MONTOUR TOWNSHIP – Curled up with mom, eight newborn boxer-lab pups are doing well less than 24 hours after being rescued from inside a suspected meth lab in Columbia County.
"It`s disturbing that a dog that just had puppies a week ago could be left like that. It`s just heartbreaking to me,” said dog handler, Benjamin Jones, of the Animal Resource Center.
Jones helped pull mom, Sika, and the pups from the trailer near Bloomsburg Wednesday. He said the conditions were deplorable with no food in sight. For now, mom, Sika, is taking on most of the workload.
"It`s absolutely a game changer it`s 100% better with the mother, if she wasn`t here it would have to be 24 hours surveillance pretty much feeding these babies with a bottle,” said Jones.
The five boys and three girls all still have their eyes shut and mom is extremely protective, but in about four more weeks they’ll begin bottle feeding.
"It`s going to be a lot of work in a couple weeks when they`re eyes are open and they`re moving around, but it`s going to be fun, it`s going to be fun,” said Kennel Manager Marcia Belles.
These puppies are still so small that they fit in the palm of a hand. They won`t be leaving their mom for about eight more weeks, but applications for their adoptions have been pouring in.
"They will go to the perfect homes, not the almost perfect homes,” said Belles.
Each application is reviewed and then the family is interviewed before any of these adorable pups can leave.
"Basically we would come to your house, make sure it`s a good living environment, stable. Obviously we don`t want to give the dogs out to a place where they just came from a horrible place,” said Jones.
Workers at the Animal Resource Center said seeing all of these guys go to a good home is when all this hard work pays off.
“It`s a treat when you watch them get adopted and you see them go to a better home, that`s the best part,” said Jones.
The adoption applications can be found here.
Of course the shelter said they also have a lot of other puppies and dogs looking for forever homes too, ready for adoption right now.