I thought it might be a good idea to find a companion for Whisky, and at the same time get another dog off the streets and into a good home.

A friend learned of a litter of 10 puppies living on an industrial estate close to the side of the road. There was every possibility that some of them would get run over.

Mother and litter

An attempt was made to relocate the litter and mother to a safer area. However, mother had different ideas, and took them back, one by one, to the roadside.

It really was important that the puppies be adopted if they were to be safe, despite their only being 3 weeks old and not yet weaned. (Puppies should normally be separated from their mothers at around 3 months old.)

But which one to pick? They all look so cute.

Pick of the Litter

I left that to a friend who picked her from the litter, took her to the vet for a check-up, and then brought her home to me.

To be honest, there’s more than a little guilt in making the choice. I’d said I wanted one of the spotty ones, not a plain white one. I wanted a puppy, rather than adopting an adult dog. I was making choices based upon appearance, cuteness, which seems wrong.

That was a week ago today. Since then I’ve been bottle feeding her every three hours, though now she’s also started to eat semi-solid food. Every day I see a change. She ranges further around the house. She’s learnt how to climb up a small step between kitchen and sitting room. She’s learned to run and how to bound over objects. What she hasn’t yet learnt to do is to poo regularly. I sometimes have to rub her with a warm, wet cloth to stimulate her, as a mother would do with her tongue.

The only dark cloud (other than sleeplessness) is that Whisky doesn’t like her (yet, I hope). He mostly ignores her when she’s in her crate, but will come and growl at her if she’s outside. He’d almost certainly attack her, given a chance. A few days ago he bit me on the arm whilst making a frenzied attempt to get at her. It’s the first time he’s bitten me since he was a puppy, and the first time he’s bitten me not by accident. (Once he bit me on the big toe and drew blood.)

And today I heard the good news that all 10 puppies have now been adopted.