Puppy Care 101



To keep a newborn puppy cool on a hot Los Angeles summer day I would suggest using ice cold bottles of water in the pen. Just a few frozen bottles scattered around and soon you will find that the puppies will be comfortable by simply cuddling next to them.

It is important to keep your puppies hydrated. If they are too young to drink water then unflavored pedialyte can be given to the pups. If this doesn't work and the pups begin whining or panting uncontrollably then you might just have to turn the AC on.

You need to regulate the tempurature of the puppies because their bodies are unable to do it themselves. It's why they are always found cuddled up next to each other or with their mother when it's cold. However, over heating is one most common causes of sickness or even worse death in puppies...

This post is long overdue and as you can see the last month of my summer post grad has taken a very sharp and unexpected turn. Instead of joining the rat race of job hunting, instead of taking exciting travel excursions around the world, instead of basking in the momentum of graduation excitement I have become the adoptive mother of nine Pit-bull Terrier pups.

It has been two months of long days and late nights. Now you may be thinking: "taking care of puppies? That doesn't sound very hard."

Well let me be the first to tell you, that's exactly what I thought when I signed up for the job. At the end of August a friend's dog had puppies, she did well for about the first week. Taking care of all ten (yes, we started with ten) feeding them cleaning them. But as the days got hotter the task became too stressful and she began rejecting the puppies. It started with six and after waiting as long as we could we ended up taking the last four.

She just stopped caring for them, stopped caring for herself.

As a big time animal lover I couldn't just sit and watch the poor newborn puppies suffer, or give them up to someone else too soon... so me and Jose took on the job. This job included cleaning and bottle feeding 8 times a day. Each puppy individually for about three weeks. After those three weeks we had to wean them onto puppy food which was also a task in itself. (They made quite the mess trying to figure out how to eat).

Thanks to several local veterinarians and Google we were able to find formula and nurse them through a few bad sicknesses.

Now two months later nine of them are all running around and terrorizing all furniture in their path with newly discovered growing teeth. It has been an amazing experience nursing these helpless little creatures from God. Although it's not what I thought I would be doing after I graduated from college I wouldn't have had my summer go any other way.

Two of the puppies have already found homes. One puppy we are holding onto for sure and we are searching for a place for the rest. But for now, we are still taking care of them and watching them grow more and more each day.

It's been amazing seeing the transformation right before my eyes. It seems that they get bigger everyday.

Now that they are able to fend for themselves and we don't have to care for them 24/7, it got me thinking about nurturing. I find it a little ironic that at this time in my life I've taken on this role of having to nurture and care for lives that are so precious and young. I was getting to a point where I needed to start thinking about where I needed to be and what steps I needed to take next and then I was forced to stop; care for something else for a little while instead of thinking about all the "wants" I had for myself.

I think it's been a blessing. Because I was beginning to forget about the important things that I have right here at home. There is no longer a rush or a complete urgency to run off just yet.

and this is a good thing.

Don't get me wrong, I'll figure something out soon. I'll get back to me. But in the mean time I need to finish taking care of the ones I love.




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