PetSave - Bubbles from Manitoulin Island is in the house!

I'm Eric from Love the North and here we have Jill and we have today's special guest, Jessica. And Jessica's brought in somebody - Miss Bubbles.

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How old is Miss Bubbles? Bubbles is about 10 weeks. 10 weeks. About 10 weeks. Brand new.

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And well,(...) tell us a little bit about Bubbles. I think I'm going to defer to Jill on this one because I don't know a lot about her history. She just came to me on Monday so she's been hanging out with myself and my other two foster fails. Yes.

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She's like really tired. She's like, "Yeah, shake, I'm a star already."

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Just lower the microphone, she says, and you'll be okay, buddy? What kind of dog is Bubbles and where'd she come from? So she's a Rottweiler puppy and she came from Manitoulin Island. There was a young lady who had bred her dog and unfortunately the mother, after about 10, 12 days, turned on the puppies. And that can happen. And sometimes we see it when they have had repeated litters or sometimes even new moms who are just afraid when they, you know, usually it's an instinctive thing, but sometimes the first day or two is very stressful. Anyway, so this little gang here was a litter of eight and we received a phone call to say I can't handle the bottle feeding because it's every two hours. It's like having a baby, only there's eight babies. So you can imagine it was a lot of work and she got a little overwhelmed and me and Bubbles are buds because Bubbles was at my house. So me and my sister and my Patty, we took the initial group of, you know, bottle feeds, got them all stabilized. And then we started, I decided to break them into pairs because I mean, to get up every two hours during the night and do eight was insane. And we only did it for a day or two and then we started breaking them into four and then into pairs. And so we bottle fed them until they were about five weeks till they started eating wet food on their own.(...) And then we put them in pairs into foster homes until they were about eight, nine weeks just to get, you know, as they're growing up and learning their independence.

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And so Bubbles was with Tank, her brother who got adopted last week. And Bubbles has a couple of pennings and we're going to be going through those and she's just a little doll. They're a great breed. And you know, it's funny as they used to be super popular back in like, you know, 25, 30 years ago. And I think I mentioned this in another episode that insurance companies actually wouldn't insure some homes if you own these dogs. And it was a shame because they were really mislabeled simply like the bullies today. But anyway, so back then we saw where literally it crashed. Like there were very few Rottweilers around left. We used to take in lots and then they just died off and you know, different trends come out. So anyways, it was interesting. And to see the applicants for these dogs today are again, all older people who years ago, 20 years ago owned a Rottweiler. And so it's almost like they'd make a nice resurgence, you know? They're actually super, they're big teddy bears. They honestly are. I mean, Jessica, how many puppies have you done? Like dozens. Dozens. Oh yeah. I can't even keep track anymore. I know. And how do you find her compared to everybody else? She's really chill. She's a very chill dog. Yes. Yes. She's a little bit cuddly and then when she's done, she's done. She loves to play with the bigs. And we're boring her. But you know what? Apparently we're boring her. She's really good to play on her own too. Like she'll, she'll grab one of the toys and she flips it and then she'll go chase it.

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She's super cute when she's running after a toy. She does like the little hops and then the pounce.

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But yeah, she's, she's well, well adjusted, I would say. Yeah. Yeah. And so does she have a buddy right now? Like one of her siblings or is she on her, totally on her own? Just I've got two at home. Two, two of my own dogs that I adopted for pet safety. So yeah. So she's got those two that she likes to play with too. They're not too sure about her yet. No, it takes them a little bit to warm up with some of them. She's got the puppy energy. Yeah. And they're Sky Six and Jax's five. Okay. So they're middle age.

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Kind of like that. Yeah. And that's what we like is so when, when they come in pairs, obviously not going to adopt pairs of puppies out, but they've been together because they had no mother. They're very much bonded. So we are, we were, we pegged homes for these puppies. We have three left that have paintings. And so all the litter has been adopted into homes with other dogs because again, they didn't have that motherly bond with their mom. So we kept them in pairs. And so they bonded to their little pair buddy, but now it's time to break them off, let them socialize, explore other relationships and get them, and get them a home. So now that we, these guys, we've, we've designated to go into homes with second dogs, just so they learn the trades of, of their own kind and kind of have their little buddy and, you know, they, yeah, exactly. And then, and then you know, they're just like, say they're, you see how chill she is? Like she's lovable, but not as puppies when you're up every two, three hours and I had them for weeks on end, like they're, you have no sleep. And so that's why I say a lot of people don't realize the work involved in a regular puppy. And this is where we say caution breeding, because when you get into situations where you either need emergency C-sections at four or $5,000 or you need, you know, where mom doesn't have any milk or has some type of, you know, issue with turning on the puppies like, like this mom did,(...) then you end up with bottle feeding and that is a lot of work. So, and it's very expensive. Like I think it was about two, 3,000 bucks we spent just in formula and puppy, puppy,(...) you know, moose to start. Cause once you bottle feed, then you get them, you know, lapping off a plate into some puppy moose and stuff. Oh my goodness. That's another yawn. We really are boring for a guess.

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Hey, would you show up for, she says. Anyway, so yeah, so there are a lot of work. And so fosters, like we have hundreds of fosters and just can say, I mean, she's done and, and we just, they could always in need. Like I'm always texting her. So how long have you been fostering for? It's 2020 actually. So I started during the pandemic and so my first foster fail, Sky, she came to me five, she was pregnant and five days after I got her, she delivered seven pups at your house, my house six made it. And so I get the, the, the baby stuff, but I mean, luckily Sky was able to feed and didn't reject the babes. So yeah, so it's between her and Jack's. Like I said, I couldn't tell you how many fosters I've had, but I find it extremely rewarding and I'm not going to lie. I ugly cry every time I have to pass them over to you. You bring this little one home for a little while and you don't want to give her up. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, I always say to people, you can save one and you can keep it or you can save dozens. And like I just showed today earlier when we, before we got here is that her dog that she fostered Tippie, which she seemed to have a real shine for, gets adopted today at four o'clock. So that's awesome when you, when you think she was, Oh, I'm so happy for her. And that's what it is. It's about saving.(...) I think he's playing with a camera man over here, you know, she's, you're just so darn cute. Um, so it is, it's, it's a tough thing to do and I commend people who can do it because I'm a foster too. I no longer own any, I only have one cat of my own left and I again, only take fosters like, you know, infants, injured, critical, that sort of thing. And I still shed tears 28 years later when they're leaving to go to a home. But I always say you can either save one and if you keep that one, then that's it. The rest die out there or you can continue and see how many dozens of lives you can save in your six years. So it's really a big difference. And uh, yeah, it's really rewarding too. When you see them go to their forever homes, right? Like I've met countless parents too.

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And you just see the moment that they meet, you know, you can see whether there's the connection with the pup and the parents and yeah. And you get follow ups too. Yeah. Yeah. I've actually, uh, two of Sky's babies, uh, her parents, their parents, um, still message me. I, I babysat one of them a couple of weekends when they were out of town and didn't have a sitter. Um, I get an annual update about one guy, uh, one little guy that we had. So yeah, it's pretty cool actually. Some of the people that you meet. I think we're being sabotaged by the camera man over there.(...) He's so cute.(...) Hey, who's that guy you're looking at? Hey, who is that? Who's that? I get the bonus of all the puppy breath.

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I never understood that. I never understood that. I'm not a fan of that. And so many people go, Oh God, I love the puppy breath. I'm like, I remember someone's talking about the puppy breath. You just love it. Well, you had yours from puppy, didn't you? I think so. Yeah. And so did have that little puppy breath. It's a specific smell, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah.

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So this, what's the schedule for this little bunch? Can, uh, or this little puppy for the rest of the day?(...) Uh, well, fun, fun and more fun. Yeah, exactly. Hang out, play, play, play, splat, sleep, eat, play, play, play. And started all over again. Yeah. And I say they're just amazing pops. Like they were, they've been at my house and, and, and I've revisited some of the groups and that I had originally, you know, bottle fed. And I was glad the day they left for sure. Cause after a month of no sleep, I was really happy to see them leave. But you know, it is like, it's a senior today. I like to see how she blossomed. Like what a great little dog. So now that she's socialized and everything, she's uh, ready for your home, ready to go. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Did it take long to bring her out, bring, you said, was this one the runt of the litter? Yes, she's the rent. Okay. Yeah. And she's eyeballing him pretty good. She's not taking her eye off. I get it. You need a pup.

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Yep. You need a pup. Yeah. No, she's uh, yeah. So it's, you know, and that will be her time to go. She'll probably within the week be gone and to her new home and, and we're quite happy for her. And we just took in again, the hoarding situation. I was saying about litters of puppies, like it's getting so out of hand that I'm actually shipping litters into Southern Ontario because I can no longer find, Sebris saturated from the Northern and other rescues. Like you have saints that also takes off, uh, Manitoulin Island and some other areas. Um, so we're all full, like we're just bursting and there's so much coming down from the Northern communities, especially remote Northern communities where we don't have the vet care and we're not able to, you know, spay neuter. Uh, so we're really, our initiative this year is to head off litters. Um, so, you know, as far as you can spay neuter programs locally, getting vets up into far Northern Ontario, flying them into the First Nation communities where we can stop the populations before they begin.(...) Because once you have these babies, like even for us as a rescue, when I say it's two, 3000, it was just their formula. That's before you start vaccinations, your spay neuters, your, so it's a huge cost, uh, into the rescues. And, and we just cleared a house last week of 27. So two parents will go back, spayed and neutered once they're fixed. Um, but the 25 puppies, there was like three litters in that house.(...) So and you can't find homes anymore. So even us, it takes us a while. And like, say, I already sent part of those from last week down there. So, and here's what happens. I remember the day I called the ladies and said, like, we're going to take in 27 dogs. And they're like, and where exactly did you think you're going to put those? And I'm like, well, we're about to get really creative here in our building. Right. Plus I made a call out to the community and said, Hey, I need to take these dogs in at 2 PM today. I still have six puppies in a room that I'm going to need that room. So we need fosters and everybody responds. Our community is fabulous for that. When I called an urgent Mayday call, they respond. We ended up with fosters within hours. We cleared some rooms. I've actually borrowed the lobby of our vet clinic to put, because I had to start splitting them by sex. Because then we got in nine siblings from the first litter they had with them and they were, they're antisocial. So we had to split the males and the females. So I literally have them, I have a big long lobby area. We just stripped the room, created a new dog area and start working from there. So it's so important because if I hadn't had those fosters take those six,(...) I, I, how could I, how could I have done that house last week? 27 more. So for anyone watching, how do you sign up to be a foster? What's the best way? You can just go through our website at petsavesabri.com and, or call the pet save line. My phone is always, I receive a lot by text. So 7 0 5 6 6 2 2 3 5 2 and we cover all the expenses. So when you need supplies, we give two sticks, toys, we provide crate, dog beds. We just need their time and their TLC. Yeah. The only time, the only thing they need is their love of the foster home. That's right. That's it. Well with a face like that, it's pretty easy. Well, thanks.

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You too, Jessica. You too. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, no, it's, and you know, we're so grateful because like say we've had a lot of fosters that actually with that's up to 25 years and they're still fostering. So we have some who have done literally like over a thousand or 1500 animals by now and, and think of all the thousands that we've saved because we have foster parents. If I didn't have Jessica, like what would I have done this week? You know, the family who was fostering her had a family emergency and had to go out of town. And, and so we needed a backup foster and I just immediately texted and changed. Hey, Jessica, can you do a quick foster? And she's like, yep, I'm home for the week. Cause she travels as well. So it's a different fosters. Like we get seasonal fosters. We get a lot of people who used to be snowbirds and thanks to Trump, we don't have that problem anymore.

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A lot of our snowbirds are fostering a little longer this year until we find a new destination.

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So so, but some do like all summer long and then they go away in the winter and then they come back in the spring. They've always enjoyed a pet all their life, but they don't have the time to commit. They don't, they want to travel. So by fostering, you can dip in and out throughout the year when it's good for you. I've got teachers, my neighbor, my little neighbor, Andrew, there he goes, countdowns on cause she's a school teacher, his mom. And when they get out of school, they're home for the summer and they do puppies on the Christmas break, the March break throughout the summer. So you know, people have been around for years. They just dip in and out when they can. And that's all, it doesn't have to be a long permanent commitment.(...) It's very convenient for when we just, you know, text sometimes or we throw it on our page and say, Hey, you need this, who's available? And the network will, we'll respond back. Question. Oh, go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say the foster community, like Jill is saying, responds very well, especially if you have your own emergency. Like I can foster for a month, but I've got this one weekend that I've got to go away. You know, can somebody help me out? Weekend fostering. Yep. Weekends. Perfect. Where do cats fit into this? Cat fosters. Same thing. So I have moms and babies right now. We are in now kitten season, as we call it. And they're coming in fast and furious. And so we have homes that take them and we just need separate rooms to put a mom and kittens in, cause they need a private area to be able to nurse their kittens because they can be protective of them. And yeah, we've already, we're well into like four or five moms already in the last week or so and with kittens. So that's about to start exploding. And you know, we just really, again, encourage people, please spay, please spay, please stop the population, stop the suffering.

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And if you do have current, you know, kittens or puppies, give us a call because we'd love to work with you. We'll help you spay your mom and we stop the populations and that's going to be what gets us out of this, this crisis that we're in. Yeah. Okay. Jessica, Jill, great to see you. Thank you. And Bubbles. Bubbles. Hopefully I know Bubbles is going to get picked up soon. Like, yeah. Look at her. She's just, I mean, you meet her and I mean the pictures even online when we do pictures online. She's very expressive. She is. And she's quite funny. So unique little birthmark in the back of her tongue on the right hand side. Yeah. You can see it when she does her big yawns. Yeah. Look at, she's flopping out now. Yeah. She's like, that's it. I've worked too hard today.

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I've worked too hard. Now she's exhausted from all her fame. That's right.(...)