Sunday, September 23, 2007

Annabelle and the A Plus Puppies


Annabelle's story is sadly familiar.... young pit bull mix in a very rural shelter and nobody wants her. On top of being a breed that is hard to place, she's black- a curse for any shelter dog. No rescue group comes to claim her, no one comes to adopt her and time is running out. And it's not just running out for Annabelle herself- there is a belly full of unborn puppies waiting to live or die as well.

I agreed to take Annabelle as soon as I saw her picture. It seemed like the only choice to make and I was fortunately in a position to have the time and space to care for her. A volunteer near her shelter agreed to pick her up and bring her to meet me. We each drove several hours to meet and exchange Annabelle last Tuesday afternoon, September 18. I picked up the VERY pregnant Annabelle at 5:00 pm and knew I didn't have much time to get her home and ready. She already had plenty of milk for babies and they were sitting very low in her stomach.

Wednesday at about noon (15 hours from her arrival at my house) Annabelle gave birth to her first puppy, a boy. Two hours later we had NINE squirmy babies "swimming" in the kiddie pool that serves as a whelping box. Poor Annabelle is a baby herself. I'm positive she is under a year old and so very, very sweet.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for the health of the babies. That's a lot of mouths for a skinny little shelter dog to feed!

Look for their pictures here as they progress.