Introducing the Burnout Babies

Last Sunday afternoon we picked up our latest fosters from WAGS: two of the six puppies in the "Crayola" litter, so dubbed because each of the puppies is named after a crayon color. These six pups came from The Maggie Society, one of our rescue partners in North Carolina. Their mom was a treeing walker coonhound; dad's a mystery.

Ours are Cerise (tricolor black/white/tan) and Razzmatazz (black with white dot on chin). Both are female, about eight weeks old, and suffering from sarcoptic mange.

And both of them are loud. The first day they squalled nonstop at earsplitting volume about losing their littermates, being all itchy with mange, and having to choke down nasty pills. Also they'd just gotten their first lime-sulfur dip that morning, so they smelled fantastic. Really, if you've never had two incontinent shrieking puppies making your entire house reek of sulfur dip and dog pee, you are missing out.

I promptly dubbed them the Burnout Babies, because damn if they didn't burn me out on fostering within twelve hours of their arrival.

It's been a couple of days now and things are getting better -- they're (slightly) quieter, the itching has subsided enough for us to start working on some training foundations, and the sulfur smell is wearing off -- but boy howdy it's exhausting having these two around. I cannot wait for them to get adopted.

I just hope adopters are willing to look past the crusty scabby bald spots and see how sweet these two pups are. Because they are sweet dogs, under all the mangy misery, and they deserve good homes of their own.

Razz is slightly larger than her sister and is the calmer, more athletic, and more assertive of the two. I think she's a little bit smarter, too. She has figured out how to climb out of the puppy pen, whereas her sister has no clue how to escape.

Cerise is smaller, flightier, and friendlier (although they're both very friendly pups). She squeaks more often but not as loudly. I think she's the funnier of the two -- she has some amazingly goofy expressions and seems to have a clownier personality overall.

Here they are doing some foundations:

I doubt I'll make too much progress with these guys. They're very young, the mange is a constant distraction, and I don't expect to have them for long. We can't do a ton of socialization, either, since they're contagious and it would be irresponsible to let them wander around outside where they'd come into close proximity to other dogs.

But, as ever, we'll do what we can.