by Destiny the Pibble
“It was a dark and stormy night…” oh, wait, Mama said I can’t start the story like Snoopy. Drats!
In a cold and dark alley, 10 little pups were found abandoned in a box on November 30, 2019. A good Samaritan discovered them, no mother to be found, so she did what she thought was the right thing and took them to the local animal shelter.
Because of potential disease, a shelter is one of the worst places for puppies to stay—especially two-day old newborns—so the shelter found a foster home, but couldn’t find a mama dog with milk. The foster, Sharon, reached out to my Mama, Sherry, so we sounded the social media alarm and within a couple hours, located one. Aunt Helen and Mama took a road trip (just picture Lucy and Ethel from I Love Lucy and you got ’em pegged) to get the mama dog and deliver her to Sharon.
Well, the little mama had exactly one day’s worth of milk, then she dried up! Now it was panic time. If these pups weren’t fed every couple hours, they’d die, and anyone who’s fostered dogs knows bottle-feeding is time-consuming with one pup, let alone 10 of them! So Mama offered to take the two littlest ones, Aunt Helen took some, and Sharon kept the rest.
Arriving at four- and six ounces respectively, it only took a couple attempts at feeding to realize the littlest guy couldn’t nurse a bottle, no matter what kind Mama bought. And trust me, Mama bought so many baby bottles for animal and human newborns, it looked like a booby factory around here! She was in a panic, so Mama called Dogtor Sarah Gordon at 4 the Animals Veterinary for advice. Dogtor Sarah taught her how to tube feed, so every two hours little man was tube-fed while his brother nursed a bottle. In the meantime, Mama decided to name them. I told her this was a bad idea ’cuz as they say, ‘you name ’em, you keep ’em,’ but she didn’t listen!
Anyways, tiny guy became Buster and the bigger boy, Archie. Well, formally Sgt. Buster G. FancyPants (after Mamaw’s Dad—the Buster part, not the FancyPants, plus Buster G. makes him a BeeGee!) and Sir Archibald P. Sugar (after The Archies song, Sugar ’cuz he’d wiggle his paws every time the song played. Mama is weird, I know!). She introduced us and they were cute, but I stayed in a galaxy far, far away ’cuz—cooties—you know! And besides, they smelled. Like Dr. Grant said in Jurassic Park, “babies smell!”
Our two grew as did Aunt Helen’s, but the other pups weren’t thriving and one had already passed, so Sharon brought them to Mama. We did our best, but lost Olaf on Christmas Eve, Belle passed a few days later, and Jazzy Dancer held on until New Year’s Eve. We were devastated, but kept persevering—there were three littles who still needed us. Walter started improving, so he went over to Aunt Helen, and Luna began picking up weight as well. So now we had three—Buster, Archie, and Luna (officially Luna Priscilla WiggleButt); Aunt Helen had Walter, Sarah Booth, and Tinkie.
So, smooth sailing, right? Yeah, right. Buster started wheezing. Archie started wheezing. Aunt Helen’s pack started wheezing! On antibiotics they went! Before it was all said and done, every single one of the pups became well acquainted with Dogtor Newby, Dogtor Sarah, and being bundled off to the vet if they so much as made a whimper! Mama said she’s never been so thankful to Dogtors Newby and Gordon for helping us save these babies.
There were a lot of sleepless nights and Mama was terrified for weeks, afraid she’d get the tube in wrong or do something stupid, but through it all, we got it done and out of the 10 orphans, six survived. Archie grew up to be a handsome fella, the biggest of the litter, and was adopted by one of Mama’s high school friends, Cheryl. He has a human sister named Hollyanna, a fur sibling called Koda, and is a Kansas City Chiefs fan. Walter and Sarah Booth were adopted together and Tinkie found a great home, too.
Which left Buster and Luna. Ah, what to do, what to do?! I finally told Mama, “Look, I’ve not had a playmate since Jazzy passed, so I think you need to adopt them for me.” So I’m happy to say I’m the proud big sister to these two little squirts! They only have a little cooties now. Orphans no more, Buster and Luna are finally home.
Watch The Dodo video featuring Destiny and the Orphans: https://fb.watch/33_-aQGCeM/
Love Ms. Destiny and the now year old babies! Thank you for sharing their story again.
By the way, you did a great job, Ms. Destiny…you, too, Mama Sherry!