Chocolate Has a Home

We are very pleased to announce that Chocolate has been adopted! She'll be going home this weekend.

The Rascals Have Names

The Rascals litters are doing very well. The puppies were getting so big that it was quite a burden on Chocolate to try to feed them all. When two of them stopped gaining weight Harriett offered them solid food softened in milk replacer. Everyone dug in and we were able to start the weaning process. The pups are active and playful.

Chocolate was not very well socialized when she came here, but there are signs of progress. She is now accepting of petting and has started to seek out contact with us. Tonight during TV time she jumped up onto the couch with Harriett.

A few of the pups joined us for TV time tonight. Our work now will turn toward their socialization.

Naming the Rascals was a bit of a challenge. Some names, like Spanky, Darla, and Alfalfa are instantly recognized as Little Rascals, but many others are not. You can find the cast names at the Our Gang article on Wikipedia.

Chocolate’s Pups
Shirley (f)
Spanky (m)
Darla (f)
Alfalfa (m)
Ms Crabtree (f)
Jackie (m)
Tiny’s Pups
Mary Ann (f)
Dorothy (f)
Wally (m)
Wheezer (m)

The Little Rascals

After more than 20 years and almost 1400 foster animals you’d think we would have seen everything. Yet here we are with a completely new situation on our hands.

The Little Rascals are two foster litters, born to full sisters, themselves from the same litter. The moms, Tiny and Chocolate, only ten months old, gave birth just three days apart. Tiny had four pups and her sister Chocolate had six puppies three days later. The whole group was relinquished to the Champaign County Humane Society when Tiny’s pups were just ten days old. It should come as no surprise that their pre- and post natal care was inadequate.

female

female

male

male

Foster homes are in very short supply so we took everyone into foster care here. Sadly, Tiny didn’t make it, leaving us with four orphans. The puppies are a bit big given the size of their moms. Harriett had a hunch that Chocolate, who had been with Tiny since they were born, would be comfortable with the orphans. The problem was that she’s too small to to support all ten puppies. The compromise was to transition the smallest of Tiny’s litter to Chocolate’s care and bottle feed the remaining three. Harriett’s hunch proved to be correct and Chocolate accepted the addition to her litter, feeding and cleaning him as her own.

The incubation time of many diseases in in the two week range and we’re beginning to see some signs of illness in the pups. We’re going to have our hands full while we try to stabilize the situation and do what we can to be sure all ten survive. I’ll post an update in a few days.

Chocolate

female	male	female
male	female	male