A belly full of puppies (and pellets): one foster dog's story

A Picture Of My Dog

Another Picture Of My Dog

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admin - Catherine Mabe

This story is the final part in a three-part series about The Foster Experience. Check out "The foster experience" to read the beginning of the story.

Cindy Morris used to cry when she thought of all the abuse one of her foster dogs, a 30-pound cattle dog known as “Yuma Momma Dog,” must have suffered before being rescued by Arizona-based New Hope Cattle Dogs Rescue & Rehoming. “She must have been through it all in her young life,” Cindy, a veteran foster parent for New Hope, says.

Cindy’s emotions are understandable considering the dog’s state when the two met: an x-ray revealed the malnourished momma dog was not only carrying a litter of puppies in her belly but also 18 buckshot pellets. The rescue’s trusted veterinarian recommended leaving the pellets in place since they were healed over and no longer painful, but blood work revealed another problem: the dog had heart worms and, without treatment, they could be fatal.

New Hope used money from donations and past adoption fees to provide the care needed, but the treatment was quite painful. After going through it for over a month, the momma dog’s heart worm test finally came back negative. But there was something else the x-rays and blood work couldn’t detect: the pregnant dog harbored a lot of fear and sometimes took it out on other dogs. “This particular foster was difficult from the start. She was ‘the fun patrol,’” Cindy explains. “None of my own dogs could play together without agitating her and making her very aggressive. She didn’t and still doesn’t know how to play. She was a working dog only.”

Cindy knew these issues combined with the dog’s health problems would make finding her a forever home that much more difficult. “In addition to being the only dog in a household, she needed to be somewhere quiet and restful,” Cindy says. The first step in the process was giving the momma dog a real name. One of the smaller breeds of Australian Cattle Dog (ACD), the momma dog had a pretty blue speckled coat with a “mask” around both eyes. She also had a nice big black spot on her butt, no tail (not even a stump) and a very affectionate nature when it came to people. Because of her ample build and lack of any tail any all, the momma dog looked like she was wearing fluffy black cutoffs over her voluptuous back end — that’s how she earned the name: Dayzee Duke!

The next step in Dayzee’s road to adoption was to work on some of her behavioral issues. Dayzee followed Cindy everywhere she went and had an inexplicable need to almost be on top of her at all times. This is when Cindy reached out to New Hope for advice and began putting some behavioral techniques to work for Dayzee, including some of the tenets of the Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF) approach to dog behavior.

Pet Parents should always consult their veterinarian and a licensed training professional before embarking on any training program and with advice from the trusted team at New Hope, Cindy made great progress with Dayzee through the effort. The program centers on the premise that the dog doesn’t get attention on demand. For instance, if Dayzee was hungry, she was instructed to sit before her bowl was put down. Going for a walk or a ride meant sitting down while having a lead put on and remaining seated while the front door was opened. “Everyone in the household has to be on board for training to work,” Cindy said. Because her husband and daughter also signed on to help Dayzee understand her place in the pack hierarchy, the family was successful at quelling some of the dog’s insecurities.

Vets estimated Dayzee’s age to be 2 years old at the time of her rescue in November 2007. Even though she was still so young herself, on Thanksgiving day, she gave birth to her litter of five boys and one girl (Dachs, Deaglan, Dermot, Domino, Dugal and Duchess). New Hope volunteers were worried that, because Dayzee was so malnourished throughout much of her pregnancy, the pup’s health would be compromised. But only one suffered any issues — Dachs’ eyes didn’t develop as expected and he eventually had to have one of them removed. All of the other puppies were adopted out and now Dachs is ready for a forever home as well.

Despite the victories Dayzee experienced through training and the birth of her brood, Cindy knew that Dayzee would have to be an only dog once adopted. “That’s always a hard placement since most people like to have more than one dog,” Cindy says. But it wasn’t an impossible one: Dayzee found her forever family in June 2008 when her new Pet Parent, Shawni, visited the New Hope website and saw a photo of Dayzee. Shawni grew up with cattle dogs and Dayzee looks just like one of her own that had passed away. In addition, Shawni works from home, which is perfect for Dayzee who loves to be around her people as much as possible. In addition, Dayzee also now lives with two cats. “Shawni calls Dayzee ‘the shadow,’” Cindy says. “Dayzee is right at home. What a perfect match.”

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