Hippity Hoppity, Aussie Puppies

“Someone is selling 5-week-old Australian Shepherd puppies on Craig’s List.  What do I do?”  So read the e-mail from Amy.  She has a gift for finding dogs in need of rescue, and she had done it again.  Five-week-old puppies?  What kind of person separates such young dogs?   Not a responsible one, that is for sure.  We asked her to go and try to get them.

Amy drove to the end of a dirt road in a rural area.  To her right was a home; to the left, an abandoned trailer.  Yup, you guessed it: someone yelled out from the trailer, “Come around to the front!  The door is open!”  There was a “front” to this place???  Picking her way through the rubbish and discards, she walked past several children playing in their shorts and underwear, she reached the door.  As she entered, the residents quickly shut the doors to the bedrooms.  She chose not to imagine why.  *sigh*  Back to business: there were two precious puppies, far to young for this….  Amy asked to see the mother of the pups.  They reluctantly brought her out, a charming, petite little Aussie.  Knowing that they would continue to breed her, Amy offered to buy the momma but they wouldn’t do it.  She finally left with just the two puppies.  Well, the two puppies and the fleas that were covering them!

Since Amy is a teacher and gone from home all day, we knew she couldn’t foster puppies.  Normally I would do it, but I had family arriving from out of town.  Thankfully, the wonderful Larry and Joyce offered to take them.  Thank goodness!  The next evening Amy met them at the halfway point.  Larry and Joyce were delighted with the babies, but the next day one of them developed sever diarrhea and started vomiting.  I suspected it was only due to the stress of being away from their momma and change in diet, but it could also be something more serious.  Did I mention this was now Saturday afternoon?  That meant a trip to the emergency vet.  Ugh.  Sure enough, it was primarily stress, food and a minor bacterial infection in the lower intestine.  Oh, and the bill?  $600!!!  Ugh again!!!

With love, care and antibiotics, the puppies quickly came around and proved themselves playful, affectionate little things.  Unfortunately, Zoey, the resident Shih Tzu, was less than happy about sharing her domain and started acting out.  That’s okay, she had put up with them long enough for my guests to come and go, and I could now again foster.  Larry and Joyce had done such a good job with these two puppies that whey were already crate trained and fully socialized.  Joyce cried as she left, and I promised that I’d find them fantastic homes (I will.  I always do!)

So here we sit,  me typing away on my computer, Hippity and Hoppity sleeping under my chair.  They do that a lot!  They are wonderful.  Hippity is the little girl.  She is all black with brown highlights, her coat very similar to that of Odo and Moses.  She has a beautiful face, is self-confident and outgoing.  Hoppity is the boy, white and black, with brown highlights.  He is very talkative, not barking but making little puppy noises all the time, even in his sleep (he is doing it right now!).  I anticipate them being spayed/neutered next week and ready to go home around May 14th.

They are so cute I am forever taking photos of them.  You can see them in their photo album.

Hippity and Hoppity are being fostered in Winter Park.  If  you are interested in adopting one of these angels,  please review our adoption process and then e-mail the requested information to holly.thedogliberator@gmail.com


May 6 Update:

Hippity and Hoppity are doing great. They are really coming into their own. When they first came to my home, they were so young they spent a great deal of time sleeping. Now, however, they are full of vim and vinegar! Their favorite thing in the world is to wrestle with each other. They’ll scurry around the house, one with a toy, the other chasing after, having a grand old time! They aren’t all that keen on being outside. In fact, even when they’re out, they don’t like to leave the deck. Now, there is just the teeny, tiniest chance that it could be due to my Gus. You know Gus ~ he’s my 58-pound Basset/Bulldog mix. When the puppies first came, he enjoyed laying in the grass, waiting for them to venture out. When they did, he’d charge them. He never made contact. He just liked the way they squeaked when they saw him coming. Really, he’s like a great white shark! What am I going to do with him??? The funny thing is, the puppies just love him now. He’ll lay there while they lick his face and paw at his mouth. Maybe they just like living on the edge….

I keep taking lots of photos. As the puppies grow and become more lively, they become more fun to photograph. I probably should pare down their photo album, but I like them all!

It was hard to get good footage of them to make a video. I prefer to film outside, but as I wrote, they prefer to be inside so spend most of their outside time waiting at the door to come inside. *sigh* So forgive the lighting in my video. It isn’t terrific, but at least you can see how terrific these two are!!!


May 18 Update:

Hippity and Hoppity are doing great! They are no longer focused in on each other but instead love to interact with us. I think the turning point was when I got more puppies to foster. All of a sudden their world opened up. When the new puppies clamored to be with us, they were like, “Hey, wait a minute! Those are my people!” It has been so good to see how well they have adjusted. I think they have finally hit the point in their development where I feel that they are truly ready for their own families! Yay!!!!

May 20 Update:

Hippity has been adopted! When Barbara and Richard came over, Hoppity went over to greet them then wandered off. Hippity, on the other hand, joyfully jumped up, gave kisses, then curled up in Richard’s lap and fell asleep! I am always amazed at how the dogs “know” their families. Daughters Kari and Amber are in for a surprise ~ they don’t know who is on her way home to them!