Behind door number 1 is…6 puppies!
Elcie and Blu’s puppies
Yes, that is a carpeted bedroom with SIX, eight week old pure bred German Shepherd puppies and yes, everything is covered in urine, feces and who knows what else.
When I arrived around 10:30pm on May 29th to pick up my niece (before we knew where Chris was or what was about to happen), I was hit with such a stench when I opened the front door I had almost thrown up. Imagine my surprise when my niece told me that there were puppies in the bedroom and she was not sure the last time they had been attended to.
Since we did not know where Chris (or his wife) were at this time, I had just intended to pick my niece up with an overnight bag until we figured things out. I had to ask her to help me so I could make sure they at least had plenty of fresh water and had food until I could get back in the morning to deal with this. I had no idea how old the puppies were, my brother had not told us until recently he had even gotten a male GSD, let alone that he got him almost a year ago! He posted on social media that pups would be ready around mid July so we were under the impression they were about a month old. Well, jokes on us because they were about 2 months old.
In the morning, I desperately reached out to a good friend who works with several rescues and she was able to coordinate with Perfectly Imperfect Pups to take all of the puppies immediately. Oh gosh, I was so grateful and I had no idea how to care for these babies and we had found out by this point that Chris was dead so my stress level was at an all-time high.
My amazing husband met me at the house the next day and even though I would not let him inside (it was a health hazard!) he did all the heavy lifting and we drove the pups to PIP. I received an update from my friend that the pups were up for adoption and a few had already been adopted which made my heart so happy. The rescue had no way of knowing that Chris took his life on the beach and I absolutely LOVE that they chose names related to the ocean. Funny how the universe speaks to us sometimes.
So that just left the “puppy poop room” as I call it and the health hazard stench that was literally emanating from the rental house. Since the lease was in my name at this point this was a HUGE stress of mine as there was no way I could let anyone in the house in that condition let alone the owners. Well, I take that back, I would let my sister in the house. Even though she lives in Wisconsin I feel as though we are so intertwined in this that if I experience it somehow she does too. We both have our strengths and weaknesses and my huge weakness is poop and terrible smells. Thank god she came to the rescue and basically gutted, cleaned and painted a layer of KILLZ on the entire room while I deep cleaned the rest of the house. Cleaning and especially detailed cleaning is my strength so we made a great team tackling the house.
December was in NC about a week and by the time she left you could enter the house without a mask or hazmat suit on. It was a giant victory - I was able to schedule the painters and new carpet without worry.
