Wiggles & Co

Wiggles + Co: Week 10

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Wiggles & Co

Wiggles came into the CHS as a transfer from a rescue in the Yukon – young, scared and pregnant. Knowing the best environment for a mama dog to give birth and raise puppies is in a home situation, our Foster Coordinator quickly began her search for the perfect temporary home for the small white dog. Long-time foster parent Susan (and occasional CHS blog contributor!) offered her home and will be caring for the pooch family for the next several weeks. She will be documenting her foster adventure in a weekly series, Wiggles & Co. Check out Wiggle’s first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth weeks in foster!

Our last couple of days together – Wiggles has been spayed and will continue her journey with her CHS fan club until her real family comes to pick her up.

More tears – I have never cried so much as I have since becoming a foster parent.  Why do I keep doing this to myself?  To everyone who has told me they would never be able to foster as they would “adopt everything” I totally understand.  To all the “foster failures” I have met, I understand as well because sometimes that fur\feather\scale baby is just meant to be with you. (more…)

Wiggles + Co: Week 8

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Wiggles & Co

Wiggles came into the CHS as a transfer from a rescue in the Yukon – young, scared and pregnant. Knowing the best environment for a mama dog to give birth and raise puppies is in a home situation, our Foster Coordinator quickly began her search for the perfect temporary home for the small white dog. Long-time foster parent Susan (and occasional CHS blog contributor!) offered her home and will be caring for the pooch family for the next several weeks. She will be documenting her foster adventure in a weekly series, Wiggles & Co. Check out Wiggle’s first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh weeks in foster!

 

The tears fell……

Wiggles struggled more each day – she wanted her babies to be playmates and they just were not big enough so she was getting a little too rough.  She wanted more attention and would insert herself between me and whatever puppy I was playing with or holding at the time. Even worse was how much they were actually hurting her when they nursed.  She was weaning them slowly but when she had to feed them she would whimper while they suckled.

As the puppies were getting bigger and moving around so much they also needed more daily socialization than I could give them as a single person.  (more…)

Wiggles + Co: Week 7

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Wiggles & Co

Wiggles came into the CHS as a transfer from a rescue in the Yukon – young, scared and pregnant. Knowing the best environment for a mama dog to give birth and raise puppies is in a home situation, our Foster Coordinator quickly began her search for the perfect temporary home for the small white dog. Long-time foster parent Susan (and occasional CHS blog contributor!) offered her home and will be caring for the pooch family for the next several weeks. She will be documenting her foster adventure in a weekly series, Wiggles & Co. Check out Wiggle’s first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth weeks in foster!

And just when you think you have settled into a safe, comfortable routine… they keep growing and changing.

I have set up a play area outside of their whelping box for them to move around and play in.  When they hear me or catch sight of me a chorus of yelping begins.  I put in a basket for them to climb on and a tunnel for them to run through – they will chase each other over and through these obstacles as well as wrestle and play with the toys – no matter how big said toys are. (more…)

Wiggles + Co: Week 6

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Wiggles & Co

Wiggles came into the CHS as a transfer from a rescue in the Yukon – young, scared and pregnant. Knowing the best environment for a mama dog to give birth and raise puppies is in a home situation, our Foster Coordinator quickly began her search for the perfect temporary home for the small white dog. Long-time foster parent Susan (and occasional CHS blog contributor!) offered her home and will be caring for the pooch family for the next several weeks. She will be documenting her foster adventure in a weekly series, Wiggles & Co. Check out Wiggle’s first, second, third, fourth and fifth weeks in foster!

The puppies were changing almost daily – their motor skills improved, their vocal range grew, their colors changed and some personality traits started to develop.  They began to wrestle with each other and chew on some of their toys, each other’s faces and limbs.  Wiggles got excited a few times and would join them to engage in what I believed was play: rolling them around and “nibbling” on them – sometimes they would squeak but mostly they would just start crawling over her.  (more…)

Wiggles & Co: Week 5

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Wiggles & Co

Wiggles came into the CHS as a transfer from a rescue in the Yukon – young, scared and pregnant. Knowing the best environment for a mama dog to give birth and raise puppies is in a home situation, our Foster Coordinator quickly began her search for the perfect temporary home for the small white dog. Long-time foster parent Susan (and occasional CHS blog contributor!) offered her home and will be caring for the pooch family for the next several weeks. She will be documenting her foster adventure in a weekly series, Wiggles & Co. Check out Wiggle’s first, second, third and fourth weeks in foster! 

Puppies can scream!

They were two weeks old on a Thursday.  By Friday night Wiggles and I were cowering together on the couch behind the whelping box.  What has happened here?  Who are these banshees?  The day before they were making cute little grunts and growls….oh what a difference a day makes.  Wiggles and I would both carefully check each screaming pup to have them just fall asleep on us – nothing appeared wrong with any of them – they were just discovering their vocal chords. (more…)

Wiggles & Co: Week 4

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Wiggles & Co

Wiggles came into the CHS as a transfer from a rescue in the Yukon – young, scared and pregnant. Knowing the best environment for a mama dog to give birth and raise puppies is in a home situation, our Foster Coordinator quickly began her search for the perfect temporary home for the small white dog. Long-time foster parent Susan (and occasional CHS blog contributor!) offered her home and will be caring for the pooch family for the next several weeks. She will be documenting her foster adventure in a weekly series, Wiggles & Co. Check out Wiggle’s first, second and third weeks in foster!

While the new babies continued on in their boring daily routine (eat, sleep, grow) a ‘new’ puppy was emerging:  Wiggles was suddenly embracing her true puppy self.  She started spending a little more time cuddling in bed with me morning and night and was always by my side if I was doing something “interesting”.  She will run to her babes if they squeak but she is starting to have more “mom” time and enjoying all the toys here for her.

We are working on ignoring the ‘other’ dogs that live in my home:  the one behind the glass of the fireplace, the one she sees in the oven, there are more she can see at the back of the curio cabinets, television stand and the full length mirror in my bedroom. (more…)

Wiggles & Co: Week 3

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Wiggles & Co

Wiggles came into the CHS as a transfer from a rescue in the Yukon – young, scared and pregnant. Knowing the best environment for a mama dog to give birth and raise puppies is in a home situation, our Foster Coordinator quickly began her search for the perfect temporary home for the small white dog. Long-time foster parent Susan (and occasional CHS blog contributor!) offered her home and will be caring for the pooch family for the next several weeks. She will be documenting her foster adventure in a weekly series, Wiggles & Co. Check out Wiggle’s first and second weeks in foster!

My first week with this new CHS family went as I was told it would – nothing for me to do – we fell into a routine:

Wiggles came up to my bed in the morning when the alarm went off (except for 5 out of 7 mornings when she decided 4:30am was a good enough time) for a quick cuddle then outside to do her business and back in to eat breakfast.  I would pick up and “cuddle” each baby up for a few moments and, before I left for work, spend some time with Wiggles in the backyard.

When I returned home from work I would let Wiggles out to relieve herself, then weighed each baby, changed their bedding (it was always clean), give Wiggles a cuddle and feed her.  Later I would join the family in the whelping box to stroke each puppy – making sure I gently touched each foot and ear, their faces and tails – and rub their bellies if they rolled over (Kirsty, CHS Behaviour Counsellor, was my mentor in this).  Wiggles spent most of her time with her babes but would always join me on the couch for an hour to watch TV and have a major cuddle before I headed to bed. (more…)

Wiggles & Co: Week 2

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Wiggles & Co

 

Wiggles came into the CHS as a transfer from a rescue in the Yukon – young, scared and pregnant. Knowing the best environment for a mama dog to give birth and raise puppies is in a home situation, our Foster Coordinator quickly began her search for the perfect temporary home for the small white dog. Long-time foster parent Susan (and occasional CHS blog contributor!) offered her home and will be caring for the pooch family for the next several weeks. She will be documenting her foster adventure in a weekly series, Wiggles & Co. Check out Wiggle’s first week in foster here! 

We had two weeks to bond before Wiggles was expected to give birth. She is good in the house during the day and loves her walks when I get home. We also play in the backyard – she loves any bit of snow – such a puppy still this girl is!  It is so nice watching TV with a cuddle buddy and snuggling before sleeping – of course that is when she needs her belly rubs.

As I was on my way to becoming a professional canine midwife, thanks to Google, I had determined that she was going to have two puppies – the perfect amount for a small dog.  Wiggles ‘helped’ put the whelping box together – Kirsty (CHS Behaviour Counsellor) had explained the assembly procedure twice but apparently that was not enough for me so it was a struggle. I did prevail – even when Wiggles moved some parts to other areas of the house.  I had the sterile gloves, baby aspirator, weigh scale, lots of towels and sheets and blankets, camera, cell phone programmed with Jenn (CHS Foster Coordinator) and Kirsty’s numbers, and had memorized the location of the 24 hour vet hospital.  I WAS READY.

Two weeks?????  I should have listened to Betty.  (more…)

Wiggles & Co: Week 1

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Wiggles & Co

Wiggles came into the CHS as a transfer from a rescue in the Yukon – young, scared and pregnant. Knowing the best environment for a mama dog to give birth and raise puppies is in a home situation, our Foster Coordinator quickly began her search for the perfect temporary home for the small white dog. Long-time foster parent Susan (and occasional CHS blog contributor!) offered her home and will be caring for the pooch family for the next several weeks. She will be documenting her foster adventure in a weekly series, Wiggles & Co.

I returned my foster kid (Simon the cat) to CHS so he would now be able to move forward in Adoptions . Hang in there Simon, your forever family is coming – you are a pretty cool feline even if you are the poster boy for the term “Cattitude”.

When the next foster list was sent out I joked with Jenn (Jennifer Finnegan, CHS Foster Coordinator) that I wanted the pregnant mom on the list. I was only kidding. “I will take whatever cat you decide to give me me now,” I said.  Jenn has the habit of sending me the nicest cats that turn out to be Divas or Divos. Maybe they just sense that I am a dog person.

Jenn did not take my request as the joke it was intended to be. (more…)