I get a call.
The alleys were busy. The cars were driving quickly.
So I plugged in the address
and it was an hour and a half away
but I knew that I had to do it.
I spent 30 minutes looking for additional puppies
and ended up seeing the mom
and she was under a car.
I tried to approach her.
I had some food.
I wish she knew that I was there to help her
but didn't yet.
I spent an hour trying to get her
but then she just ran away.
I had such reservations about the mom.
You never want to leave the moms behind.
Do I leave the puppies in the bushes?
in not a good neighborhood.
They were five weeks old so really, they shouldn't
have been away from Mama quite yet.
We headed back to my house.
And I gave them all flea baths.
Fed them and of course,
So that night, after everybody was tucked in,
40 miles, another hour and a half there.
I did see Mama.
And she was in and out of different people's yards.
She would kind of come and go
and then she ended up disappearing.
I would just lay in bed thinking about this mom.
My dogs are mama dogs
from the shelter and
I have a firm belief that never leave any mama dogs behind.
Again, traffic. An hour and a half.
And nothing.
It was a little bit of a hot day.
And stray dogs tend to hide when the weather is warm.
So I knew I had to come up with a little bit of a better plan.
So I called my friend, Lisa.
We set out there on a Sunday morning.
We set the trap and we kind of had to
stay far back because she's pretty skittish.
We saw her and she was kind of inching towards the alley.
I was just getting so excited.
I was like, "OK, she's coming near the trap."
And she sniffed the food, ate the food around the trap
and she laid down right next to the trap.
We waited a total of 30 minutes.
Then she got up. She sniffed around.
We drove down to the alley.
And of course, she's nervous in the trap.
I got out of my car.
I told her everything was gonna be OK and
I was going to reunite her with her babies.
We loaded her in my car.
Drove her to the vet.
I spent a little bit of time with her there,
trying to give her some comfort but she was nervous.
Took literally, like, five seconds and they were just so happy.
Sam, the only boy, was so depressed for three days.
And he definitely came back to life when he saw his mama
and just was missing his mom.
Everybody was so happy. I made them their own bedroom
with just warm beds and blankets.
And then, I just worked with Mama.
Her behavior was always kind of run away from the human.
It was all new for her.
I had as many friends come over as possible
so she'd get used to the human touch and trust people
and know that people were kind and loving.
And each day, she bloomed a little bit more.
It's really a special thing to watch
I definitely kept them with Mama for a good ten weeks
and they were adopted rather quickly.
I asked somebody for names suggestions
and somebody suggested the "Sex and the City" characters.
She has an amazing family and a big husky brother.
has a beautiful family
with another dog who looks just like her.
The largest of the puppies —
just a lovely couple adopted her.
was the last of the puppies to be adopted.
He has a lovely family with
an older brother who looks just like him.
The sweetest part of this whole story
is finding a home for that mom
who had just been on the streets
for a year and a half, two years.
So they renamed her Rue.
And they love her and they value her.
And I get photo updates and videos all the time.
And it's what I live for and I just love it.
deserves to feel safe and warm and loved and
I won't stop until I get that for every dog.