Pumpkin
Age 8 wks - AVAILABLE ~ 1/15/12
Updated 1/21/12
Updated 1/9/12 - 7 weeks
Updated 12/19/11 - 4 weeks
It was just a few days before Thanksgiving when we got word of a young mom with eight brand-new pups (about 4 days old!) who desperately needed rescue: she’d given birth in the pound & had been immediately transferred to a vet clinic, but she couldn’t stay there. The Golden rescues closest to hand were full up. Could we help? Of course! Dainty little Hope hardly looked big enough or old enough to be a mom to four boys and four girls—she’s a petite 40-pounder…and a Golden for sure, albeit with a few non-standard “decorations” ( a white star on her chest, pretty white tips on her paws). We’ll tell you right now, though, that we aren’t sure who Dad was! The pups are all the right color, from blonde to caramel-gold, but they aren’t quite 100 percent Golden. (Just 100% adorable!) They all got Thanksgiving-themed names: Grace, Blessing, Pumpkin, and Cranberry for the girls; Pilgrim, Sweet Potato, Butterball, and Wishbone for the boys.
For the first few days the pups seemed to be doing well—but on Thankgiving Day, foster parents Donna and Arne awoke to one terribly sick pup. Little Pilgrim spent most of the holiday at the emergency vet, receiving fluids, oral antibiotics, and a through exam. The vet checked over the rest of the litter, too, but they seemed chipper and healthy. “Since just the one is sick, it’s likely aspiration pneumonia,” she decided. Unfortunately, by the very next day, more pups were displaying the same symptoms, with nasal discharge and a terrible cough. It was back to the vet for the entire pack, mom included. Now all of them were taking oral antibiotics, and we began nebulizing treatments with albuterol as well. Distressingly, though, the pups continued to lose ground, and on December 1, little Pilgrim lost the battle. X-rays revealed “the worst-looking lungs I’ve ever seen, just full of fluid,” said the vet sadly: he had extremely severe pneumonia. There was no hope for recovery, and Pilgrim was euthanized. We were devastated.
To save the remaining pups, more aggressive treatment was in order. The vet came up with an antibiotic cocktail for us to use in the nebulizer. It took the help of several GRR folks and many phone calls to our wonderful vet network, but ultimately we were able to get our hands on the five ingredients for the cocktail (two of which aren’t readily available). Nebulizing treatments—with the pups all piled up in a big Tupperware tub full of mist, as well as being held in a parent’s lap one by one with their little muzzles in a breathing mask—continued three times a day for almost two very stressful weeks. Talk about round-the-clock care from a very dedicated foster family! Fortunately, the mixture worked—by the end of the course, they sounded almost normal. We then moved on to ten days or oral meds to make sure they didn’t back-slide.
… and now, we’re more than thrilled to be able to watch seven happy, healthy-looking puppies playing and wrestling with each other. It's been two weeks since we've heard any coughs, or seen any discharge. We still have them under a microscope, watching for any new symptoms, but at the moment it looks like they’ve made it through their illness, and are now robust little kids. And hungry! (The reason they look so solemn in their holiday duds is that they’d just finished stuffing themselves and were feeling rather drowsy!)
In another three weeks, Mom and pups will be ready for their new, forever homes, and we know that their adorable little faces and sweet personalities will bring so much joy to their families. Yes, they’re Goldens “plus” (as in, plus a bit of something else!), but they have that Solid Golden, cuddly personality.
Pumpkin is just a love! She loves to sit and watch things going on around her, but doesn't hesitate to get in on the action when the playing starts up. She and Cranberry could win the Miss Congeniality contest. Pumpkin has the longest fur of all the pups, and we think she may end up fuzzier than the rest, who all have the shorter fur at this point. Her coat is such a beautiful color, and she has white “knee socks” on her front legs. She also has some white on her face and the tip of her tail. It is impossible not to fall instantly in love with Pumpkin—she is so sweet and so pretty!
NOTE: As a general rule, GRR does not adopt out dogs under the age of two to families with children under age five, and we also require that our puppy families have someone home much of the time while the pups are tiny. Long work hours away from home make it very hard to give pups the attention and socialization they need. Thank you for understanding! – your GRR MATCHMAKERS
