Shanna 07-245 [1]

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Good morning from an exhausted 3 year old named Shanna and her 10 pups plus Toes.  Shanna made it to Apple Valley sometime during the middle of the night.  Let’s just tell you this little angel’s story.

Shanna left her home with 35 other Golden Retrievers.  The transport group left at 11:00 Saturday morning with a caravan of three cars.  Shanna was getting so much love and comfort she decided that at 4:45 she would start having her puppies – yep, on the transport to Minnesota.  So her guardian angels (Maria and Bonnie) pulled off to the side of the road to get Nurse Bonnie in the back to help mom.  The birthing process begins.  Bonnie is in this tight little cramped area helping mom give birth to four more pups – so a total of 5 by 7:50.  Bonnie and Maria arrive at Golden Valley Animal Humane Society where Dr. A. and Dr. G. are waiting for them so they can look at Shanna and decide what is best for her and the pups.

The decision is made to get her to an emergency room, so we load her up in foster moms’ car with three helpers, and off we go.  We arrive to take a picture and find out how many more pups – that would be 6 more to go.  A shot is given to see if that will help.  The doctors and nurses tell us to go ahead and just do everything knowing they are outside the door if we need them.  Two more are born 20 minutes apart.  A second shot is given at 10:50 – a little boy is born at 11:01 and does not make it.  Tears are flowing in the room; we tried our best and handed this little ½ pound boy over to the vet tech and tell her we need just a minute. 

Back to it – one more shot and nothing. By this time it is midnight and Shanna wants to sleep.  So we let her, and the decision is made to do a “C” section. She has 3 pups to go – at 1:00 we get Shanna up for a little walk and she has another girl.  Wow, let's see if she will do the other two. Now it's 3 and nothing, no more putting it off.  The last little girl and boy are born at 3:50. 

At 6 a.m. I walk into the house to tell hubby all about it and he says to get in the shower--we need to bring her home.  The Newfs will help watch over her and Sophee will be a pain, so let's do it.   So at 7:30, showered and smelling a whole lot better  (yes, I was very ripe from all this birthing smell), we went back and Rick was able to meet lovely Shanna and her pups, who were going to be named after “T” spices until she decided to have 11!  But don’t forget she will still have 11 pups because of our orphan girl – Toes – okay Bootsie.  She is 14 days old today and desperately needs a mom and Shanna asked graciously if she could be it.

We came home this morning at 8 and met the Newfs and met Sophee the Golden.  Everyone loved each other and Coal is watching over mom and the pups so Sophee does not get to close. 

We hope that in the next day or so Shanna will walk for us instead of us carrying her and will also eat.  Time will be our guide.  So if you are willing to wait around for this little girl who does give kisses, please let placement know.  She will be ready to go in 8 weeks. You can contact placement at placementragom [dot] org.