Rush

       I've had a sudden urge to post about my wonderful 7 month old puppy Rush. Rush is a spoiled dog that every night he gets to sleep with our portable fan facing his dog bed, a tub of toys, gets a cookie every night before bedtime, and me working at home and being with him every second of the day. He wasn't abused a day in his life, though, him and his 9 other siblings were put in the shelter at only 4 weeks old. My sister had just adopted a rescue a couple months before named Rufus. Rufus was seconds away from being put down but was saved minutes before, Kristy saw him on the website and knew he was the one she wanted to adopt. Rufus was abused by his previous owner and was TERRIFIED of everyone, it took him a while to get comfortable with family and visitors. Kristy then decided she wanted to try out fostering for Rescue Rovers, she talked to my mom about it and got my mom thinking also. We decided we would, as we drove to Salt Lake thinking we'd only foster 2 MAYBE 3 puppies, Kristy called and asked if we were willing to foster 5 instead. We said yes and continued driving up, we got there and I searched every crate to find these four week old puppies. I stopped at this one crate, kneeled down, and saw the cutest puppies I had ever seen in my entire life. All I could hope was that those were the puppies we'd be taking home with us, and they were.

10 puppies in the shelter.

They didn't provide us with a crate, so we had to get the puppies home somehow! We set down a blanket on the passenger side on the ground between my legs and put the five puppies there. These puppies were so attention starved and just wanted to climb up on my lap. (Note - These are 4 week old puppies) These puppies already had so much love to give at such a young age, they were taken way too early from their mother, starving, and covered in ticks.

On our way home

Boomer

Memorial weekend in New Mexico was apparently the weekend to take your puppies to the shelter. They were so over packed with puppies that they needed to start putting them down soon. 

Home

We had arrived home, they say the first night with your foster feed them as much as they want to eat since they had probably been starving. We fed our five pups and boy did they chow down! You could see their stomachs starting to fill and they were getting ROUND. They were maybe five pounds each at the time. We kept watching Zelda, we were so concerned about her because she was quiet and she just had the saddest look on her face. We were worried she may not make it, but boy is she a strong gal! After a couple days Zelda's personality brightened and she was the favorite out of them all on Facebook! 

There was one picture I know caught the eyes of her adopters -

Zelda was actually my 7 year old niece's favorite, she would just carry around Zelda EVERYWHERE. She was so sad when Zelda went to her new forever home. 

Me with five 4 1/2 week old puppies

These puppies had so many personalities and the later fosters we had had some tough competition beating these little guys. I never grew attached to any other fosters puppies, we had the 6 Simpsons bulldog X, 3 superhero blue tick hound X, and 2 hobbit Collie X puppies, 1 boxer chi X (Hector), and 1 adorable bull weenie (bullwinkle). There is something I find very special in German Shepherds, their loyalty, smarts, and strength. Ever since these puppies I've changed to wanting Australian Shepherd to adoring the German Shepherd. Rush is a German Shepherd/Rottie(?)Lab(?) mix, he is much more built than a pure bred German Shepherd. He has the smarts of a GSD and the laziness of a Rottweiler.(?)

Rush 5 weeks

Rush has always had a week stomach, the first week we had him he ate too much and threw up SO much. He was always the food driven one, he loves food so much and always had a giant belly, which his siblings would knock him over while playing and he'd just be on his back trying to get up. He would always try to eat the most and sneak some out of the others bowls, he was the one annoying brother.

Knuckles, Zelda, Samus (red bowl), Rush, Boomer.

Rush was the puppy that when you let them out of their crate he would ALWAYS run right in front of you, sit down, and stare at you to pick him up and love him. He was the most affectionate little guy, even though at first I wanted to call him Chomper because he was a serious nipper! The more you think about it, the more you wonder if he knew this was his home from the very beginning. He just had to win me over with his cute little face. 

Rush week 6

I posted pictures of these puppies at least twice a day on the forum to get them some people to adopt them. I got likes on every puppy except Rush, I was so confused why no one was looking at him. I mean, how can you not?! One by one they were getting adopted, and still no likes/comments on Rush. I then started considering adopting one of them, I had first picks on any of the 5. 
I chose Rush and I think he new he was going to stay. I adored him. 

Everything he did made me love him more, he always picks up a toy whenever he sees you and brings it to you, he loves hiding my shoes, and he is VERY treat motivated. I wanted him to become my running buddy; for one, he would look intimidating. 

Hai

He is the perfect dog for Scott and I. He's laid back, not too much energy, yet will run with me. He chases leaves that blow across the road, butterflies, and sticks his face deep in the snow. He's incredibly smart, loving, and shy (working on that). 

4 months

He's the perfect dog.

7 Months