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All Things Welshie

Musings on living, loving and showing in a house full of Welshies

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Postscript to WSS Rescue Efforts

1/31/2014

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Well, now we can finally put all the updates to the recent WSSCA rescue effort in one posting. So, here we go:

Belza Louise (now affectionately known as Bella) traveled to Harrisburg with me on Friday January 25, and was transferred to Margaret Hilliard, who met Crystal Nolen outside Warrenton VA to get Belza on her way to Crystal's house in the Richmond VA area. She was set up Friday night in Crystal's home and whelped her litter on Monday, January 27 with the capable assistance of Crystal and Angela Wrenn. There were some tense moments after the first puppy was born, when Angela texted me that Bella had no milk and wasn't showing much in the way of maternal instinct. I suspected she was stressed and her hormones hadn't kicked in yet-something I had with my very first whelping with Kismet. So I asked them to hang in there and monitor her progress, check with the vet about whether a supplemental oxytocin shot may be in order, or if she just needed some time. Bella's milk ultimately came in and she began caring for the six boys and a girl just like she was supposed to. The first-born, a male nicknamed Tiny because he was the smallest at under 8 ounces, developed feeding difficulties and it was evident he required veterinary care by Wednesday morning. He was taken to see a vet at Angela's practice, who determined he had a small cleft palate that did not allow him to nurse adequately. He felt that it may close on its own and he should be tube fed for awhile to see what would happen. He did not feel there was a reason to euthanize Tiny at this time. Angela Wrenn, experienced in tubing technique, took Tiny home with her and tube fed him every 2 hours during the day and every 3 hours at night, through Thursday afternoon. She reports that he tolerated the feedings very well, was active and she even identified his tickle spot behind his right ear. The Mia Foundation of Rochester NY agreed to adopt Tiny and see to his tube feedings and eventual surgical correction of the palate defect. Shannon Gandee, the WSSCA Rescue Coordinator and Cindy Ford, the WSSCA President were consulted about this request and agreed to move forward to place this special needs puppy. Since the Mia Foundation had a representative in the VA area picking up another puppy, Tiny was transferred to their care on Thursday evening by Crystal and Angela. This is a wonderful opportunity for him to have a great life with people expert in the care of cleft palates. As to Bella's forever home, that is yet to be determined. Her breeder in Wisconsin had expressed interest in getting her back, and that may still be a possibility after the litter is placed. People interested in acquiring one of Bella's puppies can see the information on Crystal Nolen's web site regarding how to apply.


Katie Louise (known as Katie) was picked up on Saturday January 25 to be fostered by a couple in Florham Park NJ. There is an elderly Beagle in the house, so she won't be alone, and her new family hopes to transition Katie from a foster dog to become a part of their family shortly. A followup call indicated that she was doing fine in adapting to her new environment, but that it looks like she's come into season. This means that the planned mandatory spay surgery will be delayed for 4-6 weeks until her season is over and the swelling subsides. She needs to be taught how to walk on a leash since she is a tugger. Her yard is not fenced and Katie has a history of running free, so she'll get a lot of practice walking on a leash for awhile. The family is also considering fencing a portion of the yard for her to use for daily exercise and running. There's an excellent chance that Katie has found her forever home, and we are grateful for her foster parents seeing to her safety and care during this time.


Jasper Lou (known as Jasper) was picked up on Sunday January 26 to be fostered by a young man in Schwenksville Borough, PA. Jasper became fearful upon exiting the car and backed out of his collar and ran towards the woods near his new home. His fosterer and his mother prepared flyers and flooded vet offices and the neighbors with Jasper's information, and various lost pet web sites were contacted with information, also. The dog refused to come towards anyone or to accept food from anyone, but did stay in the area. Multiple sightings of Jasper were reported for several days. The foster parent and his mother were quite distraught, but we were all hopeful that eventually Jasper would be hungry enough and cold enough that he would approach someone for safe haven. A HaveAHeart trap was acquired and food was placed in it, but Jasper was not fond of crates and refused to use the shelter it provided. We asked Katie's owners if they would be willing to bring her to Schwenksville on Saturday to see if a familiar dog would entice him out of the woods, as a longshot. On Friday morning I got a text from Jasper's foster parent that they 'got the dog'. It turns out that a neighbor was able to entice Jasper inside his house or into his car, and the dog was transported to a local vet's office. We don't even know who the neighbor was at this point. Because the vets in the area had all been given Jasper's Lost Dog flyer, the staff recognized him as the missing dog and called the foster parent and sent him a photo of the dog to verify. Jasper was pronounced a little thinner but healthy in spite of being outside from Sunday night until Friday morning. He has been reunited with his foster family and will be securely harnessed and leashed from now on. He is due to be neutered and microchipped, and I've sent them the information for registration with AKC Reunite to assure he's never unidentifiable again. There's an excellent chance that Jasper has also found his forever home, and we are immensely thankful that there was a happy ending to this Lost Dog tale.


As you can see, doing any sort of rescue 'takes a village'-people to collect the dogs, people to transport them, people to care for them, and people to adopt the adult dogs and the puppies. The success of Bella's whelping experience was entirely in the hands of Crystal and Angela, and we couldn't have asked for a better outcome. They volunteered their time and effort and care and knowledge to Bella and her puppies to assure that the puppies were all healthy and well cared for. The next 7 weeks will be full of untold hours of training and cleaning up after those puppies, and socializing them properly and sorting through applications for adoption. While other breeds may routinely have pregnant dogs arriving into rescue, this is a first for us involved with WSSCA Rescue, and we're learning as we go along. But the selfless volunteering that Crystal and Angela have displayed is way above and beyond the call of duty, and we are eternally grateful to them for their efforts on behalf of WSSCA Rescue and Bella. Please take a moment to acknowledge them both for doing their best for a pregnant dog in need of some love and care.
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Update on Northeast PA WSS Rescue

1/22/2014

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Things moved along quickly by the middle of the afternoon today. Advised by Shannon this AM that the owner finally signed the private surrender papers, so the dogs were now eligible to go into WSSCA Rescue and be placed. Yeah! Then, the boarding kennel found out Belza was confirmed pregnant and wanted her OUT TODAY! We were planning on a leisurely trip Thursday to retrieve all the dogs, but moved it up to Wednesday afternoon. Barb and Piper Smith met me in Bartonsville and we drove to Danville PA and got the dogs out, along with two bags of food, their medical records and a couple of blankets from their former owner. 

As to the status of the dogs-Barb and I took one look at pregnant Belza and we both felt that she was pretty far into her pregnancy-probably more likely 8+ weeks. She is carrying the puppies low, so it looks like she's dropped already. Haven't even had a chance to feel for movement or get a temperature on her-I'd like her to settle and relax before I start sticking thermometers into her and poking and prodding... She's quiet, subdued, and I'm worried she could deliver at any time. We have no info on prior litters, maternal behavior, whelping history, etc. So it's a blank slate here.

While I was driving around PA, Rich was back home setting up crates in the basement for the three of them and also the whelping box in the puppy room for Belza, just in case. Shannon advised me this evening that Belza's breeder agreed to take her back if her condition would allow her to travel. I don't think it does at this point and in my opinion it would be very high risk to move her all the way to the Midwest unless someone picked her up tomorrow and had her in a new location by Friday at the latest. So we are formulating Plan B as we type this...We still need a committment from a breeder to take her or else we whelp her here...since I have to take care of getting the other two dogs placed and satisfy a request to do a stud service on a bitch in season, I'd really like someone else to whelp the litter. Any volunteers???? PLEASE????

Jasper and Katie seem fine-Rich has them loose in the basement trying to get them to chill out while I babysit our crew upstairs. They are so stressed right now they won't even take biscuits but they are drinking and they are quiet while they are out of their crates. Katie was noisy in the van on the way home for about half an hour and then fell asleep. She walks the crate across the floor and is somewhat barkey but we're cutting her some slack since she's obviously not in control of her situation. Jasper is quiet but displaying some 'lemme outta here' behavior in his crate. They both have the owners blankets in their crate-thought it would help if they could smell something familiar. They just need readjustment time, I think. Can't really make any evaluation of them now with them inside our home for less than 2 hours.

Awaiting responses from both foster/adopter families-they both indicated paperwork completion for Shannon is in progress, so I'm hopeful they will be off to their new homes before the weekend. I have the vet records and the dogs are all up to date on their vaccines, and while they are being fed substandard commercial food (really crappy, trust me...) they are in good shape physically and look like pet WSS should look. Ears need to be trimmed since they are all looking a bit English Springer-y, but I'm not really going to worry about that right now. I just want them to settle and NOT to have Belza have her puppies tonite!

Stay tuned for more as I try to get photos and make contact with the foster families...


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Northeast Welsh Springer Spaniel Rescue

1/22/2014

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Yes, the blog's been quiet for a few months, and for that I apologize. I've been sorting through topics recently, hoping that one of them would inspire me for a full length blog post. And, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, one has come up within the last few days that meets those qualifications.

I was contacted by Shannon Gandee, our untiring WSSCA Rescue Coordinator, about three WSS in Northeastern PA that needed re-homing due to their owner's dire financial straits and imminent loss of her home. I am putting this information on my blog and NOT on Facebook deliberately. If prior experience is a guide, Facebook turns this kind of situation into a noisy hub-bub of  well wishers and that's too bad-ers, with no offers for actual foster homes for any dogs. We are in need of people to foster these dogs (and more!), so we're trying to get the word out with a more targeted approach. 

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. What we have is the following: A 2.5 year old intact male names Jasper, a 5.5 year old unspayed female named Katie and a 4 year old pregnant female named Belza, in whelp by Jasper. The owner provided Shannon with information about all three dogs, including AKC numbers and breeder names. We do not know when Belza is due to whelp, just that she is quite large now. The dogs are being kept at a boarding kennel now, and we'd like to get them out as soon as possible and back to a normal home environment.


The current owner has not maintained contact with any of the three breeders from whom she obtained her dogs and has not contacted them for assistance. She reportedly has been unsuccessful over the past three months in her attempts to place the dogs locally. She contacted WSSCA Rescue as a last ditch attempt to secure placement for her dogs, but is understandably upset and sad that she needs to relinquish them. Shannon is handling all negotiations with the owner now, and I am assisting Shannon as the local contact in the area to secure placements and transportation once she manages to get the dogs turned over to WSS Rescue.

So, what have we done so far? Well, there are a bunch of tasks to be done in these situations. First, everyone always asks about whether the breeders of these dogs can step in and rehome them. I have done some online research and easily found contact info for Belza's breeder and I sent it on to Shannon, since this female has the highest priority. She contacted the breeder and is in discussions with him concerning next steps. While he is not a WSSCA member (yet!), he obviously cares for his dogs and earns high points for responsibility and doing the right thing with his puppy contract that requires a puppy to be returned to him rather than go into rescue. He OFA'd the sire and dam of the puppy he sold, and he has even showed one of his dogs at a WSSCA sponsored event. We are awaiting his decision regarding his ability to take Belza back and whelp the litter. If he is able to do so, we will put a call out to WSSCA members and friends between here and where he lives to arrange a patchwork quilt of transport for this girl. Keep your fingers crossed! Otherwise, we will need an experienced breeder with room in their house and heart to foster Belza and handle whelping and raising her puppies. If you are interested in doing this or you can assist with transport, please contact me to discuss the details.


Second, I started emailing our puppy owners and people who have contacted us about Welsh Springers in the past, using BCC to keep spamming of these emails to a minimum. All these people may or may not own a WSS from us, but that's immaterial. If they are willing to foster or adopt, an email is the easiest way to contact them privately. So far, I've gotten responses from two people who are interested in fostering two of the dogs. So, hopefully the male and the older non-pregnant female will have foster homes soon. The potential foster families have been advised to complete the application process with Shannon, and if WSS breeders vouch for these people, they will be approved.

Third, I purchased  online pedigrees for all three dogs, so we know their genealogy and the parentage of Belza's unborn puppies, and the dogs behind all these dogs entering rescue. Sometimes a breeder may be willing to step in and help, if they know something out of their line is involved. We are also hopeful that we can obtain the AKC paperwork on these dogs so there is no question regarding ownership. But in the event that doesn't work out, we're at least knowledgeable about the dogs and their relatives.

And lastly, we're trying to set up transport from the boarding kennel where the dogs are being placed to new foster homes. As of right now, we are waiting for the owner to sign paperwork to relinquish the dogs, and I'm still hoping that an experienced WSSCA member in this area may be willing to assume responsibility for Belza and her puppies for fostering, whelping and placement if weather and circumstances conspire to keep Belza here beyond her due date. And, remember, we still need a foster family for Belza after her puppies are whelped.

Stay tuned for updates...the story is not over yet.





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    Sandy, interested in lots of things, master of none. Likes cooking, web site creation, her Nook HD+, Star Trek, Babylon 5, and The Voice.

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