this puppy and his new family will continue to make wonderful memories together, and especially when I see families with children, I know this puppy will be their childhood dog that they will always remember. I love knowing what will happen.
It is very rewarding to receive updates about foster care from foster parents. I’ve already heard from new families for some of the party puppies, some of them are sleeping through the night, potty training is progressing well and it’s only been a few days and they’re doing great. It seems to be adapted to. They are very passionately loved and receive all the one-on-one attention they could ask for.
I’m going to love the party puppies forever, and just like my newborn fosters, they’ll have an even more special place in my heart. I am so grateful to be a part of their journey to their forever home. I miss watching their antics and cuddling them every day, but I’m overwhelmed with joy and warmth at the thought of having a new family to watch them grow 💖
P.S.—my husband may actually be able to live until 2024 without a new foster home. 😂 He’s the most supportive companion I could wish for, but he enjoys the quiet, slower pace of a home where he doesn’t have 14 puppies to look after.
