Too many puppies!

Her house is spotless, but Briceida hated that her dog’s repeat litters have totally destroyed her yard and says that the constant care has ‘made her tired.’ Even more, she accepts puppies back when people can no longer care for them, so her numbers don’t ever seem to go down. Spay/neuter surgeries for larger dogs are way too expensive to consider though, so she was trapped in a terrible cycle.

We met her on Craigslist when her family was working to give the puppies away, and dropped by their home to see what we could do. It was a good visit. All remaining pups (3) were surrendered to us and the adult dogs are getting fixed with Keep-Em Home program funds. While our key focus will always be Blocky dogs, our shelters are filling up crazy fast with Shepherd type dogs, so we’ve extended our help to this breed for spay/neuter and some rescue work whenever we’re able.

The trick is finding people like Briceida before well intentioned animal lovers remove their ads. We’re on the Craigslist Pets page several times a week, and sometimes their contact info disappears before we can reach out. In the case of this family, they texted back to our offer of help – “YES!” – so fast it made our head spin. HEC YES!

Photo: This pup, ‘Annie,’ came to live with us while we searched for an appropriate home. She needed a little socialization work and some training first since her previous family was too overwhelmed to address those needs.

Need some support to prevent more litters? Let us know.

With gratitude to our partner vets, Dr. Noe, Dr. Singer and the vets of VCA Bay Area Vet Hospital for helping us help the community within our budget. And more love to local groups Paw Fund for shouldering so much of the burden of this work and to Family Dog Rescue for accepting pups from these situations!