Today I brought home these two puppies:
They were part of an "oops" litter turned into rescue. They are purebred Great Pyrenees, and at twelve weeks old, they already weigh over 30 pounds each. That means they're likely to be well over 100 pounds when they are full grown.
Fluffy white puppies are fun. I'm having a hard time putting them down. They're sweet and cuddly and I love them.
The boy, who I've been calling Iggy, is the more outgoing of the two. He's going to another foster home tomorrow morning.
The girl, who I named Izzy, is a bit more shy. She will be staying with me until she gets adopted. I'm pretty sure that'll be no more than one week, because so far we've received about 500 adoption applications for her. Okay, maybe not quite that many. But I know we have at least two that are pre-approved and it's just a matter of me finding time to meet with the potential adopters.
Given how adorable she is, I'm thinking whomever meets her is going to be adopting her immediately. But the hardest part of fostering fluffy white puppies is that everyone wants to adopt them because they are adorable. They don't think about how much 100+ pound dogs cost (some vetting is more expensive as is heartworm preventative and so on due to their weight). Or how much they eat. Or how much they shed. And because these dogs were bred to guard livestock, they can be vocal. And protective. They need to be socialized well, and they need an owner that will keep them no matter what. And sadly most of the applications we get are from people who don't think about those things, but just see the fluffy white puppy and think "I want that!". So the hardest part is going through all 500 applications and doing our best to decide which homes will really be wonderful, forever homes for these guys. And then telling the other 498 people that they weren't picked. I'm thinking of taking some of the extra fluff on these guys and attaching it to Ziggy, to see if I can convince anyone to adopt him instead. Think it will work?