More bottle pups

Boy, do I love me some bottle pups- from a distance, of course!  Well that’s a lie, I like to get up close and personal with them.  Sniff their puppy breath, rub their bellies, let them canoodling in my arms…. BUT I like to give them back.

It sure does take a special person to handle a litter of bottle pups.  Unfortunately, when a litter like these 5 adorable pups show up alone, or with a mother that can’t (or isn’t) caring for them, their only chance of survival is going to a skilled and knowledgeable foster home who (this is the kicker) is WILLING to raise them, as their mama, for the next few weeks.

Do you have any idea what that means?!  I sure didn’t, until I started taking pictures of the first litter of bottle pups I posted.  It means, at first, feeding them every two hours, even over night!   Just like a newborn human.  Unlike a human though, there are 5 mouths to feed, not one.  It means doing laundry, every single day.  Stinky laundry.  When puppies are very young, their mothers do all the feeding and cleaning, so a mama with a litter is usually a whole lot easier to care for then a litter without a mama.  You care for the mama, the mama cares for the pups, done deal!  But, no mama?  Tough luck.  These pups need cleaning up around the clock (who’s going to invent puppy diapers?!)

I was unsuccessful at getting all 5 to look at me at any point – still cute though!

These little cuties also happen to have a pretty bad case of kennel cough- that’s rough when you’re only 3 weeks old.  Luckily, our fabulous MABB puppy extraordinaire is there to look out for these snotty, whiney, soft, cuddly balls of fur until they are ready to be adopted!  They are somewhere between 3 and 4 weeks old right now, so hopefully in a month or so they will be healthy, well socialized, exuberant 8-week old pups!  Keep an eye out for these fabulous five in a month or so!

The three boys

Handsome chuncker!

Fostermama’s favorite, the lil runt…such a sweety!