My basic info
Color
Black - with Brown, Red, Golden, Orange or Chestnut
Size
Large 61-100 lbs (28-45 kg) (when grown)
Here's what the humans have to say about me:
Does everyone know the story about Ella and her puppies? I am sure everyone who follows us has seen pictures of her adorable puppies but do you know their story? I bet you don't, few know it.
Ella and Maxx are two rottweilers who were left behind when a home was foreclosed in Ballyntine Park (Charlotte). They lived in the back yard of this foreclosed home for 6 months with little human interaction. They were safe in a fenced back yard, and they had each other. Thankfully for some concerned citizens they were fed and watered at times, but definitely not daily. Ella and Maxx are both 2-3 years old, unfortunately because of the laws we had to contact the "owner" even though they were abandoned. After a volunteer Nicole and our I drove over an hour to Charlotte to get the dogs, they spent about another 3-4 hours there with the dogs and the owner. He is/was going through some major life issues and it's not our place to discuss those with anyone. He agreed to sign the dogs over; we vaccinated both dogs, heart worm tested both dogs, did an on the spot behavioral assessment (more detailed ones were done later) and micro chipped Ella. We loaded her in the van and the owner broke down with the thought of loosing both his dogs and was unable to bring himself to let us take Maxx. We left things open ended with him and told him if he changed his mind we would be happy to take Maxx at a later date that was on November 24th . To date we still haven't heard from him regarding Maxx. We do know Maxx no longer lives in the back yard, I went to check a few weeks later.
Ella went to see Dr Zebley om November 28th and that is when we learned she was pregnant. We were told she would probably abort the puppies (miscarry) or they would be born dead because we vaccinated her. Dr Z estimated her delivery date between Christmas and New Years. This changed a lot around here, we were not equipt for a litter of puppies. But we agreed to let Ella continue her pregnancy and see what happened. Her body score was a 3.5, a dog should be a 6 before being bred. She wasn't emaciated but a few pounds lighter and she would have been. We didn't think her puppies would be born healthy because of the vaccines and because she was so malnurished. She was completely bald in areas (and still is to this day). So life progressed and she was switched from regular Pro Plan to Sport 30/20 and was eating 15 cups a day. Holy cow, an expense we had not planned on for sure! I just had a gut feeling her puppies were going to be born much earlier than everyone kept saying, she was seeing Dr Z every few days for check ups and the puppies seemed to be growing much to our delightment. So on December 8th, I just knew the puppies would be born the next day. We moved her x-ray up to the 9th, she saw Dr Z and Dr Kennedy and both said she wasn't ready I was just being paranoid. Which I have been known to be from time to time.....so we went home and I took care of all the critters and went to bed) I work nights) 4 hours later I woke up to go to the bathroom and heard a funny noise. I ran to the dining room (where Ella's crate was) and saw she was in labor. My heart just sank, as I was just told if she delivered today they would not live. I freaked out, and I pulled them out and much to my delight they were alive! I called Dr Z and she told me to get Ella out of the crate and let her have them. She was supposed to have 5 puppies......she delivered 6 puppies with ease. Then she was panting and crying, pushing but nothing for about 20 minutes. She finally let me check her, oh my God I saw 1 little back leg and that was all. I thought to myself this puppy is dead and she can't pass it. So without getting into much detail I helped her deliver the puppy. To everyone's amazement he was just fine! He was breached and so much larger than the others she just couldn't do it by herself. We were minutes away from needing an emergency c-section. Thank God she let me help her.....that puppy was Nero.
Okay.....so now puppies are here, born a week early but they are here. Ella had no milk at all, we gave her all kinds of supplements to help her produce milk (calcium and fenugreek) which she did do for about 2.5 weeks then she started drying up. So here is another hurdle; after all this our completely healthy, beautiful puppies needed to be bottle fed! Andy and I did it though, we fed them the Leerburg's formula every 3 hours. Ella let them nurse what she could, but it wasn't much. For about another week she helped them go potty. When they were 3.5 weeks old we switched them to formula in a dish. When they were 4 weeks old they were switched to Pro Plan Large Breed puppy, and now they are almost 6 weeks old and doing great! These puppies over came so many obstacles in life and are only 5.5 weeks old. Ella still has weight to gain but she too is doing well. She gets along with all the other dogs. We are praying that she too find her much deserving furever home. So when you look at our beautiful puppies think about Ella too. Remember the hell she endured for her babies. They truly are a miracle.
