Zoe 2

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Updated 1/13/07: Zoe is an incredibly affectionate springer. She enjoys sleeping on the sofa near her foster parents and is always up for an ear rub and a cuddle. She absolutely loves to be walked and gets excited the minute she hears a leash or sees the door open. Zoe is fine off of a leash too. She doesn’t run or get distracted and immediately responds to her name when she hears it. She likes to have a nice cozy place to sleep and loves the big dog bed at her foster family’s home. She is very attentive and always lets her people know if someone is coming up the driveway or is at the door.

Zoe is fine with other dogs and does not exhibit any food aggression. She doesn’t bother the cats. However, she does have a tendency to get into the litter boxes and the cat food. Should she go to a forever home with cats, this is something to be aware of. Zoe rides well in the car and is a star patient at the veterinarian’s office. She is not bothered by the vacuum cleaner, washer, or other appliances and has no issues with stairs or being left to enjoy the backyard for a bit by herself. Overall, she is a wonderful and calm dog who would be a nice and peaceful addition to any household. With her last litter of puppies well on their way, she will soon be ready to join her own forever family…………..

Updated 12/10/06: In just a few days Zoe’s puppies will be one month old. The whole crew is doing great. Zoe is eating regularly now and is up to about eight cups of puppy food a day. She’s producing plenty of milk to keep her growing babies well fed. At 3 weeks, each pup had grown to 3 pounds or more which is quite big for their age. At that time Zoe was still nursing full-time but soon the puppies will be starting on solid food and she can think about weaning them. Also, important is that Zoe is gaining much needed weight herself and is feeling better and better each day.

Zoe has been an excellent mother to these beautiful puppies and, though they won’t need her for nourishment much longer, they will need some guidance and occasional discipline as they become more active and each one’s individual personality emerges. More on Zoe as she moves through motherhood one last time……………..

Updated 11/26/06: Zoe’s babies are a little over a week old and the four remaining puppies are thriving. They made a trip to the vet to have their tails docked and dew claws removed. The puppies didn’t seem too keen on the whole experience, but they settled down quickly for the trip back home. Everyone at the vet’s office had to stop by to “ooh” and “aah” over how cute they are. They were a bit fussy that evening but had settled down again by the next day to enjoy their life of eating and sleeping.

They are all growing like crazy, especially the black tri-colored puppies, who have all nearly doubled in size since they were born. Xia was a bit slower to start gaining steadily, but she has put on quite a bit of weight in the past 48 hours. All of them are nursing strongly whenever they get the chance, and they are starting get down right fat. If they keep eating as much as they have been, their foster mom isn’t sure they’re going to be able to walk when the time comes.

Zoe’s still quite thin, and it’s very important that she eat as much as possible right now. She’s turned her nose up at dog food since the babies were born, so she’s been eating like a queen………all sorts of yummy things, whatever will tempt her appetite. Her favorite is liver with goat’s milk, but she also enjoys scrambled eggs. She does seem to be putting on a little weight with ribs and hip bones becoming covered a little better.

She is a fabulous mom. Zoe is doing a great job of feeding and cleaning the babies and keeping them happy. She had to be dragged away from the babies in order to go outside for the first few days, but now will leave them when they are sleeping to take a break and seek out attention from the people around her.

She’s a real love bug. She adores being petted and will paw at your hand to say “keep going” when you try to stop. She’s very gentle with the puppies, although she does have an unfortunate tendency to sit or lie on them occasionally. Fortunately, the puppies protest loudly when this happens and they can be rescued before they get squished. As they get a little bigger, this becomes much less of a concern.

The puppies are still spending all their time eating and sleeping. They’re getting better at figuring out where Zoe is and getting to a nipple on their own, so they’re doing less complaining which is allowing their foster mom to sleep a little more……she can actually get 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night this week!

More as these Thanksgiving arrivals continue to grow…………….

Original: Zoe is one of 5 springers who were surrendered to MAESSR by a breeder when she decided to downsize her breeding program. Thankfully, a volunteer who is very experienced with the needs of an expectant mother was available to welcome Zoe because Zoe was in the late stage of pregnancy when she arrived at her foster home.

Within just a few days, Zoe began to whelp her litter and delivered 6 precious little tri-colored puppies, 3 boys and 3 girls. The first puppy born, a little boy, was very small, did not begin to nurse well and had a deformed leg. He steadily declined and, despite the intervention of a vet, was lost. The next born and next smallest, a little girl, had a rough start and was also lost. The good news is that the remaining four are healthy, happy puppies!!! They are nursing vigorously and already gaining weight. Under the watchful eyes of both Zoe and her foster mom, these puppies are thriving and truly little wonders to behold.

Names were needed for Zoe’s new family and, in the spirit of the season, it was fitting that a Thanksgiving theme be used. After a flurry of emails and great suggestions, each puppy was named. One little boy is Tom Turkey, as no one could resist the lighter side of such a choice. Another male is Winthrop, named after a man who helped draft the first Thanksgiving resolution for Congress in 1774. The male puppy who was lost was named Vaiveahtoish, which is Cherokee for “alights on a cloud.” Unity II reflects the spirit of the original feast as does the name of another female pup, Xia, which is Greek for welcoming or hospitable. Yoki, the last little female, was given a Hopi name which means “rain,” particularly fitting as she was buried by her foster family on a rainy afternoon. As the puppies grow and begin to show their individual personalities, their webpages will be completed and, of course, pictures will be coming.

Zoe’s reputation for wonderful temperament preceded her becoming a MAESSR gal and it is fully expected that she will have passed that to this litter as surely as her distinctive coloring. She’ll be able to raise her pups in a warm, safe home until they are ready for adoption themselves and with that task done, she will retire from motherhood into a forever home of her own………….truly there is much to be thankful for in this one little rescue.