Introducing: Astro and Nova

Last night the Washington State Ratbone Rescues Coordinator picked up 8 rat terrier-mix pups that had flown in from Austin, TX. After a visit to the vet she drove over to our house and when I looked in the back of her car, what did I see? Eight lab puppies. Now, we know that they are all half rat terrier because the mom is a tri-color rattie, but man, the puppies look like labs - 7 yellow, chocolate and black labs with one large rat terrier looking pup.

So we picked out two and proceeded to do all those "just off the plane from a shelter" things that need to be done. They had pooped in their crate so the first order of business was a bath and then a combing for fleas. Then they each had a dose of dewormer and got their new collars: purple with flowers for Nova and a sun/moon collar for Astro.

They slept a large crate together last night and after some initial crying went to sleep. We were up at 2:30am for a potty break and then again at 5:30am for them to poop. Blechhh! Their pooh was so full of worms that it looked like rice-a-roni! I went back to bed because I didn't have to get up until 6:30 but was so queasy from seeing all of those worms that I just decided to get back up.

Nova's belly had looked a bit distended, and by the quantity that came out of her I'm sure it was from all of the worms. I've put both of them on a high quality puppy food - Orijen puppy - and this morning will add Missing Link Omega 3 supplement. Astro likely already has a home, but Nova will be tougher to place since most Ratbone adopters are looking for small terriers - not a chunky chocolate lab. She's so cute though that I'm sure it won't take long to find her the perfect forever home.

The top photo is of Nova getting her bath and the bottom is a shot of Astro.