OCTOBER 25, 2022: Pre-arrival
You know how we all love puppies?
Well there were SIX precious little babies left in a blanket and dumped on the side of the road, and I have agreed to take 2 of them.
However, if I had extra hands, I could take more babies.
Anyone want to help/pilot a bottle baby support program?! Short shifts. You’d get the fun and snuggly parts and I’ll do the poop and overnights.
Haaaalp!
OCTOBER 27, 2022
After a long day’s travel and a lot of effort by many people, the babies have arrived at the orphanage! They’re active, hungry, and only a week old. I foresee a few jailbirds in our future, but for now, see if you can guess which puppy has been doing the most genital suckling….
OCTOBER 28, 2022
Nice jugs!
A gift from Kendall and a random thrift shop find and I can feed 2 babies at once AND remain mobile!
OCTOBER 28, 2022
The time it took to purchase children’s socks and fashion one into a suckling deterrent is infinitely longer than the homemade onesie stayed on the puppy.
Everyone arrived with genital trauma, so until I can find a reliable method of protecting their junk, they are all in jail and only allowed to snuggle the mom!
OCTOBER 28, 2022
Hands down, the best eye makeup this orphanage has ever seen!
Content after a record-breaking poop!
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OCTOBER 30, 2022
OCTOBER 31, 2022
While our childhood friends raced their bikes up and down the street, my little brother Lou and I were doing time trials on some wheelchairs my mom found at the thrift shop. Yes, of course we rode bikes, too, and therefore the helmet rule conveyed to the new racing vessels. Or maybe I should call them wheelie chairs.
Nevertheless, despite many, many bad decisions, neither Lou nor I ever broke a bone, but we scared our parents in other ways. Like when Lou got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and they had to put him in the bathtub with ice and then I got sent away. Or the time I had giardiasis. And then there was the incident with the rubber band where Lou managed to sustain an eye injury that warranted medical care.
But without a doubt, the best family emergency was the time we thought Lou, who was maybe 7, had appendicitis. He developed severe abdominal pain and my mom and dad were at the bedside with the thermometer and stethoscope lol, smushing around on his belly and performing other parental “diagnostics.” And while they were assessing whether to call 911 or rush him to the ER themselves, my baby brother released the mother of all farts and he was miraculously healed.
I am reminded of this story every time I sit down with this cranky puppy who, much like Lou, just seems to hold on to more gas than the average little bear.
He found the right mom, though, because while the littermates are sleeping, me and this guy are working it out!
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NOVEMBER 1, 2022
Now offering my babies more opportunities to suckle … because that’s what they say they want.
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NOVEMBER 2, 2022
Our eyes are starting to open, but our tummies are so happy, we are sleeping a lot and it’s hard for our mom to get good pictures while we are awake!
NOVEMBER 3, 2022
This is my favorite part of every feeding. They all pop their little heads out to make sure I didn’t forget!
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NOVEMBER 5, 2022
I’m only 2 days behind in reporting that our babies have been here a whole week and that I didn’t know it was possible to love this hard without a cardiac explosion.
They are funny and perfect and warm and happy and fat. They’re getting rid of worms and no longer depend on me to void (cue the laundry!) And they’re getting supervised snuggling rights, but as soon as the warden hears the sound of a genital infraction — it’s back to jail!
Little babies, I’m so glad you came. 
NOVEMBER 5, 2022
While I believe animal abusers are superfluous and parasitic to society, I don’t get a say in it, nor what they choose to do. Instead, I think of my part of animal rescue in terms of cancelling out bad guys.
Well, I used to.
The story of six newborn puppies, dumped on the side of the road and left to die has become the greatest love story I’ve ever had the privilege of telling, and it started before Crazy Town.
I am certain I don’t know all the details about the people who really rescued these six puppies, but they all deserve an emphatic thanks and applause. They worked really hard to ensure these baby dogs got to HAVE a story to tell, and they turned what might have been a tragedy into a tale of love and hope.
Here are a few of those heroes:
First and foremost, the person (or people) who found 6 hypothermic newborn puppies on the side of the road AND DIDN’T LOOK THE OTHER WAY 
and who got them to somebody(s) who resuscitated and rewarmed them. Joanne stepped up to foster and she tube- and then bottle-fed all six for an entire week — the most intensive period of a neonatal foster. Someone reached out to the rescue community, Ryan tagged me, I enlisted you, and then more heroes activated. Someone transported our babies 3.5 hours from Abington, VA to Charlottesville and turned them over to Jillian who did a round trip from Fredericksburg to pick them up, and then she delivered 6 perfect puppies safely to me in the orphanage.
Those are just the ones I know about.
And then there’s all of you, many pictured, but plenty not pictured, who swoop in every time I have babies, to love them, to support me, to help in a gazillion different ways. Thank you. Thank you all.
If anyone has a piece to add to this story, pictures, or to name a hero we might not yet know of, please put them in the comments because the scoreboard shows that “team love” didn’t just null out the actions of 1 dud human, but that we are winning by miles.
“Look for the helpers,” said Mr. Rogers’ mom. “You will always find people who are helping.”
NOVEMBER 7, 2022
Weaning bottle babies is different from weaning puppies who have a mom. For starters, bottle babies are accustomed to being held in my lap and hand-fed, and then suddenly we ask the baby to change gears and eat like a grown up.
When there’s a mama dog involved, the transition is more fluid and natural.
When we wean them, we are asking the puppy to:
-Lap their food from a dish versus suckling from a bottle.
-Go to the food (find it with their nose,) navigate the new bowl, and eat independently.
-Consume their meals on the floor of a playpen versus in my lap.
That’s a lot of new skills for a little baby to learn all at once, so as we approach 3 weeks old, they’re gently learning some new concepts during a phase I’m going to call “betweaning.”
We’ll be full-blown weaners soon, though, don’t you worry!
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NOVEMBER 8, 2022
We believe in practicing safe suckling!
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NOVEMBER 9, 2022
I might have had time to take some headshots of these tiny baby dogs I love, but I got stood up twice today trying to buy someone’s Pack & Play. The babies need more space.
They are still DTS (down to suckle) 24/7, so they have to be in separate quarters during the warden’s sleeping hours.
We are starting potty training concepts already and babies prefer not to, sorry, shit where they sleep, and if people would just give up their old playpens, my buddy here wouldn’t have to make pretzels in his bed.
Happy 3 weeks, babies!
NOVEMBER 10, 2022
Wow! You guys turned my gripes of yesterday into Pack N Plays today!
This one is from Carol Anne who went out of her way to deliver it, and who probably never expected when she put it away last that it had a future housing little jailbirds in Crazy Town.
Mr. White floof is relieved to have an upgraded cell. He’s making use of the in-room facilities and the amenities alike.
Thank you, Carol Anne! What a pleasurable way to meet!
NOVEMBER 11, 2022
NOVEMBER 11, 2022
Crazy Town rests tonight in the arms of moms who saw a need and came to love us. My heart is as full as the nursery they furnished, and now EVERY baby has a proper space to reside when I can’t watch over them.
My job is to keep 6 baby dogs healthy and safe, and my life revolves around meeting their needs while simultaneously preventing genital trauma.
The moms came out of the woodwork and I can sleep knowing no one is trapped in a cell meant for a neonate.
Thanks for an outpouring of so much love and support I feel dumb.
Dumb because, as I told a couple of you, I am still 15 and I still semi-expect for someone to yell at me for irresponsibility taking 6 neonates without already having proper accommodations. 
Instead, you moms did the opposite. You went to your closets/basements/barns and you took to the interwebs and you drove in your cars, and then you MOMMED ME!
Best of all, the Crazy Town cribs have a story; this chapter beginning the day the moms came mommin’.
WE ARE RICH!!!
NOVEMBER 11, 2022
Big shout out to Zoe who came over with her friends this summer and told her parents about visiting Ani’s Orphans!
Zoe’s parents are as delightful as Zoe and their Pack N Play is home to a new safe suckling device.
NOVEMBER 13, 2022
Potty training concepts start early around here, but there’s something else you should know about.
I’m sure you’ve heard of a dingleberry. Well, if you don’t pick up a poop soon enough, then you end up with a dinglePUPPY and A LOT more laundry.
And speaking of laundry, thank you Skin and Bare It Beauty, LLC for making sure I don’t run out of detergent!
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NOVEMBER 13, 2022
The new bed is nice and all, but the den is more suitable for a baby bear.
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NOVEMBER 16, 2022
Just a guess … terrier mixes
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NOVEMBER 17, 2022
It’s 4AM and all the babies are awake in unison.
I am awake in my bed.
They continue.
I calculate how long it’s been since they last ate.
They continue.
I enter the nursery and am greeted by a cacophony of 4-week-old puppies who know my smell and are so glad I’ve arrived.
I regret getting out of bed.
Jax saunters in, I think to offer me, his BFF, canine support. But no. Jax is only there because it’s a passageway to the living room which is quiet and where he can get better rest until we wake for the park at 6.
Little does he know, I gave in after a good while and the babies ate. I just set the alarm for a little later.
I love you, Jax, you butthole.
NOVEMBER 17, 2022
Fierce & four weeks old!
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NOVEMBER 19, 2022
This week began socialization outside the orphanage, and we kicked off our rigorous snuggle schedule by visiting some of the greatest dog lovers I know in just about every facet of our emergency response system.
It is crucial the babies meet all kinds of people in lots of different places, and get as many new experiences as I can give them before they are graduated to their forever homes.
We interrupted meetings and classes and workdays and 911 calls (just kidding – we didn’t interrupt those) and were received with open arms everywhere we went, many people waiting in the parking lot, ready to escort us inside. The reception of love overwhelmed me. It always does.
Thank you. Thank you all. Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office – Roger L. Harris SheriffSpotsylvania County Fire, Rescue, and Emergency ManagementRappahannock EMS Council and everyone else I can’t tag.
Inside the orphanage, the babies are learning important social skills in their indoor obstacle course/sensory room. They’re being challenged, solving age-appropriate problems, experiencing new textures, sights, sounds, toys and navigating new spaces and heights.
They’re officially mini dogs now — I gave their first round of vaccines this week, their teeth are coming in nice and sharp, and they’re learning to use their mouths in a new way, and to control their bite through play. They’re starting to use their 2 later-developing senses, sight and sound, instead of just their noses to find me and engage with their world.
While the puppy is bottle feeding, it associates the smell of my hand with food, so at the start of weaning, I lead them to their bowl by holding it in my hand on the playpen floor— they find my hand and then lap up the food like they practiced in my arms. Now that those new senses are being put to work, they are asked to find their bowls and eat independently. Big skills!
They are plump and feisty and will not ever compete for resources. They have no concept of being pushed out of the way for food, and they’ve never had to fight for a place at the trough nor the opportunity to dominate a community food bowl. Mealtime is a peaceful time and there’s no need to rush. The resources are plentiful in Crazy Town and so are the dishes!
The medical supplies I used this week and the indoor, ever evolving, play space was made possible by Gail & Doug, Carol, Andrea, Margaret, Jessica, Michelle, Shalan & Minor, Katie O, and, most especially, the thrift shop.
Y’all I cannot even tell you how grateful I am to be able to be a small part of the animal rescue chain. It’s hard work, it doesn’t pay in money, but existing on this earth with such purpose makes me rich. Thank you for every way you have supported my work and invested in me. We are giving puppies someone trashed every opportunity, adequately preparing them for the world, and at the end, six former underdogs will rise from Crazy Town, confident; ready for the futures for which they were destined.
NOVEMBER 19, 2022
I was on all fours cleaning POOP out of the ball pit when this girl found me and climbed all the way up the inside of my shirt and poked her head out the top.
It’s good to be Mom!
NOVEMBER 21, 2022
Ellen cleans up the toys, but I’m still in charge of poops.
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NOVEMBER 21, 2022
They called him White Fang the Bandit, but he’s really just a lover. For he wears his heart on his snoot.
NOVEMBER 22, 2022
Mama Kangaroo
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NOVEMBER 26, 2022
We got to hop around in the grass on this beautiful November day!
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NOVEMBER 26, 2022
What a stroke of luck to get such a pretty day in November.
NOVEMBER 28, 2022
I think I know who’s been pooping in the ball pit.
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NOVEMBER 28, 2022
Thanks to Auntie Mary for the surprise Chewy delivery!!
NOVEMBER 28, 2022
Fort naps are good naps!
NOVEMBER 28, 2022
This puppy-matching backdrop was made out of … your old stuff! Thanks! 🙏🏻❤️
NOVEMBER 29, 2022
We caught a mouse!
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NOVEMBER 29, 2022
Learning new skills every day!
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DECEMBER 1, 2022
Pavlov would have shat on his laboratory floor if he knew that one day the dog would ring the bell himself,
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Growing up got harder this week, but our babies sailed through every challenge. They are curious and continue to try new things and meet new people with confidence and enthusiasm, and….they really love me, but one of them bit my boob. They’re at the beginning of basic obedience, learning that behavior earns food, and we’ve done away with those boring old bowls. Last night the babies did more hunting while a storm played on YouTube. We have a few natural fetchers in our midst!
With some of your donations and ALL of the boxes, I constructed a really fun mountain to climb! The puppies learned stairs and reached heights they’ve never seen before, and then had to navigate back down.
The ball pit & balls are out of service for poop detail and the ramp has been removed for the same reason. 
I broke a pair of infant clippers on one of their toenails this week, so we’re ready to move up to the real tools.
Shout out to Ava who serendipitously sent an order that saved my butt on vaccine day, to Molly for feeding ME and for the epic hand-me-downs, to Zoe and her mom for the baby blankets and “lightly used” puppy pads 
, to Jean for the special prezzies, and to all of you for being on this journey with me.
Mountain-climbing footage to come, but first I have to soak their balls.
DECEMBER 2, 2022
Special song & story for Ava, Gail & Doug Thank you for gifting us, loving us, visiting us and being our friends. ❤️ **Ani was Almost a Pianist** I had a short run at the Yamaha School of Music as a 5-ish year old girl. I was removed from the class (by my mother) after flipping everyone “the bird” but not before I perfected this pretty ditty. It’s called “Walking to the Sea” and I’ve never had better accompaniment!
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DECEMBER 4, 2022
DECEMBER 8, 2022
Just last night this puzzle was a challenge.
DECEMBER 10, 2022
Yesterday we went back to visit our friends at Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office – Roger L. Harris Sheriff
I am again at a loss for words. I showed up with six baby dogs who need every experience they can get, and we got so much more than I could have asked for.
In the moment, I’m consumed by being the mom, making sure the babies aren’t, like, doing things to ruin what has become an open invitation to the holy grail of sweet people and new spaces. But when I look back at the footage, it makes me cry.
Thank you all, so, so much, for loving us and welcoming us, and for stopping your day to ensure that the puppies someone trashed aren’t just saved, but have every advantage.
DECEMBER 15, 2022
And what have our roadside treasures been up to? EVERYTHING!!!
DECEMBER 15, 2022
Anyone want to invite us to their firehouse?
DECEMBER 16, 2022
Thank you for sending us this BOX!!! And the paper towels too!!!
DECEMBER 18, 2022
“This is the best birthday EVERRR!”
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DECEMBER 28, 2022
I can hardly believe I’m making this announcement because it seems like yesterday six little babies came to Crazy Town in need of a mom.
But it wasn’t yesterday. In fact, they’ve seen many milestones and two major holidays since I met them, and our roadside treasures have all been graduated into lives far beyond my wildest dreams.
No lateral moves is my policy, you know. Crazy Town is just a bridge—it’s for practice, for growth, a stone from which to jump. And every one of my babies leapt out of here into families and futures that far exceed the life they’d get if they stayed. Mission accomplished.
Sometimes I feel like the moment a set of bottle babies comes in, I go down a sort of tunnel where I am not all the way participating in society. I get 8ish weeks, a drop in the bucket of time, to grow them, wean them, and get them ready for life without me. It’s short.
In the beginning, I play a purely nurturing role. I feed the babies and tend to them and make sure they don’t have farts trapped in their full tummies, and I ensure they get ample suckling hours and their poops are solid, and the bedding is warm and clean. But then — while they’re still relatively tiny and adorrrrable — i have to go by what Mama Beatrice and other dogs taught me and start letting go, so the babies grow their confidence in themselves.
It would do them no good to grow all their confidence in me as I am only a temporary figure in their lives.
Of course in a new situation they all might seek me out for reassurance — but I’d be doing them and their adopters a tremendous disservice if I picked up and coddled a puppy every time a new thing happened and it was weird or loud or scary. My job as the mama dog is not to reinforce their trepidation, but to shape their response by showing them that, whatever it is, they can handle it.
The roadside six have gone off to their real families where they are happy, the reports all read. Some stayed in state; some have already experienced their first snow, but all were received into love. And, somehow, because of these babies, so was I.
Thank you to everyone who supported and/or funded this epic foster journey; who came over, fed babies, fed me, let us visit, donated their Pack & Play, sent us formula, food, or supplies; and a special thanks for cheering louder when you knew I needed extra love that day.
Sending my very best wishes to my babies and to their new families. All my love!
JANUARY 9, 2022
Y’all. These adoption stories have become so incredible, I am feeling like I need an editor at least, or, at best, a different writer to tell them. I can’t afford either, so here I am, hoping to rise to the occasion.
Let’s start with our Roadside Treasures, the six babies who were dumped on the side of the road to freeze to death, but who were saved, NOT by me, but by people I don’t personally know, and some I probably don’t even know OF.
One of them is Joanne. She is the reason our babies made it to Crazy Town alive and well. She took all 6 of them, hypothermic, with little hope of survival. She might have seen them all die that night, but she risked her own emotional comfort for the desperate puppies and saved them all. Six neonates is a lot. They require ‘round the clock care and rely on the stand-in mama dog to meet every need, including but not limited to pooping, peeing, eating/drinking and homeostasis! The babies don’t even have a shiver reflex when they’re so little, but Joanne warmed them up and kept them at just the right temperature to thrive.
She also sent me the healthiest, fattest babies I’ve ever received. Not even one of them was in distress when they were delivered by Jillian, who put a lot of miles on her car to pick them up at a rendezvous spot in Charlottesville, and fed them on the side of the road during their journey to Crazy Town.
I don’t know Joanne but I feel Joanne. She knows the 3am I know. I got a handwritten note in the bag she sent along with the puppies. She jotted down their history, penned all the pertinent information, how much they were eating, and then shipped them off to a total stranger, me, who happens to love receiving report!
Is Joanne superhuman, I wondered. It had to be hard to let go of babies so young and to and unknown oncoming mom. But she found out about this page and followed their story in Crazy Town, hopefully with not too much regret. Joanne – it was a pleasure receiving the proverbial baton from you, and I’m so happy we met!
As though the story of the puppies’ arrival wasn’t incredible enough, the circumstances under which those babies resided and then departed Crazy Town should do you in.
Of course, Joanne set the bar pretty high and I didn’t want to be the mom to lower it. On my trips taking these tiny LIVING blank canvases out into the world to capitalize on their “socialization window” I ran into Ona’s (formerly Elba 
) parents when we barged into some sort of training they were helping with. Ona’s mom, my friend Melissa, announced to the room, proudly, emphatically, “WE ADOPTED ONE OF ANI’S ORPHANS!” and that’s why we went back to visit that class two more times. 
I didn’t know who the students were but they welcomed us immediately and I noted that some of them had beards and some were kind of burly looking, and there were people with long hair, and short hair, and gloves and dangling stethoscopes and hats and deep voices and high voices .. and… EXPOSURE GALORE — and they all were delighted to socialize our puppies. They hit me right in my feelings when my guard was down. I felt a sense of comfort being in a room with these men and women, who were disgusted in unison as I told the story of why these babies needed a mom. They cared. Immediately. And their spirits revived me in a way I can’t express in words.
Every person in that room had a story to tell and wisdom to offer me through their own dogs, but the magic was far from over.
Soon after, I got a message from a beautiful woman named Lori saying her husband met me while he was taking a class in Fredericksburg, and long story short, she made my love note wall before she even came to Crazy Town. She is now very much my friend, spirit person and the mom of a baby now known as Gideon, the auntie to a baby named Remy, and an in-law to baby Tilley.
I might have blown off some of the compliments I was paid while I visited that class, but Lori is the reason I had to consider taking them to heart, because as it turned out, despite the medical bent of the course, many people in that room were discretely, humbly, and professionally far more qualified to handle dogs than I’ll ever dream of being, and one of them is Gideon’s dad.
He saw things in the work that I don’t write about or advertise, that I do because other dogs told me I should. Do you know how validating and motivating that is? Especially when you’re a tired mom of six babies?!
I was proud to welcome Gideon’s parents, sister, and the in-laws to my Crazy Town, and honored they’d want to make the trip from Pennsylvania (twice) even though the driving instructions included things like, “it’s the blue house right BEFORE the nice blue house.” They seemed to appreciate this place for its heart and for what it is — a property that exists to nurture the needs of the canine and above all else, let dogs be dogs.
The baby I knew as Mr. Cranky Pants, who had bad gas as a tiny, is known as Chance now. He also has a loving family that includes dogs and kids who have swallowed him and his perky ears right in. His mom enlightened me about Banfield’s new puppy program and that it includes a DNA test! She made me swoon by considering the puppy’s fitness in their pack, inquiring about his temperament before even meeting him.
Our shy guy, “White Fang The Bandit”, named by Spotsy Sheriff’s Office, is Koda in his new life, and was indeed a gift to his parents this Christmas. He shines under the Christmas tree, loved and adored, and his sweet mom may have potential as my editor as she spotted a documentation error and brought it to my attention so I could fix it!
Lety Spaghetti has gone out to the country to live on a lovely farm and promised not to harass the ducks too much. Her human sister had been stealing the family dog and the only logical solution to their snuggle deficit was to expand the pack. Although they adopted her by the formal name Azizi, they chose to keep her baby name, Lety, and added Pearl to the middle. 
If anyone forgot, the Baby Pearl was Rio’s first bottle baby and she taught him how to not be weird.
All of the new families report that the babies are happy and healthy, that they’ve been accepted into their respective packs, have already been to the vet, had play dates, and **some of them** (GIDEON) like to steal their big brothers’ bones!!
As their former mom, the storyteller, and now just the Auntie, I am elated and grateful all six puppies graduated into lives far better than I could ever give them. That means I did my job and can continue to break out the Pack & Plays and steam up the nursery for the next ones.
It didn’t matter what their names were in foster care, so I never announced them. The identifiers I chose for their medical records serve only to say formally, officially and forever (on the ShelterLuv servers) that Kenzo, Joono, Johara, Azizi, Zhen, and Arcelio always were and will always be treasures.
It was an epic foster journey and I’m deeply grateful to have been part of it.
