Nikole and his girlfriend, Sam, did not expect that their simple trip to Walmart will change their lives forever. They found the two most precious German Shorthair Pointers, which became their first dogs and new members of their family.
“My girlfriend and I went to Walmart in Mesa, Arizona to gather some items. However, as we left the parking lot, we saw a lady who had two big metal tins with a sign that said, “Free Puppies” I didn’t have any dogs and out of curiosity, went over to see what she had,” said Nikole.
The lady had about six to eight 5-month-old puppies and then had about four 2-week-old puppies placed in two different litters.
“It was actually kind of obvious that the woman was not sane and clearly was on drugs. She said that she did not want the dogs and was going to take them to the pound. For starters, Sam and I lived in two separate homes and decided it would not work to bring a puppy home, so we decided to walk away,” Nikole emphasized.
However, he said that as he walked away he realized that he wanted to have a puppy for his family so he said to Sam, “Well, I changed my mind and want to get one for my brother” then he picked up the female brown one. Sam, on the other hand, was already looking at the black female puppy and said, ‘Well, I will get one for my sister,” then their lives just changed drastically until then.
“So we took them home and decided we should go to a PetSmart and get some basic puppy supplies. But we really had no idea what we were in for,” Nikole shared laughing.
“We just arrived home when we noticed that the brown one, which we called Tatum, had a dewclaw that was barely hanging on and was bleeding really bad. In fact, her dewclaw on the other foot was removed already, ” he said.
So they rushed the dogs to the vet, who also said stated that someone tried to cut off the puppy’s dewclaw and was unsuccessful. They also found out that the two puppies that they took were actually no more than two weeks old.
“Knowing this, the vet also told us not to get attached because the likelihood of them surviving was slim,” Nikole said sadly.
But the two did not let it bother them. Instead, they bought a mini pool and a heated blanket. They woke the two puppies every few hours to bottle-feed them. Also, Tatum’s declaw had fallen off, either because she bit it or it just fell off. Unfortunately, the two puppies developed an infection again, so they needed to give the dogs some medicines to strengthen them.
“Unfortunately, my brother soon realized he did not have time for Tatum,” said Nikole. So he took care of the puppy all by himself, while Skylar, the other puppy was taken care of by Sam. The two shared that they wanted to have the two puppies spayed, but since they were told both anemic, they need to take more medicines.
Finally, after making sure that the two puppies were no longer anemic and healthy, they were spayed.
The 2-week-old puppies that were predicted to die and not survive, made it through and are now happy 20-month-old, fully of energy.
“They have taught us so much about love, patience, and survival,” said Nikole.
“These definitely should not have been our first dogs, but I would not have had it any other way. They do have social skill issues with other dogs, probably because they were pulled away from their mom so soon, but we are working on those issues. Skylar has separation anxiety, but she is getting better,” said Nikole with full of hope.
Now, Skylar and Tatum recently got a new little brother named Parker—a Shih Tzu Yorkie mix.
“Skylar loves him, but Tatum is still having issues with sharing attention,” said Nikole.
“My girlfriend and I recently moved in together, and all the dogs are finally in one house. No more transporting them back and forth between two houses. Tatum is the brown one and Skylar is the black one. We definitely got more than what was on the Walmart list that day!”
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