When we said there’s never a pause for dog rescue, we weren’t kidding. Only one week into 2025 and Rescue Ranch has hit the ground running. Another year of rescuing puppies has begun with some incredible team effort on the part of Rescue Ranch staff.
Born on Christmas Eve, surrendered a week after New Year’s Day
Recently, someone posted the following question on Facebook in response to our weekly Puppypalooza post: “Where do all these puppies come from?” It was a perfectly natural thing to ask, as we had just added a couple dozen new puppies to our Available Puppies album. Of course, the only easy answer is: everywhere! Each litter has a different story. Today’s story is just one answer to that question.
The story begins with an unplanned litter born in Montague on Christmas Eve. The momma was a pit bull, the papa was a husky. Less than two weeks after the pups were born, the owners called Rescue Ranch to say the momma dog had been killed by a car. They gladly surrendered the hungry puppies to our care. That’s how twelve bottle babies arrived at the Adoption Center last Tuesday afternoon. For our rescue staff, it was just the beginning.
When it comes to bottle babies, rescuing puppies is a team effort
Rescuing puppies who are less than four weeks old is no small feat. All the work normally done by the mother must be duplicated by a human caregiver. Neonates must be fed around the clock using bottles and puppy formula. They have to be kept clean and toasty warm and regularly stimulated in order to relieve themselves. Our primary puppy fosters have done their share of bottle feeding (myself included). What’s special this time is the way the whole Adoption Center team came together to make the job more manageable.
The first order of business after the puppies arrived was to get them fed. Next, staff members Kat, Kim, Maddy, Kate, and Karen split the litter between them, with puppy foster extraordinaire Laura Finley acting as substitute during Maddy’s days off. And the puppy rescue team is expanding! Family members are helping out, with Kat’s daughter Riley becoming our youngest volunteer bottle feeder.
After two days of care, most of the pups have taken happily to the bottle and are gaining weight. The only puppy who is struggling to adjust is the smallest. When I stopped by to see the babies, he snuggled up to my neck and tried to nurse there. But so far he doesn’t want to latch on to the Miracle nipples used by our bottle feeding team. This difficulty is not unusual, but it does slow down the feeding process quite a bit.
Not surprisingly, we need lots of puppy formula and bottle feeding supplies to get through the next few weeks. If you’d like to help, we’ve updated our Amazon wishlist with the necessary items.
It’s going to be a long few weeks, but the cuddles, tiny toes, chubby bellies, and puppy breath make it all worthwhile. Wish us luck!
