Story

Photos Courtesy of Amber from Just For Kix Photography

We were canvassing a neighborhood and noticed a lactating dog running along the street, so rescuers started their pursuit of the large blond beauty. She was very friendly and came right up to us when we stopped the vehicle. Upon asking some local residents they pointed out that she was a stray dog who had been hanging around the neighborhood for several weeks and residents pointed us into the direction of a large abandoned building which they believed she may have used as shelter. Upon arriving there we crawled underneath the building and were not surprised to find a young litter of six adorable puppies. We retrieved them one by one and reunited them with their mommy. We always double check to ensure nobody is left-behind, with flashlight in tow we canvassed the entire span of the building by crawling on our bellies from one side to the other and to our surprise we did find one single, black puppy approx. 30 feet away from where the other litter had curled up. Well, we did not know what else to do, this puppy was slightly younger and smaller so we waited to see if another momma dog would claim the single pup, but when nothing happened we made the decision to not leave it there and instead wanted to see if our mom dog would adopt this puppy as one of hers. And she most certainly did, caring for it right from the start, even nudging it closer into her to allow it to get extra milk, almost like she knew this one was the most vulnerable.

We named momma Savanna. Savanna has been an extra-ordinary mom to all of her puppies as well as her adopted baby. She is also great with people. She has many battle scars inflicted upon her, her face and head bear witness to her life as a stray dog but you would not know it by her personality. She is an 80 lbs lap dog, she is my constant shadow, she lays by my feet, if I move she moves with me. All she wants is affection, and if I don't pay attention she will nudge me with her nose, while she has a protective instinct she is kind and gentle. She tolerates all the other dogs living in the foster home (five others in total) as long as she does not feel her puppies are threatened. She is very appropriate in her doggie body language, and all the dogs know not to mess with the seven little munchkins. On top of this, she is probably one of the smartest foster dogs I have had the pleasure of caring for. She will figure out almost any obstacle, and if there is a way for her to get closer to you she will be determined to get there. She does not rip the screen to get back inside the house, but she will jump the x-pen or move it, or find some other way to circumvent it in order to be able to lay in front of the window where she can see me, if I move to a different room she follows and lays in front of that window. She's really quite funny in her pursuit of me.