Sometimes when we don't have a JRT litter in our house we foster dogs for New Hope dog rescue. I firmly believe that we as breeders need to recognize that no matter how responsible our own breeding programs are we still contribute to the pet overpopulation problem. No matter the reason, or noble the goal, we a producing puppies in a market that is saturated with displaced and homeless dogs. Although our programs are necessary to preserve and improve our respective breeds, and we place puppies with great care, I believe we should acknowledge some accountability for the countless dogs out there that came from less responsible breeders.
When a message arrived in my inbox one night about a new mother and her 2 day old puppies freezing in the damp, cold, Saskatchewan fall weather I couldn't help but volunteer to bring her to our house. Even though we have a JRT litter on the way we are completely set up to handle whelping, early litter care, and young puppies and she had no where to go. After confirming that she had no communicable diseases, so as not to put any of our dogs at risk, she came to Inseguire with her 6 four day old puppies. Well what an experience it has been! We named the momma Tasha and she has gone from a completely feral dog to one that wags her tail whenever we look at her and gingerly comes over to where you are and sits waiting for a pat. This type of transformation is not entirely new to us, we have fostered may homeless and unwanted dogs, what has been the real new experience has been the 6, medium sized, extraordinarily busy collie x puppies. These little guys at 5 weeks are half the size of my 12" JRT and twice as busy. They love being with people and will cry in protest until you bring them out of thier pen. They can already crawl into the toy box and pull out every, and I mean every, toy in there. But despite all the mayhem they cause they are extraordinary sweet and look for hands, feet, laps, anything that smells like people, when it is time to sleep.
They have been fantastic playmates for Cali and with 6 of them the odds are pretty even. Cali will run around chasing one, another will pursue ad grab her tail or leg and when she turns wound to see the original puppy pounces. She thinks this is just about the greatest game ever and will roll onto he back or even crawl across the floor to entice them to play. All of this is much to my relief as she had never experienced young puppies before and I was hoping she would enjoy the JRT puppies we are expecting. All in all these little guys have been a wonderful experience and even though they bring the number of dogs into our house to 10 we are enjoying every one of these precious few moments of puppyhood we have with them.
