p.1 #1 · Newfoundland Puppies at 5 weeks: Fostering Experience
An adult female Newfoundland was found wandering by Animal Control in rural Ohio. In the hands of Newfoundland Rescue, the female was found to be carrying a litter of 16. The mother was cared for by a Rescue member, and the litter was whelped with 13 puppies surviving. Deanna and I have taken two males, with the intent that we foster the males for 2 months or more. While we are hugely devoted to our Leonbergers and Newfoundlands, we'd never bred a female, nor had we even cared for puppies as young as 5 weeks. We accurately had the sense to know fostering the two puppies would be a commitment of some significance, and it's proved to be that.
p.1 #3 · Newfoundland Puppies at 5 weeks: Fostering Experience
#1 in the "AHhhh" factor and a great, but sad story, outcome. I don't not understand the mentality of humans who just "dump" animals when they become a burden or out live their cuteness. AS I stated in another post about animals, if there a "hereafter", I hope that animals will be the ones allowing humans into that realm. Then these jerks will get their just due!
I commend you and your wife for allowing these beautiful children into your home and loving them. Newfouldlands are just not the average muts(no disrespect to the muts). They are a top shelf breed.
If Suzanne and I can help in anyway(costs), PM me! I would gladly apply to adopt one but I have lost all my children and the emotional scars left by their departure from this earth have left part of my soul empty. I cannot bear that again! After many years for one and the anniversaries for the other 2 upcoming, this becomes even more upsetting!
Again, God Bless you and Deanna John for your kindness and generosity. These are beautiful!
Dan
p.1 #4 · Newfoundland Puppies at 5 weeks: Fostering Experience
Dan, Thanks for your comments. We'll never know the history, I suspect, of why a female so close to delivery would have been unattended. Newfound Rescue, a well organized and diligent group, could not find the female's owner, so it's a puzzle if a less scrupulous breeder would have neglected her so close to *revenue time*.
Newfound Rescue will home these thirteen dogs once they are adequately mature. Since they appear as pure breed puppies, and will be nourished and groomed, placing the puppies at 12-18 weeks may not be difficult.
Your offer to donate is touching, but Rescue has funding for exactly these purposes. Thank you.
The injury we experience when they leave is intense and hard to explain. My work as a physician puts me in position to see the damage families experience, and never recover from in some cases, after losing a child. Deanna and I don't have children so I'll never experience anything of that gravity, but I do understand the wounds you talk about. Our coping has been to keep moving with new canine family members.
p.1 #5 · Newfoundland Puppies at 5 weeks: Fostering Experience
John Caldwell wrote:
Dan, Thanks for your comments. We'll never know the history, I suspect, of why a female so close to delivery would have been unattended. Newfound Rescue, a well organized and diligent group, could not find the female's owner, so it's a puzzle if a less scrupulous breeder would have neglected her so close to *revenue time*.
Newfound Rescue will home these thirteen dogs once they are adequately mature. Since they appear as pure breed puppies, and will be nourished and groomed, placing the puppies at 12-18 weeks may not be difficult.
Your offer to donate is touching, but Rescue has funding for exactly these purposes. Thank you.
The injury we experience when they leave is intense and hard to explain. My work as a physician puts me in position to see the damage families experience, and never recover from in some cases, after losing a child. Deanna and I don't have children so I'll never experience anything of that gravity, but I do understand the wounds you talk about. Our coping has been to keep moving with new canine family members.
John Caldwell...Show more →
We are 72 and afraid that if something happens to us, any child we have would go un cared for. Hence our reluctance at a new child. I have no natural human children..my wife has 2 daughters. These 3 children were mine. The loss is too great for me.
Thanks!
Dan
p.1 #7 · Newfoundland Puppies at 5 weeks: Fostering Experience
They are adorable! Many thanks to you and your wife for taking on their care.
Like Dan, I will never understand how someone can just dump an animal, or in some cases, leave it behind to fend for itself after vacating a home.
Our shelter child was found at about 3 months old wandering the streets of a nearby city. Was apparently discarded because of a bad eye, that ultimately we had to have removed. She (Sophie) has paid us back a hundred times with love and affection.
.
p.1 #8 · Newfoundland Puppies at 5 weeks: Fostering Experience
Beautiful testimonial here, Fred. Yes, like you, we're real aware of the ways we benefit selfishly from the dogs. We'll see how our attachment to the foster puppies goes, but I think we're pretty sober about not over extending what we can offer long term.
p.1 #9 · Newfoundland Puppies at 5 weeks: Fostering Experience
First of all, adorable pictures. Second, thank you for being a foster family until these beautiful little pups find their forever homes. I will never understand how or why people could ever think a pet is disposable. We are on our 4th rescue pet, a beautiful border collie we named Libby. Her original owner was going to shoot her when she was about a year old because she wasn't smart enough so another family member said they would take her. They lived in an apartment and tied her to a tree. Fortunately someone spotted her after a couple weeks and she ended up at Border Collie Rescue of Minnesota. Our previous rescue dog had died a year earlier and I couldn't take not having a dog. It wasn't hard to convince my wife that Libby was going to be ours. Crazy smart and an absolute joy to be around. Lucky, the cat, is a rescue as well. We named him Lucky because he won the lottery when he came to be part of our family.
The heartbreak of loss is devastating, whether human or otherwise. My 46 year old sister died from a brain aneurysm and my brother died by suicide in June. The pain is immeasurable but we find a way to go on. However, grief is personal and I respect that.
p.1 #10 · Newfoundland Puppies at 5 weeks: Fostering Experience
A testimony to the unselfishness of some people! Fred, God Bless you and your family!
Terrance...likewise! A beautiful child and a sad life's story! They are in a far better place than we are!
For me this is the hardest time of year for grief! I anxiously await our re-uniting!
Dan
p.1 #13 · Newfoundland Puppies at 5 weeks: Fostering Experience
Thanks for the interest shown here. I thank those who have used this discussion to share such personal and touching stories. We come to photography by a range of paths.
Deanna and I are enough involved with the Newfoundland and Leonberger working activities, and on a national level, that it's arguably not selfless that we foster these two puppies. We have tons of skin in the game of deriving deep relationships with our working dogs, and collaborate with others who do the same.
I will admit that the fostering of 5 week old puppies has been every moment the work we imagined, what with bathroom and bedroom etiquette quite so early in development, and no mother to teach the puppies such behaviors.
Our impression is that these two puppies are well pedigreed, and appear as pure breed Newfoundlands. For that reason, forever home placement will not be difficult. This experience has given me pangs to consider how different matters would be if, just as an example, this was a Pit Bull litter, where placement would be comparatively difficult.
AS I stated in another post about animals, if there a "hereafter", I hope that animals will be the ones allowing humans into that realm. Then these jerks will get their just due!
After many years for one and the anniversaries for the other 2 upcoming, this becomes even more upsetting!
You & Deanna's love for our 'best friends' is exemplary and these Newfoundlands are in great hands. BTW: how is Anchor doing?