The Wimberley Adoption Group and Rescue volunteers and staff are always up to the task when finding homes for the dogs that come into their care, which was all the more impressive when WAG recently came across one of their biggest challenges yet.
In late February, a person sent a message about how they found a dog tied up to a tree along with her 11 puppies inside at an RV Park.
“A good samaritan had called us and left a message about how somebody left a momma dog tied to a tree along with her puppies,” Robin Tenney, President of WAG, said. “So our lost and found coordinator called and talked to the good samaritan. Turns out that the dog and her puppies were left at a RV park in Canyon Lake and that the people who own the RV got up and drove off and left Precious tied to a tree along with her 11 puppies who surrounded her. So this good samaritan was trying to figure out what they could do or whether we could take them.”
There was only a slight problem, the dog, originally named Precious, along with her puppies were found in Comal County, out of the jurisdiction of the WAG.
Fortunately, it wasn’t long before WAG came to the rescue anyway.
“Because they were found in Comal County, they had to go to the New Braunfels shelter”, Tenney said. “We told them to call the New Braunfels shelter, so she took them all, mom and puppies to the shelter. Within moments the New Braunfels shelter reached out to us, because the majority of the local shelters know we have a nursery and asked if it was available.”
But then WAG ran into another problem.
Though the facility is capable of taking care of puppies with their own nursery, the spot currently was occupied by another family of puppies.
“Unfortunately the nursery wasn’t yet available,” Tenney said “But a member of our board kept on and on with us so we were able to find foster homes for the puppies that were still in the nursery. We immediately needed to fix the floor within the nursery, so we found a local guy who came out the next day and put a temporary fix on the floor. Within 48 hours we had mom and puppies in the nursery.”
It was discovered that not only did Precious take good care of all eleven of her puppies, but also was the sole reason all of them came with a good bill of health.
“Mom (Precious) did an excellent job,” Tenney said. “They (the puppies) were not in bad shape, didn’t have worms, but that can happen to any group of puppies. Mom was definitely exhausted when she got in, and we took control of the puppies. I think she (Precious) slept for several days after trying to keep 11 puppies alive in that environment. So I think the people were definitely trying to feed her and stuff and she obviously had enough milk for all 11 puppies. I think the people didn’t know what to do and hoped that a good sumaritan would step up and help.”
Once the family came to WAG, all were given a check-up while Precious was spayed and weaned off her puppies.
“We had the vet come out to our facility, so we didn’t have to transport all 11 puppies,” Tenney said. “The vet came out and gave them all an exam since they were too young for vaccines. We checked their fecal for worms, checking their eyesight, their movements and overall general health. Then we checked on mom (Precious) to see if she was healthy and vaccinated before getting her spayed and weaned off the puppies.”
The puppies soon had a unique trait about them with all 11 coming to WAG with names starting with the letter P, which made them famous around the WAG community as the “P” Puppies.
“Funny story is that we got them on Earth Day,” Tenney said. “We were originally supposed to name them based on Earth type things but the New Braunfels Shelter had given them names all starting with the P. Since they were already microchipped, we decided to stay with the P names.”
“I don’t recommend naming a litter after P names, because it’s hard to know who is who, but yeah they all came from the New Braunfels shelter with their P names.”
The now famous “P” became well known around WAG as one of the most well behaved litters the organization has ever seen.
“All of the 11 puppies were all super mellow,” Tenney said. “We have had litters where you are getting bit and chewing up everything. But give credit to mom (Precious) who did a great job of teaching them manners at a really young age. All of them had the same mellow personality. Normally there is an alpha and ones that are more shy, but they were all pretty much the same. For the first time ever, the entire litter had the same personality… Doing this for three years, I have never seen a litter where there are no alphas, shy ones, or no vocal ones. The litter before the “P” puppies is what we called the St. Patrick’s Day puppies. There were five of them. They were crazy, and they did not come with a mom so they were jumping, biting, fighting with each other, while this group, who did have their moments, were super chill.”
Despite their popularity, taking care of 11 puppies was no small task, which led to WAG coming up with possible solutions on taking care of such a large group of puppies.
“Part of the conversation in bringing in the 11 was that we needed volunteers who could come in everyday to help our caregivers,” Tenney said. “The caregivers are already taking care of 25 to 30 dogs and now add in 11 puppies who do nothing but eat and poop. Immediately we started up a signup sheet for volunteers to come out everyday, two per day on the 8 a.m. shift, to clean, pick up pee and poop, feed, and just give the caretakers a break, because it is a lot of work especially with 11 puppies.”
It also brings around another problem WAG has been facing as dogs are getting adopted slower than before with the group taking in dogs from surrounding shelters as those shelters continue to fill up with dogs themselves.
“During this time, all the dog shelters are full,” Tenney said. “Dogs are just not getting adopted as fast as they used to. We never used to have puppies after they were eight weeks old. As soon as they turn eight weeks old, they are eligible to be adopted and within days they are adopted. We had these puppies a lot longer than we had puppies before, which is sad, because they are at refuge and don’t get to see the world.”
To end the story on a high note, all eleven puppies and Precious, now named Princess, have owners either from Wimberley or have ties within the community including Peach McWilliams, who has become the unofficial Wimberley View mascot and greeter.
“Surprisingly, for the first time for a litter, everybody in Wimberley pretty much knew who they were,” Tenney said. “Also eight of the 11 puppies were adopted in Wimberley including the mom (Precious), so everyone is going to the vet at the same time and all seeing each other, which has never happened. There have been talks with everyone getting together in the fall after everyone is spayed for a big reunion because well everyone is here.”
But regardless for WAG, anytime one of their dogs is adopted, it is a happy day.
“Anytime a dog leaves our care, it’s the happiest day,” Tenney said.
Paxton with his new family the Smiths, Paxton and his 10 siblings known as the “P” puppies all found new homes
Patrick with his new family, the Dunbar’s.
