Another dog post.....Runts?

[lorihart]

Hi Guys,

I was just skimming through the topics and of course I had to read Bobbi's post which brought tears to my eyes.
Now I am sitting here, looking at our 9 week old puppy and wondering does anyone else pick the runts?
We already have a 7 yr old dog who was at the shelter for a very long time. They explained to us that he was "apparently" the runt of the litter and the reason he was at the shelter was b/c his ears weren't standing up.He was a very nervous dog and one part of his ear had been chewed off...I guess from the other pups. Anyway,this dog is amazing and his ears DO stand straight up and they are huge! And so is he!
Second dog, we went to the pet store and my daugther picked out the dog that was sitting in the corner by himself and he was smaller then everyone else. She said," I want that one b/c no one is playing with him and he is all alone" So thats the one we got.

How sad though.There are always runts in every litter, just like the ugly duckling,I guess, and how many get put into shelters or put to sleep b/c no one wants them, just b/c they aren't as big or perfect.Sad isn't it? But its nice to know that we saved two so far
Lori

 

[smoogy]

Lori, how old is your daughter? She sure sounds like a very special girl! Isn't great how much a part of your family they become?

I think I've had 3 so far that were not necessarily runts, but were certainly challenging at first. Chico with his fractured jaw & subsequent Peg tube on the side of his belly (thankfully that is long gone, and now he is double his original weight.) Lola went through a severe bout of hemorragic diarreah. Even the Doc didn't think she'd make it. Bobble, our youngest cat, was constantly sick & small, but now she's beautiful. She was a rescue cat so I imagine all those cats pass infections back & forth. She was so small her head was bigger than her body, hence the name Bobble, as in a bobble head toy.

 

[Jcrew3082]

Good for you Lori! If we could only rescue them all...

 

[ZT27]

Here's another one who adopted a runt. I felt so bad for her since she was so small and nervous. She was 8 weeks old when I took her home. She turned out to be one of the worst dogs I've ever had. I probably am in minority here with bad dogs from the pound. She was NASTY to kids, I mean NASTY. We couldn't break her out of that, she was so dirty (going potty all over the house when we thought she was pretty much potty trained), she was also extremely clingy. I've never had a clingy dogs like that and I'm not the kind of a person who likes clingy animals. Somewhat clingy but not extremely clingy. She's dead now. Ran away for the 100th time and got hit by a car. She would always run away chasing after something and NEVER, NEVER listens. Now I have another dog but I bought him from a breeder and he's one of the best dogs I've ever had. Yes, it was kind of expensive but IMO, it was worth it. He's one of the best guard dogs, friendly, happy, playful, etc. I don't think I would adopt from a shelter again. Also, I adopted a cat from the shelter and he turns out to be a real crazy cat. Very strange. We got him when he was a kitten. We don't even know where he is either. We live on a huge farm so he could be in the woods somewhere or dead. Those 2 experiences made me not want to adopt again. Besides, people always dump their baby animals on the farm so we usually keep them and raise them.

 

[Debra L]

Both of my dogs were runts. They turned out to be the tallest & most muscular females from each of their litters. Amazing would good nutrition & lots of exercise can do.

Debra

 

[Bobbi]

I love runts. They are the pick of the litter as far as I am concerned. We have had so many runts, strays, mutts and they were usually pretty wonderful critters. There was a brief period when my parents had a litter of pekingese and a litter of dobes and the pekes were mean little suckers and could terrorize the larger dobermans. The pairing was hilarious.
Bobbi http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/chicken.gif "Chick's rule!"

Tell me, what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver