Mama was pulled on her last day from a Georgia kill shelter that gasses animals, along with 70 other dogs and puppies.  They were brought to my little horse property in Sandwich.  She was only a puppy herself, heavily pregnant and very underweight.  I kept her separate from the other dogs and she was very shy, always keeping her ears plastered against her head, but watching my every move.  She wanted to be near me and would find me if I was out of her sight.  She was obedient and right away started answering to her temporary name Mama.  Once her puppies were born she was very proud of them and seemed so happy to show them off to me.  She was also very protective of them and did not allow other people or dogs near them.  One pup was stillborn and one was very underweight and did not survive more than 12 hours, so she was left with a family of five.  If I went out in the yard she would come outside and grab my hand or arm in her mouth and drag me back to her puppies and not let go until I sat with her.  After about a week, one after another the puppies were falling ill and refusing to nurse.   The second vet I took them to over the weekend realized they had a herpes virus and put down the two she examined.  She instructed me to take the last 3 surviving puppies to my vet to be put down on Monday morning.  My vet looked at the puppies and said one was not showing any signs of the disease and said to take her home, but added, "I'll probably see you tomorrow."  The puppy was 2 weeks old, too young yet to form a fever that would kill the virus.  Puppies can form a fever at 3 weeks old.  It was July and hot and I hoped that maybe the heat would help her.  Every day she kept nursing (the first sign is refusing to eat) and I hoped the hot weather was helping to keep the virus from multiplying in her tiny body.  Three days later she started coughing.  Many of the dogs were coming down with a bad form of kennel cough that was turning into pneumonia.  I went back to the vet for a liquid antibiotic but I was preparing myself for the worst.  But she kept nursing and when she was 18 days old I dared to hope she would make it to three weeks, and when she did, I believed she would beat all the odds against her.  At four weeks she defecated and vomited a large amount of worms and I went back to the vet for wormer.  I decided I would always keep Mama and her daughter Migraine because the pair of them were miracles of survival and I never wanted either one of them to end up in a shelter again.  Mama also helped decide her own future when she took my hand in her mouth and lead me to her puppies.  How could any resolve not melt along with my heart.


Mama never got renamed.  Migraine is twice her size and got the name because she was the 9th dog in my household.  She does try to live up to it though.  They will be 7 and 8 years old this Summer 2011.

---

Migraine