Days away from giving birth, Mollie – a pregnant canine – set up camp in Anna Silverman’s Mountain View bedroom in early March.
Silverman is experienced at making life a bit more comfortable for expectant pooches – she’s a volunteer for Pound Puppy Rescue and has served as midwife for 40 litters. She prepared for Mollie’s litter of eight by creating a nest of pillows and blankets at the foot of her bed.
“She’s in a precarious situation here,” Silverman said of Mollie. “She’s a small dog having a big litter.”
Silverman, a substitute teacher in the Los Altos School District, has been fostering dogs through the volunteer-run Pound Puppy Rescue for six years. The non-profit organization rescues puppies and pregnant and nursing dogs from shelters and cares for them in foster homes until they are adopted. In shelters, the puppies are often marked for euthanasia and are at risk for disease.
“They’re always sick,” Silverman said. “They’re always suffering from starvation.”
Volunteer foster families nurse the dogs back to health and ensure that they are spayed or neutered, microchipped and vaccinated. Then they socialize them.
“We expose (the dogs) to as many people and situations as possible,” Silverman said.
An extended circle of volunteers aids the socialization process. Jill Williams, a teacher at Almond School, said her former students return to visit and play with puppies in her care.
Silverman has a network of support – volunteers Gigi Godfrey and her children, Natalie and Oliver, often feed lunch to a litter or clean up while she is at work.
When the puppies turn 4 weeks old, volunteers post their photos and biographies on the group’s website and hold adoption fairs at local pet stores. They brief potential owners on the organization, the adoption process and “behaviors that are normal but are perceived as negative,” such as barking, chewing and digging at walls and furniture, she said.
Then comes the “tricky part,” Silverman said – the interview with families who wish to adopt. The organization generally does not place dogs with families with children under the age of 6.
“They have to prove to us that they’re going to be a good home for a puppy,” she said.
Puppies cannot be left alone for extended periods of time, so potential adoptive families must demonstrate that they have contingency plans for when they are away from home, such as family members or neighbors who can take care of the dog in their absence, Silverman said.
Most families eagerly bond with their new pet and are willing to accept imperfections, according to Williams, who recalled the case of a limping puppy who had to undergo two surgeries. When she called the family waiting to adopt the puppy after it underwent a second surgery, she expected them to withdraw, but the family insisted on adopting the dog.
“We are very fortunate to find people who adopt these dogs knowing they’re not perfect,” she said.
Once the puppies go home with their new families, Silverman, Williams and other volunteers try to keep the litters and their families connected. Silverman created an event she calls a “Blanket Party,” where each adoptive family brings a blanket to place in the puppy pen to absorb the scent of the litter for the puppy to take home. The adoptive families also meet for yearly reunions, and some have even created Facebook pages for their dogs, Williams said.
Silverman drove Mollie to Adobe Animal Hospital March 5, after Mollie suffered complications while giving birth. Mollie had eight puppies, delivered via emergency C-section.
The healthy puppies, now 7 weeks old, will soon leave home with their adoptive families, Silverman said. She is still looking for an adoptive family for mother Mollie.
“We can’t cure cancer, we can’t bring peace to the Middle East, but we can save these little puppies’ lives,” Silverman said. “So that’s what we choose to do.”
For more information, visit www.poundpuppyrescue.org.
