Look Who Came To Meet Us Today!

I'd just finished getting the goat food pan done and Mark whispered "look Rose" and I looked up to see 3 puppies skedaddling around the corner of the barn, and heading for the goat food pan!. I immediately started doing the dog food pan with dry and canned food and put that down, and they dived right on in!

Mama then came sauntering around the corner and sat by my car, watching them eat. They were so hungry they didn't care that I started stroking them. It was amazing!

I'm so proud of the stray mama for bringing them over. She looked at us like "ok, I've done my bit, here they are".

She waited for them to finish eating and then started eating herself, and then the puppies came back and were eating with her. Meanwhile, the one that we think is probably Mama's sister, came and ate from the other pan that we'd put farther out. She is not yet as trusting of us. 

This is the runt of the litter. It's the only girl, and her brothers bullied her a bit while eating, so we've brought her home with us and have a 3pm appointment with the vet for shots, deflea (I bathed her in Dawn and got rid of a lot but I think there are still a few left) and a general check up, and to enquire about the cost of spaying. We're going to try to find a home for her through the vet office.

This is one of her brothers, and even well fed, he is still scrawny. He's the growly one when they eat. His twin is more complacent. 

The other boy, slightly less gregarious, bit more timid as can be seen by the ears back, but happily sat near my feet and looked up at me.

Well-fed, they just collapsed in a heap near my feet and zonked. We'd have liked to have grabbed all the puppies but it would have been too much today. We were in my car and no pet carrier, because this was totally unexpected. I'm hoping to get the others over the next few days, and maybe it's better for Mama if we take them one at a time.

Then, it'll be asking help trapping Mama and her sister

so that they can be vetted and spayed, and returned to the property. They seem happy here and I worry how they'd fare in a shelter situation, so they can come back, live as they have done on our property and be fed and cared for by us ... with no possibility of future puppies!

Definitely a surprise today, and so thankful it happened, because I had honestly worried about how I'd ever find Mama's puppies, and I wanted to make sure they'd be ok before trying to trap Mama and her sister.