Often, you hear some people say that they think you will only find older or problem dogs in shelters looking for a home. People think about adding a dog to their family, and often look for puppies that they can rear and train from a young age and have for the entirety of their lives and that they won’t find young pups in pounds and rescues. This is not the case at all, however. In PAWS, we often have so many litters of puppies and young dogs come into our care for a variety of reasons at all times of the year. Mongrels and purebreeds of all kinds of shapes, sizes, coat types and temperaments looking for forever homes. Our foster dog parents are almost always full with unwanted litters, pups bought as unwanted gifts or that people purchased without thinking through the time and commitment involved in raising and training a young puppy and want to rehome. Or worse, sadly over the years, it is not uncommon for PAWS to have had puppies dumped on their lane at night hearing nothing but a car speed off, or have a box of abandoned puppies left at the gate. Unfortunately, these kinds of puppies are still considered the lucky ones as horror stories of how people are disposing of unwanted dogs in Ireland are still common, unfortunately, and this is why PAWS will always support and help educate about responsible dog ownership, spaying and neutering and the importance of microchipping and registering your pet.
The horror stories are unfortunately all too common for PAWS staff but we can be delighted to say that any puppies that find themselves in the care of PAWS’ temporary foster homes have landed on all four paws. Zoe, Sue, Amy and all the foster volunteers are incredible at what they do. It was Sue and Zoe who found themselves caring for an abandoned litter of very young puppies that were found curled up together in a plastic bucket and dumped in a ditch at the start of last year right before one of the very big storms.
Two of the puppies were very poorly and it was uncertain they were going to survive at first but they thankfully pulled through under their foster parents’ care. It was uncertain what kind of start in life the litter of puppies had had, how old they were, where their poor mother was or what mix of breeds they were. Of course they were a sighthound, the most common type of dog breed you’d find in rescue, and they were definitely mixed with something big! Two of the pups’ coat colours suggested german shepherd crosses. After a few weeks of good food, vet treatment and a lot of TLC, they grew into thriving, wriggly, chunky puppies bouncing around Sue’s puppy pen and living with her cats and ponies. They were soon big enough to go to the PAWS’ kennels and look for permanent homes of their own.
Two former PAWS’ volunteers, a couple from Dublin, had decided it was time to adopt a pair of PAWS dogs and had been following their story since the photo of them dumped in a bucket was posted on the PAWS Facebook page and drove down to Tipperary to meet them. In late May 2019, they brought home a brother and sister pair to start their new life. As Game of Thrones fans, and clear the puppies needed special names to go with their special characters, they were named Nym and Khal. The rest of the puppies found homes of their own too, one of the other boys, Moose, found a home in Dublin and the siblings found homes overseas in the UK.
Nym and Khal have now been in their forever home a whole year and have turned into two very big, beautiful dogs as expected. They are their owners’ whole lives and lead very happy lives themselves keeping their owners busy, going on long walks to the beach and parks and taking up the entirety of the couches in the evenings.Their owners are often heard saying rescuing two puppies was the best decision they ever made. If you are interested in adopting a puppy or dog from PAWS, please contact us via facebook or info@paws.ie or drop into the shelter between 2pm and 4pm 7 days a week in Mullinahone, co Tipperary although not while we are still temporaily closed due to Covid-19.
Nym and Khal on the day they got adopted
