My wife and I took advantage of the current stay-at-home situation and decided to foster a dog. A little over a month ago, we picked up Lady, a 3 year old Norwegian Elkhound from the SPCA in Fredericksburg, VA. Initially we were planning to foster her temporarily so she could recover from kennel cough before she would go to a family that had already planned to adopt her. Once she was done with her treatment, we found out that the family had changed their minds and was not going to be taking her after all. Lady is an incredible dog, super sweet, smart, and very laid back for being on the younger side. We decided we’d like to keep her and give her a forever home.

Lady, pic from a couple of weeks after she came to our home

Before we would be able to adopt, Lady needed to be spayed. While she was at the clinic, they discovered that she was approximately 45 days pregnant. We brought her back home and patiently waited for the puppies to arrive. This past Friday evening, she gave birth to the first puppy in our home but then was unable to get the second one out. We ended up having to take her to the clinic for an emergency c-section. The surgery went well and less than two hours later, we were on our way back home with Lady and six newborn puppies!

The puppies have all been doing well, getting plenty of milk and sleep, and Lady is also doing great, though we can tell she is exhausted and seemingly hungry/thirsty all the time, no matter how much she eats and drinks.

Per the foster guidelines, we’re supposed to hold on to the pups and keep them with their mother for 4-5 weeks. Hopefully things aren’t too insane but I’ll probably share some more puppy patrol updates over the next few weeks. If you’re interested in fostering or adopting, please check out your local SPCA and other animal shelters. Thanks for reading.