Twenty Years of Fostering

Twenty years ago today, Harriett and I began what would turn out to be one of the most rewarding projects we would ever undertake. That’s the day our first foster dog, Millie, a beautiful 4-year old Yellow Labrador, and her six puppies came to live with us.

Harriett became a volunteer adoption counselor at the Champaign County Humane Society (CCHS) in 1984. She came home one Saturday with a story about a pregnant 4-year old female Labrador who had been found running loose at Allerton Park with her mate. They were picked up by a park ranger who kept the male and took the female to CCHS where she gave birth to nine puppies. Probably due to lack of good prenatal care, three of the pups died at CCHS. Back then there was no foster program, no staff veterinarian, and medical care was limited to the basics. Knowing our love for Labradors, Sarah Hurley, the shelter vet tech, asked Harriett if we would be willing to take Millie and the six surviving puppies into our home until they were all old enough and healthy enough to be adopted at the shelter. We accepted the challenge.

Millie’s pups grew up here before returning to the Shelter. Harriett had been carrying a stack of puppy pictures around everywhere she went for weeks, and even without today’s internet-based social media, hundreds of people knew about the litter of Yellow Labs. They were all adopted within a couple of hours. Like most foster families, we adopted our first foster animal and Millie became part of our family and what would become known as our Base Pack.

We didn’t give fostering another thought until almost a year later. Peaches, an Akita/Shepherd mix, was rescued with her 11 newborn puppies from under a porch in a snow storm. The Shelter Manager thought it would be better for the pups to grow up in a home, and once again we took them in. About four months after Peaches and her litter left we took in Buttons, a little terrier mix with three pups. Little did we know that the floodgates were about to open. From that point on, for the next several years, we were never without puppies in our house for more than three weeks in a row.

It wasn’t only puppies that came our way. We had Leona the pig, L.K. the miniature horse, Lyvenia the pot bellied pig, Petula the pigmy goat, Mort the duck, and an assortment of cats and kittens. But mostly we had dogs and puppies.

We’ve had almost every breed of dog that’s common in this area: Labradors, Shepherds, Terriers, Beagles, Schnauzers, Coonhounds, Pit Bulls, Pomeranians, Dobermans, Rottweilers, Collies, Shelties, Bassets, Fox Terriers, Malamutes, Greyhounds, Airedales, Mastiffs, Retrievers, Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Border Collies, Boxers, Cattle Dogs, Spaniels, Dachshunds, Chows, Akitas, Chihuahuas, Huskies, and every mixture thereof. You name it, we’ve had it, usually with a litter.

Overall we’ve had at least 1,139 foster animals at our house: 96 dogs, 842 puppies, 39 cats, 157 kittens, and 5 other species. Of those, 982 were adopted, 152 died, 3 were adopted by us, and 1 was transferred to a petting zoo. Most of them were from the Champaign County Humane Society, but we have also taken foster animals for Douglas County Animal Control and two local veterinarians.

Our experience with Millie and her pups was the start of what would become the CCHS Foster Program. There are now about 39 licensed foster parents working with CCHS. Thousands of dogs and cats have been helped by the program.

Our mentor, Dr. LeRoy Neitzel, once told us that if we kept taking foster animals we would see many diseases. Little did we know we would see an alphabet’s worth. On Tuesday I’ll post about the types of things we’ve encountered over the last 20 years.

Meet Mom

While we were at the Shelter for our puppies’ appointment with Dr. Stone we had a chance to meet Tess, their mother. Tess is a beautiful dog. She has a mild case of demodex (you can see the hair loss on her neck in the picture above). The demodex is being treated and Tess is scheduled to be spayed today.

The bad news is that Tess is heartworm positive. After she is spayed CCHS will treat her for heartworm disease and then put her up for adoption.

10,000 Visit Retrospective

It’s amazing to me that we’ve had more than 10,000 visitors to this blog since February 2009. Harriett and I thought we’d share a behind the scenes look into a foster home and the type of extra care some animals need before they can go up for adoption to permanent homes. We’re overwhelmed and grateful that so many people are interested in their stories. The goal of this blog, PuppyCam, our Twitter feeds, and Facebook are to use social networking to get these guys into good forever homes.

Obviously we couldn’t do this kind of work alone. The Champaign County Humane Society (CCHS) provides an enormous amount of support. It starts at the top with M. “Tief” Tiefenbrunn, the Executive Director, sending Tweets and mentioning us on TV and Radio. Michelle McKnight, the Shelter Manager; Dr. Jennifer Stone, CCHS’s Veterinarian; and Karen Simmons, the Medical Lab Manager and Foster Care Coordinator; help us keep our foster pets healthy. The adoptions staff at the front desk help match our fosters to good homes.

The animals we take care of are innocent victims. Some of cruelty, some of ignorance, and all of a disposable pet mentality. One way everyone can help them is to spread the word that they are at CCHS and available for adoption.  They can use everyone’s help to find good forever homes.

Most of the time we have moms and puppies, but occasionally a dog like Madrid who needs some recovery time after a medical procedure comes through. Here’s a look back on the first half of this year and who’s appeared on the blog.

Madrid (Feb 2009) Medical Foster
Boogie (Feb 2009) Foster Mom
Daisy (Feb 2009) Foster Mom and Litter
Lucille (May 2009) Foster Mom and Litter
Bonnie and Clyde (July 2009) Foster Pups

Introducing Lucille

Lucille comes to us pregnant and looking like she’s going to have the babies at any minute. She was part of a group of 4 dogs and 7 cats relinquished to CCHS by her owner. She’s listed as a Pit Bull Terrier mix on her intake form, but we wonder if she’s actually a Boxer mix. She’s brindle with white on her face, neck, and feet.

Whenever a dog that might be taken as one of the breeds that people have second thought about comes to the Shelter, they are always behavior tested before we get them in foster care. Lucille passed her SAFER test with flying colors. She is an extremely friendly dog and is almost always smiling and wagging her tail.

Her current weight is 61 pounds (with the pups), but  I think her “normal” weight will be in the 45-50 range. A pretty nice mid-size dog. Her intake physical exam has these notes:

* Intact female. Blood drawn. Not chipped yet. 1cm mass on inside of right ear pinna – ulcerated. Dandruff. Scar around neck – probably from a previous collar. Pregnant. Lactating. Enlarged mammary glands and vulva – no discharge. Snorting when inhaling. Everything else wnl.

* npf

* HW test negative

The abbreviation “wnl” at the end of the first paragraph means “within normal limits” and the notation “npf” means “no problems found”. In other words, she seems to be reasonably healthy. I absolutely hate tight collars and Lucille has a scar on her neck from wearing a collar so tight it left a permanent mark.

Lucille will be with us to have her puppies, raise them, and dry out enough to get spayed. Then she’ll go back to the Shelter for adoption. You’ll be able to follow Lucille and her pups on this blog as well as our Twitter feed @PupsIsPups. She’s our foster animal number 1,036.

A Healthy Investment

Last night we were giving the pups their second dose of DHLPPC vaccines (“puppy shots”) and it got me thinking about how much the Shelter invests in the animals they take in.

The Champaign County Humane Society (CCHS) has an excellent medical program. They have a full time veterinarian on staff who is a specialist in Shelter Medicine and is an excellent surgeon. CCHS has its own medical lab and surgical suite.

We assume the mothers and puppies we take into foster care have had no medical attention before their original owners turned them into the Shelter. It's rare that the mothers had any prenatal care, and most of them have never been vaccinated, dewormed, or treated for other parasites such as fleas. It falls to the Shelter to provide the care necessary to be sure they have healthy animals available for adoption.

Here’s a summary of the health care CCHS provides for every puppy they take in. I looked up the retail costs from the vet bills for our own animals over the last year.

	Retail Value	Times	Total
Bordatella Vaccine	$15.00	2	$30.00
DHLPPC Vaccine	$17.50	2	$35.00
Fecal Flotation Test	$15.00	2	$30.00
Worming Medication	$15.00	2	$30.00
Spay Surgery	$175.00	1	$175.00
Microchip ID	$65.00	1	$65.00

That comes to $365 per puppy. Add in food costs and you wind up with a bit over $380 per pup. If a puppy gets sick or needs treatment for fleas or something the cost goes even higher.

If you picked up a “free” puppy from someone giving them away in a parking lot or through the newspaper that’s what you would have to pay to get the same care CCHS provides. I didn’t account for “Office Call” charges, either.

The adoption fee for puppies five months old or younger is $100. You get a healthy, neutered companion and you have money left over to buy a crate and your first training classes.

In Appreciation of Daisy

Harriett and I were thinking tonight how grateful we are to have Daisy along with the pups. We feel bad that her life has been so disrupted, she’s been discarded, and will have to compete at the Shelter to find another home. But on the other hand, she does some important things much better than we can.

The first two literally mean life or death for the puppies: feeding and stimulating. At this age the pups are only able to eat small amounts of milk and they need to be fed every two to three hours around the clock. If Daisy weren’t here, Harriett and I would split the times up so each of us could sleep through the night on alternating days. This schedule has to be kept up until the pups are three weeks old, then we can switch to four hours between feedings. Daisy takes care of this for us. She doesn’t spend all her time with the puppies, but she moves in an out of the whelping box so they have food available when they need it. In addition, her milk is much superior to any of the commercial formulas we would be forced to use if she wasn’t here.

Until the puppies are at least three weeks old they are unable to urinate or defecate. Each puppy must be stimulated to pee and poop after each feeding. Failure to do this can result in extreme pain and even death. Even though we have had a lot of practice with litters we received without a mother, we’re no match for mom. Daisy stimulates each pup while it’s nursing and keeps the pups and whelping box very clean. She will continue to do this until the pups have been weaned onto solid food.

Daisy Feeding and Cleaning Her Puppies from Tom Schaefges on Vimeo.

The third important thing Daisy does is teach the pups about proper canine behavior. As they grow and get teeth she will start teaching them about bite inhibition and acceptable behavior. Of course we do our part with socialization and bite inhibition, but it is much more difficult for us to do these things. Mom can convey a message of disapproval with a simple growl or harmless snap faster and more effective than we ever could. If you’d like to see what it takes to raise one orphan puppy from newborn to 8 weeks, here’s a video we put together for a pup we had last year:

Goodbye, Gabriella! from Tom Schaefges on Vimeo.

For those of you following Daisy’s puppies’ weight gain, here’s the data from tonight’s weigh-in at 6:30 compared to last night’s weights (all in grams):

Puppy	Last Night	Tonight	Change
1	840	945	+105 (!)
2	710	795	+85
3	465	490	+25
4	445	505	+60
5	755	775	+20

Daisy and Pups – Foster #1030 - 1035

Harriett just got back from picking up Daisy and her pups from the Champaign County Humane Society. Daisy is a 2-3 year old Lab mix and the pups are 5 days old (born 2/19/09). The story we got was that she had 9 pups, but four died before the owners brought them to the Shelter.

We always have to consider the pups we get as high risk animals. You never know the condition of the mother or what kind of prenatal care she may have had. Sadly, in most cases, it’s zero. Newborn pups are fragile, and there’s a lot of reasons they might die, even for the most well-meaning of owners. I think about this every time I hear someone say they want to breed their dog so their kids can see “the miracle of life.” Life is sometimes more cruel than people bargain for.

This picture shows the pups right after I put them into the whelping box. That’s a box with sides high enough to keep them from spreading out. If a pup gets “lost”, even in a 12 by 12 foot room, it can get cold and die. Mom can get in and out of the whelping box, but the pups can’t get out. The red pad they are laying on is a special heating pad made specifically for newborn animals. It stays at body temperature and is completely waterproof. Puppies at this age cannot regulate their body temperature. We’ll keep this pad in the box with them for a couple of weeks and they will move on and off the pad to keep warm.

Two of the five pups are much smaller than the other three. Our standard procedure is to weight the pups every day to be sure they are gaining weight. At this age we ought to see a gain of 10 – 20 grams every day. If they stay the same we go on special watch and be sure they are eating properly. If they lose weight we know we have a problem and can start to take action. Here’s where they stand as of 6 PM this evening:

Puppy	Weight (gr)	Description
1	765	male, white chest, black feet
2	615	female, white socks, white stripe on head
3	365	female, white blaze on chest
4	380	male, white chest, white left front foot
5	655	male, brown feet

Daisy’s been really nice. For the most part we’ll leave her alone tonight. We have to consider that her life has been completely upended today and we need to give her a day or two to settle in. She seems to be a really nice dog and is taking it very well.

Boogie’s Goin’ Home!

Boogie (foster #1015) came to us a few months ago with her 8 puppies. She is a 9-year old mix breed dog. Very friendly and loves to cuddle. We always worry about the mom’s we have in foster care. The pups always get adopted quickly, but sometimes the mothers, especially the older ones like Boogie, take longer to find permanent homes. We just found out today that Boogie has been adopted! She will get spayed on Monday and go to her permanent home. We’re very happy to hear this news and we know the adopters will be getting a wonderful companion. Mom and pups are now adopted.

There’s a few videos of Boogie and her pups on our Vimeo site. There’s a really interesting one with Boogie and her son, Frank, playing “mouth games.”

Goodbye and Goodnight from Tom Schaefges on Vimeo.