Paws Press

Finalists Chosen For Puppy Naming Contest

Our little nameless guy is one step closer to having an identity!

We received more than 100 submissions and honestly, every single one of them was a winner! It was VERY difficult to narrow the field. The eight finalists will be voted on tonight at the Lucas County Pit Crew Spay-Ghetti (No Meatballs) Dinner and Silent Auction which will be held at Michael's Bar and Grill, 901 Monroe Street, Toledo, from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, March 30.  I'll have big yellow plastic cups with each of the eight names. Attendees can vote with their wallets -- one dollar equals one vote!  At 8 p.m. we will count up the money in each cup and declare a winner.

The finalists are, in alphabetical order:

Aiden -- which means "little fire" or "ardent" and was submitted by Tammy Davis;

Beagen -- which means "little one" and was submitted by Tom Csizek;

Clancy -- which means "red warrior" and was submitted by Cathy Cummings;

Conan -- which means "hound" and was submitted by Maureen Benford;

Cormac -- which means "charioteer" and was submitted by Donna Schantz;

Finnegan -- which means "fair" and was submitted by Julia Glaser;

Jameson -- which means "supplanter" (and is also a really good Irish whiskey!) and was submitted by Jami Breitigam;

and finally

Tristan -- which means "tumult" or "outcry" and was submitted by Shawna Webb-Lisewski.

The winner, who need not be present to win tonight, will receive a Lucas County Pit Crew T-shirt. If you are coming to the dinner, I'll see you there! I'll be the gal wearing the leopard print jacket, come up and say hi. It's going to be a blast!

 

 

 

 

 

Puppies Really Are Like Babies

All these guys like to do at this point is eat and sleep and occasionally vocalize.

Momma Nellie decided to let them nurse while I had them out of the crate to clean it and change the towels. They were so adorable, I had to stop my cleaning to videotape it. The puppycam is great, but I think I need to permanently capture some of these precious moments for their future adopters to have. They won't be babies forever.

They are almost electrified when they nurse. Their little tails quiver and their butts wiggle. It's quite the cute sight.

One Of The Puppies Needs A Name: Contest!

Since the puppies were born on St. Patrick's Day, it seems only fitting to give them good Irish names. Hopefully they will have the Luck O' the Irish in their lives. I know the Lucas County Pit Crew will make sure they get good homes.

One of the boys is yet to be named. Please comment after this post with any Irish boys names you want to suggest, limit one per person. One will be picked and the winner will get a Pit Crew T-shirt, courtesy of me. Please check the comments before you comment so that you don't resubmit a name that has already been suggested. To be fair, the first submission of a name trumps any subsequent repeats.

Here's Mr. Nameless, aka Numero Uno. He  was the biggest boy for a while before Fergus inched past him.

Fergus is the big boy, fast approaching 2 pounds. He definitely has an attitude to go along with his bulk. He thinks nothing of jumping on the top of the mosh pit of puppies and body surfing over the top to get to his mom's teat.

Liam may be the runt, but don't count him out. He has lots of energy and is not afraid to push his way to a nipple. He is also very sweet and loves to be cuddled and held by his foster parents.

Beckham is the most unusually marked, but even without all the gray spots, he'd be easy to spot because of his big personality. He loves to lay on top of his siblings. You'll always find him at the top of the puppy pile.
Keegan is easy to spot because he's the only one with a spot on his tail, right in the middle. He also has one at the base of his tail. He's very easy going and laid back so far. But don't count out his instinct to nurse -- he is growing like a weed.

Bono is the rock star of the puppies. He has very distinctive brown and black markings on his head, and a big black spot right above his tail. He is the spokespuppy.  He also seems to have the most to say at this point. I predict he will be the first puppy to bark. 

Cassidy had very wrinkly fur, almost like a Shar Pei, when she was born, but it seems to be smoothing out. That's how she got her name, Cassidy is gaelic for "curly-haired one." She is one of only two girls, so she's pretty special.

Ciara is last but not least. She has gray spots with a little black shadowing in them. She is going to be quite beautiful when she grows up. She is very sweet and happy and loves to snuggle with either the other puppies or any people who are willing to hold her. She loves to be be held.

More pictures to come as they continue to grow. I can't wait for their eyes to open!  It's usually between 12 and 14 days, so very soon!

A New Meaning To Puppy Love: Hickies

A good friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, came over to see the puppies yesterday. A few of them are very exuberant suckers and will latch on to anything even slightly resembling their momma. They are very fond of chins, in particular.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Before we knew it, my friend had several prominent purple-black bruises on her chin. Puppy hickies! Given how bruised poor Nellie's nipples are starting to get, it's no surprise. And the little guys don't even have teeth yet!

It's a good thing my friend is as big of an animal lover as me. My husband has a great idea for her. If anyone teases her about the bruises, all she has to do is whip out her cell phone and show them pictures of the adorable puppies. 

I googled for puppy and hickies and found more hits than you might imagine!  Who knew?

Raising Puppies Is Not Without Challenges

You wouldn't think that eight little puppies could cause so much excitement, but boy, have they ever!

On Monday, one of the puppies managed to squeeze in between the bars and escape from the crate. He also managed to get himself back into the crate (smart boy!) but not without several viewers witnessing his escape and becoming concerned. Thank you for the emails, but by the time I checked, he was already back in. We installed cardboard to keep that from happening again. Lesson learned.

However, on Tuesday, Nellie was a little annoyed that her humans both went to their offices and left her alone all day with her babies. So she had a little separation anxiety and tried to bust out of the nursery room. There's a very small pane in the french doors that lead out to the nursery that is missing its glass. It makes for a nice "cat door" allowing the cats to go in and out of that room even when the doors are closed. We had it covered (along with the bottom section of the glass doors) to give her privacy and to keep the cats out of the room. She managed to rip the cardboard off of it and squeezed through the tiny pane to get out of the room. One of the cats got into the room and checked on the babies in her absence. Our cats are not predatory, but I was worried that Nellie wouldn't see it that way. However, she was more interested in getting out of that room than attacking a cat, as it turned out.

We saw (and heard) her tantrum on the puppy cam and it was Jim to the rescue (since his office is closer to home.) He rushed home at lunch (thank you St. Clair Shores police for the speeding ticket) and found her waiting for him at the door. Since puppies can't go very long without milk, this could have been a real disaster. He repaired the door and she has not tried to jailbreak the room again, thank heavens. However....

On Wednesday, three of the puppies decided THEY had been in the crate long enough and decided to wiggle out of it to explore the room. We had put a roll of towels to block the crate's entrance, but they managed to scoot over it! Viewers of the puppy cam could see they had left the crate and hear them crying and Nellie, for some reason, turned a deaf ear. I think she's already tiring of motherhood. With so many mouths to feed and butts to clean, who can blame her?  Again it was Jim to the rescue, leaving work early to come home and put the three back in the crate with momma. Whew!

On Thursday morning, Nellie decided being closed in the crate all night with the babies was too much for her. She managed to knock the puppycam down from the top of the crate, and shredded the cardboard we had put in place to keep the puppies from crawling in between the bars. The puppies were none the worse for her tantrum, thankfuly.

Cardboard has been reinstalled all the way around the outside of the crate, including the entrance, so that the puppies can't get out but Nellie can come and go. Yesterday was a test to see how long she'd stay out of the crate for and thankfully she seemed to settle down and have a good day with the puppies. Whew!

Tomorrow is the pups one week birthday!  Check back here to see their individual pictures and names! One of the boys, the biggest one who we are calling Numero Uno for now, is without a name. So put on your thinking caps for good Irish boys names. There will be a contest to name him! I haven't figured out a prize yet. Maybe a big slobbery kiss from Nellie and a cuddle with the puppy?

And Then There Were Eight

Fostering newborn puppies is not without challenges. I am very sad to report that we lost one of the little girls last night.

Her name was Noreen, which means "little honorable one." That, she most certainly was. She will be very missed.

Noreen was actually not the runt, that little guy is still kicking. He gained an ounce yesterday and I'm keeping a close eye on him today to make sure he gets through the pack to find his own teat. Now with eight, they will each have one, no sharing needed. So I'm hopeful that they will all thrive. We are weighing them every day and they are all gaining. The wrinkly guy, who we are naming Cassidy (which means curly haired!) went from his birth weight of 9 ounces to 13 ounces in one day.

We will have a puppy cam up and running most of the day. It can be seen at:

Nellie's Puppies

Check it out when you get a chance. You'll see me poking in every half hour or so to make sure that everyone is eating and no one has gotten pushed off too far to the side. I'm more than a little anxious after losing the one and will be keeping a very close eye on the Elite Eight for at least a few days until I am sure everyone is going to make it. We are ready to supplement feed with formula if necessary.

Nellie Has Her Nine!

Nellie And Her Nine

Here's the first video of the happy family. I think there must have only been one Dad since all of the puppies look very similar. They are all white. Some have little gray spots, some have black spots and some have brown spots. They all have pink muzzles and paw pads.

Momma Nellie did all of the work in getting them out of their little birthing sacs and cutting their umbilical cords and cleaning them up. She is an amazing momma. 

Day Seven: Still Watching And Waiting

A quick Nellie update: She has been pacing up a storm today but her water has not broken yet. So we are still waiting. I was trying to comfort her and pet her a few minutes ago and I can feel the puppies kicking up a storm. They are ready to come out!

Last night, Jim (my willing co-foster and animal enthusiast) and I got her nursery ready. We scrubbed it from top to bottom. It's like a hospital ER room, I tell you. It's a wonderful sunny room off the back of our dining room. There is a door leading from it directly to the yard, so I'll be able to take Nellie in and out without going past our pets. This is important because she's likely to be hormonal and kind of hateful toward other animals the first couple of weeks after the puppies are born.

I'm hopeful she'll still be sweet with me. We have been doing a lot of bonding the last few days. I haven't left her side since Monday. We've also been working on some basic obedience including down, sit and come. She knows her name already, too. She's a very quick study.

The best news of all: She's about 95% housebroken.Thank heavens for this lovely mild weather. It makes housebreaking a lot easier. So does having an adult dog. Puppies can not hold it very long, usually only about one hour for every four weeks of age. So an 8-week-old puppy can only go about two hours without needing a potty break outside. (Or else you have to put down tons of newspapers and potty pads and just accept that you will be cleaning up mess.) It's the downside to getting to experience puppy breath. For non-dog people, puppies have the most sweet, amazing breath. I am not making this up.

Why Is Puppy Breath So Irresistable?

 

Fostering Nellie, Day Six

It’s day six of watching Nellie’s belly. I keep watching for signs of her impending labor. She’s licking her belly, does that mean anything? She doesn’t want to eat, uh oh, that has to mean something, right?

Truthfully, I might be going a little stir crazy. I haven’t left the house since Monday afternoon, when I brought her home from The West Suburban Animal Hospital, where Dr. Gary Thompson told me she would be delivering the puppies “very soon.”  In case you missed the story, I’m fostering Nellie for the Lucas County Pit Crew. She was transferred to them from the Lucas County Dog Warden last Friday, March 9.

READ MORE: Pregnant dog's spaying delayed by warden

It was during the vet appointment that they x-rayed Nellie’s belly. The radiograph revealed nine little white chalk outlines. It was like a crime scene, those little white outlines. I’d never seen an x-ray of a pregnant animal before so wasn’t really sure what to expect. (I’ll leave the actual crime reporting to my Blade cohort Taylor Dungjen, of course.)

When I told Lucas County Dog Warden Julie Lyle there were nine babies coming, she let out a little sigh and said “Oh dear. I was really hoping it was going to be four big ones.” It’s not that she doesn’t like puppies. Who doesn’t LOVE puppies? But she knows how much work NINE are going to be, especially when they get bigger and start to wean and eat on their own.

I’m no stranger to a house full of puppies. My husband Jim and I fostered a mom “pit bull” and seven puppies last summer that I fostered for All About Animals Rescue. They were a ton of work, but so much fun! And they all found terrific homes, including their momma. I have absolute confidence that the same will hold true for Nellie and her babies.

Hello, I'm Tanya

I'm Tanya Irwin, animal welfare reporter for The Blade.

I've been covering critter issues since November, 2011. I focus on the Lucas County Dog Warden, Toledo Area Humane Society, Toledo Zoo, Humane Ohio, and the plethora of rescue groups who do great things for our four-legged friends in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. I also cover the prosecution of animal-related crimes in the court system.

In case you haven’t figured it out, I am more than a reporter, I’m an animal lover. I have been a foster volunteer and transport driver for several rescue groups, most recently the Lucas County Pit Crew.

Let’s just say I walk the talk when it comes to advocating for animals.

I hope you’ll enjoy hearing the story behind the stories on my blog.

If you would like to email me, you can reach me at tirwin@theblade.com.