I know many of you enjoy news from Heart Animal Rescue, the dog rescue that I volunteer with so I thought I would give you the latest update. Do you remember that we had a pregnant cocker spaniel momma who had come to the rescue in the same surrender that I had Bianca in? Well, that momma was named Brandi and she had her pups last week.

Sadly, it isn’t the story I wish I could tell. She had three puppies. They came by emergency C-section in the middle of the night. One died immediately or was born dead. One, the one on the left, was born with a cleft pallet. The one on the right is healthy as far as we know.


We don’t have the means to care for a pup with a cleft pallet so that guy was shipped out and is now with a neo-natal rescue that has a lot of experience with a pup in this condition.
The healthy pup is doing okay but momma isn’t interested in her pup leaving the foster volunteer with the job of bottle feeding. She had tried and tried to get them to work together and it hasn’t been very successful…and mom really doesn’t want to be a mom…so it’s been determined that this little gal is likely going to have to be bottle-fed throughout her nursing time. It’s been a bit of a sad experience but the pup is still doing okay. We are thankful for that.
We are so blessed to have a great foster home for this momma and pup. I can’t imagine getting up in the night to feed this little one but the volunteer has been awesome. As I said, we are so blessed to have her.
Below the pup is snuggling up to one of the crinkle toys a blog reader donated from the Amazon list. You can find the list HERE if anyone is interested in seeing the foster needs. Many thanks to all who have donated goodies.

Our hope is that this little one can thrive and grow. We are also hoping momma can recover from surgery and find a good home where she can be loved and live out her days away from the puppy mill without having to birth continual litters. Momma is six and will be looking for her forever home. If anyone has patience and experience with puppy mill dogs, Brandi would love for you to apply for her. HERE is the link to HEART Animal Rescue website where applications are located.
In other news from the foster rescue…
Someone contacted the rescue a bit ago and was to surrender this bunch. Well, actually they were looking for a place for nine of the 11 puppies. It was said the pups there were wanting to surrender were a German Shepherd/Poodle mix. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what that mix would look like. Here is the picture the rescue was sent. Well, that isn’t at all what I expected!! They are white and don’t have curly hair!!

This birth was the result of not realizing their male who was under a year old, could breed the mom. The end result was 11 puppies.
These are all from the same litter. Again, they are a poodle/German Shepherd mix. They are expected to larger dogs.
This request for fosters came in a couple of weeks ago. We scrambled trying to find fosters for the 9 pups they wanted to surrender. For us, that’s a big task. Well, then we didn’t hear from the owners so we assumed they found homes for them. We were contacted again about two weeks later. The family found homes for three of them so now we are getting six in the surrender.
Two are coming to my house. I have named my two Daphne and Velma. I have two females. Another volunteer is taking two females and two males are going to yet another volunteer. I’m hoping we can find homes for everyone. I’m told that they are already over 20 pounds so they will be the biggest pups I’ve fostered.
My two have vet appointments to be spayed on Wednesday. A few days after that they will be ready for adoption. I’m hoping we can find homes for these quickly as there is another bunch of pups waiting in the wings for foster homes. It seems we could always use a few more foster homes…we do the best we can but we are a small group.
I was happy to have a break but happy to have puppies again.
Please if you haven’t, spay and neuter your dogs…Accidental litters happen too often.
Eleven puppies in one litter! Oh my! They all look healthy and quite cute – pretty color. I’m like you thinking they should more curls in their fur. I sure hope they all get their forever homes soon.
Hi Jo,
I am sending you a box of dog collars and leads, they are gently used but have been washed and dried. They are all a larger size but I am assuming that the rescue group gets larger dogs like you currently are showing once in awhile. Hopefully they will be of use.
Having rescued a puppy mill breeder (she stopped having healthy puppies), I can tell you that they are truly damaged animals. She was 6 1/2 years old we were told but in the 6+ years we had her, she never became what I would call normal. She was close to normal in bed with us at night, but was a nervous wreck until the day she died. She had been kicked, thrown and who knows what else so we relied on our other dog (both were miniature schnauzers) to teach her the basics. We had to stand behind the door for her to go outside for quite a while. She was the sweetest little girl ever–she only ever growled at our male, never a peep to a person. She had a lot of quirks, but we loved her. If you have never rescued a puppy mill adult dog, please know that they are probably going to have “issues.” It’s hard to understand how people can be so cruel to innocent animals.
Cute names – were the others Scooby, Shaggy etc??
Jo, I’m in a position to be able to help Heart Animal Rescue and will be sending them a check tomorrow. My concern is with the little angel with the cleft issue. I’d also like to help them. Could you please provide their contact info too? Thanks in advance
Thanks so much Pat. The donation was VERY appreciated.
I wish everyone would spay or neuter their pets. Trying to find homes for all the babies is a big job. I’m always worried if some go into a cycle of being passed along. Thank you for what you are doing. I think it’s wonderful. Hugs,
Where are uou located. I can bottle feed baby. I’d love too
We are in NE Iowa based out of Decorah.
Where are you guys located
We are in NE Iowa based out of Decorah.