11/22/2020
On September 22nd, Berkeley Animal Center posted a VERY pregnant momma in need of a safe place to have her babies. I had taken that week off of work to get some things done around the house, when I saw her sad eyes all my house projects went out the window and I was on the way to Berkeley. She had been picked up by animal control because her and her friends were chasing some neighborhood cats. In addition to being REALLY pregnant, she was scared, timid and submissive, she clearly had not had the best life up to this point. She reluctantly got in my car and although we only knew each other a few minutes, she had no choice but to trust me, she climbed onto my lap, and squished all 50+ pounds of her between me and the steering wheel, she put her head on my shoulder and that is where she stayed for the hour long drive home. She had her belly pressed up against mine and all I felt was kicking puppies, it was just incredible! We arrived home and she was greeting by three incredibly excited kiddos. She found herself a nice spot in the backyard under the kids treehouse, she had absolutely no intension of coming inside, she clearly had many litters of puppies most likely in the woods, I guess the treehouse felt safe to her. After a few hours we were able to coax her in the house with some food. Our Boxers Max and Ruby showed her the ropes. Our daughter suggested we call her CC, short for Cookie’s Crew, and all her babies would be named after cookies, does it get any sweeter? See what I did there 😜
That 1st night we made her a bed on the floor next to ours, she was so exhausted she slept for 9 hrs straight, I don’t think she even changed positions. Less than 24 hours after her arrival her temp dropped, she was restless, and stopped eating, CC was in labor. On September 24th, at 10:30pm we were sitting on the couch and CC began to push, we quickly got her birthing pool, Max and Ruby were on either side of her, she seemed to like the support. Within a few minutes the first pup, Snickerdoodle (now named Snicker) was born, next came Cookie Dough (now Hilo), every 15-30 mins for the next 2 hours another puppy was born, at 1am the 9th and final pup was born. We got CC cleaned up and settled her and her little family in for the night. Sadly when we checked on them in the morning, one pup had passed, everyone else was doing well and looked happy and healthy.
A few days after birth CC became increasingly more protective of her pups, we moved her and the babies upstairs to give her some space from the boxers. That first week she only left them to go potty and she’d run right back inside. Over the next few weeks she was a great momma to her 8 babies. She didn’t like my babies all that much, but we understood she was just being a good momma! Around week three she was willing to take walks with me, her and I would take a nice long walk, which gave the kids time to snuggle the puppies. CC absolutely knew what we were up to, whenever she came in from a walk she had to give all eight pups a thorough bath to get the human smell off them.
Here we are at eight weeks and all of CC’s cookies have found their fur-ever homes! Each adoptive family is more than we could have ever hoped for!! In addition to having the pleasure of helping CC and her babies in their time of need, we have made some great friends, and have had so many teachable moments with our kiddos! We have absolutely loved being part of CC and her cookies journey and we look forward to having a sibling reunion in the near future!
Now that all of her pups are taken care of, it’s CC’s turn! CC and 20 of her closest Berkeley shelter friends headed to Ohio on Thursday, CC is going to a foster home who will likely adopt her once she finishes treatment for heart worms, most importantly she will be spayed, so she doesn’t find herself in this situation again!!!
