Fostering Puppies and the Boy Who Lived

On December 23rd, we had a call from our local shelter about fostering a litter of puppies. I’d filled out their form a few weeks before sharing we were interested in fostering – really any breed or age but since we have cats and they are

1. Evil (because cats)
2. Possessive
3. Anti another cat

we decided maybe no cats for now.

There were 5 puppies who needed to be bottle fed. When we arrived to pick them up, the lady who had found them (they had been dumped in the desert and I literally can.not.even talk about it because it makes me sick to think people do that) decided to keep two. They were so so tiny and hungry.

That night after we fed them for the second time, the little boy (there were two girls as well) started having a seizure. I had no idea what was happening at first, but then it hit me that’s what it was. We called the shelter and since it was Christmas Eve, no one was on staff to take him. He continued to have seizures almost non-stop for hours as we tried to figure out how to get them to stop. I was absolutely terrified he was going to die – and it was an incredibly emotional night as it brought me back to holding my sons while they struggled to breathe. At one point I held him against me standing in the kitchen while he had yet another seizure, and I sobbed and sobbed as Sam tried to calm me down.

It’s a whole ordeal I won’t go into more on here on why we couldn’t go see a vet (because we would have done just about anything at that point) but, long story short, we decided to get up every hour to feed him that night per the shelter’s recommendations. He was so starved that he had developed hypoglycemia when he finally ate, and the only solution was to continually feed him small amounts of food.

It worked, and though for a while his development was a little behind his sisters, today he is doing just as well as them and shows no issues at all.

We’ve had them for nearly 4 weeks now, and while it’s been a TON of work (I had no idea how much work it would really add to our day) it has been worth it. They are happy and healthy puppies, with the cutest personalities. We named the girls Caddie and Laura, and the boy Atticus. They love our dog Charlie and at first, he was absolutely horrified by them. Now he tolerates them. Our cats have been mildly curious but for the most part, could care less until the puppies get to close for comfort.

I started a Wish List on Amazon for people who wanted to send some supplies and we opened the door several days later to boxes stacked on our porch of puppy pads, food, and bottles. It’s helped tremendously since with Sam gone I didn’t have enough time to go to the shelter every few days for more things (and we had to wait in line forever there). We are so incredibly thankful to everyone who sent stuff for them.

We’ve debated keeping one of them (Sam really likes the little boy) but we both think it might be too much right now. While I’ll be sad to see them go, I’m glad we had the opportunity to give them a home and lots of love while they were tiny.

What really came out of this for us were two things I want to share:

• Please, please, please spay and neuter your animals. You may be an amazing animal owner, but if they get loose, the person who deals with the puppies may not be so amazing. And we end up with these little guys being left to die.
• Adopt first! There are so many animals waiting for a forever home.

Want to follow along for the rest of the time we have them? Find our stories and pics on Instagram under the hashtag #stonesfosteralitter