We don't do anything the easy way...

We got a new dog. A while ago.  JT found a 2 year-old purebreed german shepherd that he fell in love with her.  She's 100% an outdoor dog and so the 3 of us are happy with the situation. That is, we WERE...

Meet Liberty!

Meet Liberty's puppies!

Yep. That's right. The previous owners gave her to us already PREGNANT.  We honestly didn't know.  She likes to lay back inbetween some trees and quit jumping up to meet JT.  He figured she was tired and hot from the summer weather.  JT had no reason to suspect pregnancy.  Come on now, neither of us have ever even been around pregnant dogs, much less puppies!  So last Monday night JT finally noticed her "udders" were drooping and figured it out. All Tuesday we googled serious questions about dog labor and then some ridiculous questions like "how do you make your dog not go into labor?"  We laughed hysterically more out of stress than actual humor. All at once I felt my stomach twist into knots and I told JT that I thought she was going to be having the puppies that night.  Unfortunately, we both laughed this prompting off.  Lesson learned.
Our neighbor Diana is super smart about dogs and came over to walk us through the preparations.  JT went outside to bring Liberty in to prepare a "nest" for her.  He came sprinting back to the house to tell us she had already had her puppies!  ALL THIRTEEN OF THEM.
From that point on, things have been pretty touch and go.  Liberty is HIGH anxiety and keeps thinking her puppies are in danger.  She doesn't lay down long enough for her babies to eat or to even keep them warm.  It's so sad because all she wants to do is to protect them but she's being her own worst enemy.  We finally were able to lock her in the bathtub with them and she sometimes calms down now....but only sometimes.

Since Liberty wasn't feeding her babies, we had to.

The problem is that JT is the only person she explicitly trusts with her puppies.  She has nipped at Diana and even bitten me (not hard. It was just a warning).  So when he's gone at work 8 hours of the day there is no one able to feed the puppies.  They need to eat every 2 hours...

 

It's now been 5 days since the puppies were born and 6 are left.  We've dealt with losing puppies, sleepless nights, Liberty destroying our home (ripping curtains down, bleeding and peeing, jumping on things, ripping and shredding things), Liberty slamming her body into doors, Delilah having a fever, and JT's birthday party all in the same week.  Thank goodness for wonderful friends.  Jenny and Jason took the twins for 2 days, Anna has come over to help and spent time with me, Diana is constantly helping with the puppies (in fact, she's taken them all for the next 3 days to try and get them healthy), our neighbor Tricia has also come to help and provided us with supplies and knowledge, and my dad tracked down the leader of a german shepherd rescue group in New Mexico.  THANK YOU ALL! 

 

Say a prayer for our remaining 6 puppies if you can.  As of 2 hours ago they were beginning to get cold and had lost the strength to eat...