LangleyAdvance Your community newspaper since 1931
Tuesday, December 17, 2013 Breaking news, sports, and entertainment: www.langleyadvance.com
Audited circulation: 40,026 – 28 pages
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Santa keeps the beat At this time of the year, Santa Claus seems to be everywhere, including playing bass drum with the Central Valley Community Pipe Band, which performed on the north side of Fraser Highway at 264th Street during the Aldergrove Christmas Light Up Parade on Saturday night. Watch for more on the parade online and in Thursday’s edition of the Langley Advance.
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Animal welfare
Abandoned pups get new mom Eight pups got a new lease on life thanks to a surrogate mom named Timber.
A family of 10 pups at LAPS includes eight abandoned dogs who are being mothered by Timber, a German shepherd who gave birth to two pups of her own earlier this month.
by Matthew Claxton mclaxton@langleyadvance.com
A litter of puppies abandoned in a Langley park is doing much better with a new adoptive mother at the Patti Dale Animal Shelter. The pups, eight in total, were rescued on Dec. 3, when a Good Samaritan found them in a cardboard box in Brookswood Park, said Becky Hemhill of the Langley Animal Protection Society. The pups were about 10 days old when they were abandoned. The staff at LAPS started taking them home every night, usually splitting the pups up into groups of four, and hand-feeding them every couple hours. “We had all taken turns taking them home,” said Hemphill. No one’s sure exactly what breed the dogs might be, said Hemphill. “At this age, their features are undetermined,” she said. “They look like Guinea pigs.” While the staff and volunteers were ready to hand feed the pups
0Matthew Claxton Langley Advance
for weeks, they got an assist from another dog that had recently come to the shelter. Timber, a German shepherd, had been hanging around in a Langley neighbourhood as a stray for a few weeks until a resident rounded her up and took her to the shelter in early November. When Timber started getting a little larger, the staff realized she was pregnant, and she was taken off to the vet. On Dec. 6, she gave birth by emergency caesarian section at the Mountain View Veterinary Hospital to just two puppies. With a small litter, Timber could take on the duties of mothering the abandoned pups as well, the vets suggested.
The surrogate mother woke up from her c-section to find she was nursing two smallish newborn pups and eight larger dogs. “She was probably a little surprised, waking up with 10 puppies,” said Hemphill. The staff had done everything they could to make sure that Timber would accept the abandoned puppies as part of her litter. “It sounds gross, but they rubbed some of the placenta on them,” said Hemphill. Timber decided that she was a mom to 10 pups. “She doesn’t make any distinction,” said Hemphill. “She’s a really good mom.” Once things were settled, the
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puppies and mom were all moved into the food prep kitchen at the shelter, and a web cam was set up, allowing people to or online keep tabs on the family. The staff are keeping an eye on them to make sure the bigger pups don’t muscle out Timber’s biological offspring, and they’re also supplementing the bigger dogs with a little hand feeding so Timber doesn’t get exhausted. Since the dogs debuted on the web cam, there have already been a lot of calls with interest about adopting them. The older dogs will likely be adopted out starting in late January, and the younger German shepherds in February. Despite the help Timber is giving in raising the abandoned pups, the total cost of raising them will prove expensive. “By the time all’s said and one, this litter will probably cost us about $3,000,” Hemphill said. The Langley Animal Protection Society will welcome any donations that could help out. The web cam for the pups can be found at tinyurl.com/lcrnfa8.
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