Little Pittie/Husky Pups

I had written this to give to Nicole so she could put it with the pics of the little pittie/husky pups in the happy tails section but I decided it was so long it might as well go on this blog portion of the SAINTS site.

One Sunday night, January 14, 2006, to be exact we got a message from Carol that there were 4 little 11 week old pittie/husky pup mixes that she would like us go pick up. So in the middle of the night we drive down to a residential house, knock on the “big house†door and are re-directed to the back where there is a shed. Inside we find a mommy pure bred husky and a daddy pure bred pittbull and 3 little puppies. One little puppy had been adopted out before we got there. It is pitch dark so Leila had to go back into the shed to get the owners of said pittie puppies to sign a quickly drafted transfer of guardianship of said puppies to SAINTS (thank god for the internet). It felt slightly odd, standing there in the dark, and taking the little puppies with us. And as we drove away, in the dark, I thought I am never going to do this again. Transactions in the light of day seem so much more legitimate.

I told Carol we would keep them rather than transfer them to SAINTS. She said she would take them because she didn’t want it to be an imposition to us. And in my very subtle, diplomatic way I told her yes it was an imposition but really little pittie /husky pups would be better off with us. I would remind myself of that every time they peed in the house. Puppies go often. It doesn’t matter if you get up at 6:00 am in the morning and run outside to the backyard and encourage the little gaffers to pee – they will still come inside and pee right after.

Little Po, Gabby, and Justice, we suspect spent a few too many weeks in the shed. They were incredibly bonded to each other and incredibly nervous and shy. They had never been walked on leash and had not really been handled by people much because they would kind of shrink to the ground if we touched them. We spent the first day on the ground with them and did a lot of touching but very little picking up. It had become our job to socialize these little cuties. Our biggest goal was to separate the pups as much as possible because they were so bounded to each other, even though they responded to us – it was each other they looked to for comfort and guidance. The next two weeks we rotated the three so that one stayed home with Leila, one went to work with me and one went to a doggie daycare. We would take them separately out to different places like a trip to our vets, a trip to my bank, a trip to Pet Smart. It took only two days for them to get over their fear of the leash. They were becoming good doggy citizens. These little puppies were soooo much easier than the dysfunctional, behavioral challenged dogs Leila usually brings home.

Unfortunately, little pittie/husky puppies were not getting a lot of attention on a senior animal rescue site. They were now 13 weeks old and even more bonded. They moved in unison to do everything, which would not be a problem if they did not have to live in a “human†world where they need to be more bonded to the human then the canine (kind of sad really) After two weeks Carol, Leila and I decided we would transfer little pittie puppies to the Surrey SPCA where Leila and I also volunteer. They were lucky they didn’t have to leave our homes and within week and a half these little cutie patooties had found excellent homes. Our little stoic Po man, renamed Bailey, moved in with a couple and their large mastiff mix Clifford. Clifford and Bailey were best buds right from the beginning and it really was the two dogs that picked each other. Justice, the shyest of the three, went to a great family that consisted of mom, dad, 3 little boys and a bird. Justice (the only one not to be re-named) sleeps on her 12 old brother’s bed every night. Gabby, renamed Abby, went to a young couple in New Westminster who wanted her because she had that little bit of sass to her.

Even though our little pups were adopted out through the SPCA, it was Carol, that saved them by making us go out in the cold January night (God is that melodramatic) to pick up our little pups. It was SAINTS that tattooed, spayed and neutered and vaccinated them so they need to be part of the SAINTS happy tails.

A month after there adoption, we got updates on all 3 pups. Clifford and Bailey were going to obedience class together. Abby was living the high life as a spoiled only child.For the first week or so her Daddy slept in the living room with her and she even has the odd visit to doggy daycare for the all important playing with her peers. Justice we visited. And she bought tears to my eyes because she was a happy, confident, growing puppy. No more shyness for this little girl. It was then I knew Carol was right to ask us to go out on a Sunday night to pick up those puppies because they would be 3 pups who would not end up in the shelter system.

But Carol please don’t make me go in the dead of night again. It is much better to do these things in the daylight.