Border Collie + Great Pyrenees = My Puppies! ~ Adopted

 

In late July we received an e-mail from Jane Ammond in Alabama asking if we could take a litter of Border Collie puppies.  Only two weeks old, a foster, Miss Jane, had been found who would keep them until weaned.   How could I say no?  They were precious.  Little eyes all squinted closed, no ears or nose yet.  The camera angle must have been funny, though, because they looked rather big for two weeks…. But yes!  Absolutely yes!

Fast forward three weeks.  Thursday e-mail from Jane that the puppies are weaned and ready to go.  Pilots N Paws has a flight coming our way on Wednesday so if we can take them right away we will avoid putting them through a 14-hour car ride.  Sure! That would be great!  Could we get some current photos?

Saturday night we’re sitting down to dinner and the phone rings.  It’s Jane.  The flight has been moved up to tomorrow.  Can I get to the Tampa airport to pick them up at 11:30?  No can do.  That’s a couple of hours away.  The Sanford and Orlando airports are within 30 minutes of me.  Can we do those?  Frantic phone calls back and forth.  Pilot Keith gives the okay for Sanford.  See you in the morning!

My husband Glenn and I scoot out of church a bit early and head to the airport.  The private terminal is quite.  We chat with the sparse staff.  They’re rather excited about seeing the puppies. So are we.  Five 5-week-old puppies should easily fit in one medium airline crate, but I thought Jane said they were ten pounds.  That didn’t make any sense ~ they should be more like 5 pound ~ but we bring an extra crate just in case.

The plane lands and in walks Keith with a big grin.  “The puppies did great!  Not a peep out of them the whole flight!”  He wants to bring them into the terminal rather than take them out of their crates on the tarmac for fear they’ll get  loose (I’ve never met a 5-week-old puppy I couldn’t out run, but it is better to err on the side of caution).  Two crates are unloaded and brought in.  I look inside and see the most adorable fuzzballs you can imagine!  I pull them out one at a time, handing one each to Keith, Glenn, and the three staff members.  Everyone oohs and aahs, and poses for a photo.  They really are divine!  Thank you to Keith, and off we go, headed home.

The puppies tumble out of their crates and into our backyard.  They are a sight to be seen.  So fluffy, so round, so very uncoordinated!  Definitely 5-weeks-old, they trip over their own feet, fall over easily, and bounce back up.  I know this age well.  But gosh, they’re so big.  At first we’re thinking they might be Borgis (Border Collie/Corgis) because their legs are so short and solid.   They look like the litter of Borgis we rescued this time last year.  But they are much bigger.

They make a serious meal of the chicken stew I cooked the night before, wagging their tails the whole time.  Yes, cooking for puppies can be more rewarding than cooking for your own children ~ them are more appreciative.  Full bellies, sleepy heads.

That evening I called Jane Ammond to let her and foster Miss Jane know that they had arrived safely.  I asked, “Do we know who the father is?  They seem rather big.”

Jane answered, “We know that their mother Bella is 1/2 Border Collie and 1/2 Great Pyrenees.  We’re pretty sure their father is a Great Pyrenees since there is an un-neutered one in the neighborhood.”  Oh, well then, that explains it!  I’m sure Jane is right.  They have too much white on them,too much size, to have gotten it just from Bella.  They won’t be as big as a pure Great Pyrenees, but I think they’ll be more beautiful with their amazing markings.

While I had her on the phone, I asked Jane about their backstory.  She said Bella’s owner was in jail.  His brother called her, saying Bella had given birth under the porch and he couldn’t keep her or the puppies.  Jane, God love her, drove over and crawled under the porch to retrieve the pups.  Then Miss Jane offered to foster them until weaned.  What wonderful people!

So here are my babies.   I just love them to pieces.  As you know, I give littermates names that start with the same letter, in this case “K”.  My daughter came up with the names ~ she just came back from a mission trip to Papua New Guinea; the names are Melanesain Pidgin.

KaiKai is the smallest of the litter.  She is mostly black with white markings.  Her name means “to eat; food”  And yes, she does.  Eat. Food.  A lot.  I think she is trying to catch up with her littermates!  Here is her photo album.

KaiKai’s adoption was adopted 9/8/11!

 

KauKau is the smaller  boy in the litter, although his fur makes him look bigger.  He is mostly white with black markings.  His name means “sweet potato.”  And he is so round he looks like one!  Pronounce Cow-Cow, his markings remind me of one!  You’ll see what I mean in his photo album.

KauKau was adopted 9/8/11!

Kakaruk is the middle-size of the girls.  All white with a brown patch on her right eye and right side.   Her name means “chicken” and is pronounced to sound kind of like cockadoodle.  She is so named because when she first arrived she was the most vocal.  At night.  All night.  She has outgrown that.  Thank goodness!!!  Check out her photo album.

Kakaruk was adopted 9/9/11!

Kanter is the  larger boys.  All white except for a left eye-patch.  I call him the mirror twin of  his sister Kakaruk.  His name means “truck.”  And he is.  Moves through things like a truck.   You can see the really neat markings on his eye patch in his photo album.

Kanter was adopted 9/13/11!

 

Kantalope is the largest in the litter.  Her markings are unlike the rest, brown and white, with one brown eye and one blue.  And her name really is “cantaloupe” but we spelled it with a K to fit the litter.  When she rolled out of the crate the first day, we joked that she looked like a big ol’ cantaloupe, and sadly, the name stuck!  I tried to get good photos of her eyes in her photo album.

Kantalope’s adoption is pending!

The litter will be ready for adoption in early September.  I am guessing that KaiKai will be about 60 pounds, Kantalope will be 90 pounds, and everyone else will fall in somewhere between.  Of course, this is a guess.  I am fostering them in Winter Park, Fl.  If you think that you might want to give one of these puppies  forever home, please first read our article on Starting Out Your Dog Right, then read our Adoption Process, and then e-mail me at holly.thedogliberator@gmail.com

September 5th Update:

These puppies are just ridiculous!  They are so playful, so big, so full of life!  I made this video for Wiffle and Waffle but the Border Pyrenees puppies are all over it, so I’m sharing it here too.  As you watch it, please appreciate that Wiffle and Waffle are actually a week older than these pups!  My favorite parts of the video are when Kakaruk paws Waffle on the nose and when Kanter pretends that he is too small to climb up onto the Kuranda bed!  What a hoot!!!

September 9th Update:

Oh gosh, these puppies are ridiculous!  KauKau, KaiKai and Kakaruk all went home yesterday.  The remaining puppies are “consoling” themselves by playing until they drop!  Here you can see how their play quickly deteriorates from polite side-by-side play to all out warfare!  lol