BREAKING NEWS - As It Happens

[rpcrowe]

Rita, a terrier-mix, came to us a week ago. She had been dodging traffic down near the Mexican Border...



Rita was very very pregnant. Our vet found that she was going to have four puppies...



6:30 AM today; First Puppy



7:30 AM; Second Puppy



7:40 AM; Third Puppy



7:50 AM; Fourth Puppy


8:00 AM; Mom and puppies are warm and dry in the puppy pen.



Rita is a good mom, she knows exactly what to do for her puppies. The pups are all boys and weigh from 6 ounces to 8 ounces...

This is really easy compared with my sister-in-law's golden retriever who just had 14 puppies. Rita can take care of her puppies, four is not an overwhelming number for a dog the size of Rita (about 12-pounds). My sister-in-law has to feed her dog's puppies in shifts: 7 at a time, rotating every two hours. I would guess that she will have to begin supplementing mom's milk pretty early in the puppy development.

[John 2]

We constantly comment on images telling stories but when they also tug at heartstrings, they must be a cut above. Lovely series Richard. Glad mum and pups are doing well.

[Mike Buckley]

Fabulous series!

[madcrow]

Heart warming, uplifting and happy ending. Beautiful images and story.

[Shadowman]

Very nice.

[Cogito]

Well done, Rita and well done your care centre. Hope all are doing well. All of our dogs have come from animal shelters and we've always been happy to pay for the opportunity to give a dog some extra decent life.

[rpcrowe]

Our rescue group is rescuing a blind 7-month old Shih Tsu puppy from another high kill Los Angeles shelter. I thought that I was going to do it's portrait but, we have several good adoptions from the L.A. Area for this puppy. Our Los Angeles people will bring the puppy to our veterinary eye doctor to see if there is anything to be done to restore the puppy's vision.

If the vision can be improved even a small bit, we will have the necessary medical work done and the dog will be adopted to one of the applicants. However, even if the sight cannot be helped, the folks are still willing to adopt the puppy.

We have had numerous blind dogs and there is no great trouble finding adopters. Dogs can do very well without their sight since sight is about the third most important sense for a dog behind hearing, smell. Here is a video of a young rescue dog who had been born blind. He would wander all over my fenced acre with no problems finding his way home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KS2wFa1dwY

The dog you occasionally see towards the end of the video was his best friend and she was adopted with Peli.

[bnnrcn]

Beautiful series Richard