Introduction

Meet Abby.

Abby is at least six months old, and no older than a year. A good guesstimate is eight months. She is a gorgeous, playful, intelligent little girl with a lot of bad in her short life here on Earth.

Abby somehow ended up at a very scum-of-the-Earth shelter in Virginia; and she went on the euthanasia list pretty quickly.. you know, black dogs just aren't adoptable. Well, surprise surprise, Miss Abby had EIGHT babies in the shelter sometime around Independence Day.

And sometime between then and July 7th, a cruel and careless kennel worker hosed down the kennel that contained young Abby and her newborn babies .. with them still inside of it. With no one to dry them off and no one to help Abby keep them all warm, the babies immediately began to deteriorate.

On July 8th, salvation came. Abby and her babies were transported from the kill shelter to a nearby rescue, where a foster home was waiting for them. En route, three of the eight puppies died.

Once in her new foster home, Abby immediately began to feel better - good food and fresh water and a warm bed and soft, loving hands can do a world of good for a tired momma. Unfortunately, not more than an hour after arriving at their new foster home, the runt of the litter, a small white little girl, couldn't hold on any longer, and passed away cradled in her foster mom's arms.

That night, the second little girl, a black and white beauty, slipped away in her sleep, blissfully unaware of her little body's inability to continue. Three little boys were left.

On July 9th, Abby and her litter were rushed to the vet clinic for evaluation - could nothing be done to save the remaining puppies, who seemed to be growing weaker by the minute? The vet diagnosed the smallest of the three puppies with what is known as "Fading Puppy Syndrome".

"Fading Puppy Syndrome", or FPS, is a condition where, for any number of unknown (some known, but untreatable) reasons, a young puppy will begin to "fade", or slowly deteriorate and eventually die.

 The smallest of the three remaining boys, also a little black and white beauty, could no longer nurse because he was so weak. He could not swallow, and soon, he slipped away, too.

The only two that remain alive today are "Ox" and "Moose", the two black males in the litter. "Moose" is currently having a tough go of it - he is barely swallowing, but is fighting hard to survive. "Ox" has been on cruise control ever since he arrived here, at his foster home. He crawls all over the place and nurses up a hurricane. He is very strong and healthy.

Updates to come as they occur.