No, not THAT Tina Turner... This Tina is a cute young female Maltese. She was rescued from a non-airconditioned garage in Las Vegas,Nevada where the outside temperature was over 110 degrees Farenheit (44 degrees Centigrade). She was pregnant and crammed into a tiny kennel with another pregnant female with neither food nor water. Animal control called our rescue group and we rescued both pregnant females. They were filthy, matted and were skin and bones.



I don't know what happened to the worthless piece of semi human trash who was keeping these two girls (along with a great number of other dogs) in those terrible conditions. However, I have a baseball bat left over from my playing days which I could have put to a good use if I had met him!

If you think Tina looks young, you are correct. She was too young to have a litter of puppies. Another reason I would like to have introduced the person who was breeding her to my good friend, "Mr. Louisville Slugger". (BTW: for my non-baseball oriented friends, the Louisville Slugger is a very famous brand of baseball bats)

Anyway, Tina Turner and her friend Betty Boop (they didn't have names when they came to us) are living with us now. They each had four puppies and both mothers and their pups are doing just great. Each litter of pups is four weeks old (they were born two days apart). After the pups are weaned (6-8 weeks) and Tina and Betty recover a bit from nursing their litters, we will have the girls spayed and then find forever homes for them. We will place the pups up for adoption at about 12 weeks.

Here is Betty Boop; she could possibly be Tina's mother. Although a young dog herself, she seems older than Tina...



It is amazing how wonderfully people oriented and loving that these young dogs are after their terrible previous living conditions. The only residual affect of those conditions is that each of these girls gobbles down her food and needs to be fed alone because either will steal food from any other dogs. However, they are well fed in our house, we cook cubed beef roast with carrots and potatoes in a slow cooker and puree that mixture in a food processor. This goes over their kibble. Both girls are gaining weight even though they are feeding four pups each. Tina and Betty are just darling dogs and deserve the good homes we will find for them.

BTW: The cute harnesses have been donated to our rescue program by the makers of Mr. Wags Walking Harnesses.

Richard,
Tina and Betty are adorable and the world is a better place for what you are doing for these girls. I have similar feelings when I find one of our Rottie rescues hairless with mange or with their necks split open from trying to escape from a collar and chain. But all we can do is what we are doing: take care of the ones we can save and find them great homes for the rest of their lives.

Another friend who lives a few houses away from us rescues Cairn Terriers and she has similar stories about the dogs she's taken out of horrendous situations where they've been bred from the moment they were able to conceive and at 2 or 3 had had maybe 5 litters. But, like you, I'm amazed at how socially adaptable they are. You'd think they'd hate people but they never knew any better so they accepted their lot. Same with most of the Rotties I find. They trust people although they have every reason not to. Maybe there's a lesson there for us, too.

Jim

Hey Richard,

Nice shots and nice work.

James