Precious, the Foster Mom

by

Stella Ward Whitlock

When our registered collie delivered thirteen pedigreed puppies, she needed help to nurse them all. After a few nights of round-the-clock bottle feedings, we went to Animal Haven and found a small mixed breed dog whose babies had just been taken from her. Families who wanted puppies had adopted them.

Nobody but us wanted this little mother, but we thought she might make a good wet-nurse, and the attendants assured us that if things didn't work out we could always return her to the shelter.

We kept her outside in a dog pen, bringing her on a leash into the house every three hours, laying her down on the bathroom rug, and holding her head while we carefully attached six hungry puppies to her still-full teats. She growled low in her throat, trying to turn her head to get at these strange babies.

Several days after we had gotten her from the shelter, she slipped past me out of the pen before I could fasten her leash. Oh no, she's gone, I feared, but she headed straight for our back door, whining and scratching to get in.

As soon as I opened the door, she ran to the bathroom where the puppies were waiting. She sniffed them, licked them, and nuzzled them into nursing position, but all the while she seemed to keep up her low, throaty growling. Then suddenly I recognized the sound-she was purring, not growling. This loving little dog must have been raised around cats.

After nursing the puppies, she licked and cleaned each one, doing a much better job than I had been able to do with a warm wet washcloth. Finally she stood up, looked at me, and waited to go back to her pen, motherly mission accomplished and the babies in her care at last.

When weather warmed, we moved the puppies to stay with her in the outside pen, and she raised her six foster children until the day when they were old enough to eat solid food and placed with families who wanted registered puppies.

And by now we loved this little brown-and-white dog so much that we named her Precious and never considered taking her back to Animal Haven. She continued to be protective and loving towards all small, helpless creatures.

Precious guarded and cared for our children, always alert to anything that might pose a threat -crashing waves at the seashore, strangers who appeared on our doorstep, neighborhood dogs that entered our yard, or even their irritated parents. She was our children's constant companion, joining in games of Frisbee in our back yard, neighborhood softball on the field next door, or hikes in the woods behind our house. Later she accompanied them to the school bus stop and on their afternoon newspaper delivery routes.

Precious' maternal instincts extended to other forms of life, not just canine and human. One time she adopted a baby rabbit that had strayed into our yard. It frustrated her by repeatedly hopping away, but she patiently recovered it each time and carried it gently in her mouth back to her doghouse where they nestled together on cool spring evenings until it was old enough to leave her make-shift burrow.

Another time she became foster mother to an abandoned kitten, over whom she stood guard even when the huge German shepherd from next door wanted to eat it. She also protected a baby mockingbird that fell out of its nest before it could fly. She wouldn't allow neighborhood children to handle the fledgling, even when its parents dive-bombed her and pecked her on the head until she bled.

Precious remained part of our family for the next twelve years, a long life for a caring foster mother dog and a loyal canine companion.

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