In  early March, AGR was contacted by a Goldendoodle breeder who had a litter of
7-week-old puppies she wanted to surrender. One of the puppies obviously had megaesophagus, so she suspected that his four siblings, who were asymptomatic, had this condition, too, and knew she could not sell the puppies. A previous litter of
9 puppies by the same Golden and Poodle parents all had megaesophagus and 8 of them had to be sent to the Bridge. The breeder had had X-rays done on the current four that showed no symptoms but the results were inconclusive. So, we took the entire litter knowing we would have some significant vet expenses (we might have to have all of them go through extensive testing to have megaesophagus confirmed)
– but that’s what Rescue does a lot of the time. The five puppies all needed deworming (twice), a full set of DHPP vaccines (every three weeks for three doses), leptospirosis (two doses), bordetella and rabies vaccines and will eventually be spayed or neutered. An exam was done on four of them and a full diagnostic work-up was done on Guinness, the one who obviously has megaesophagus (he would regurgitate food or water if he did not ingest it in a fully upright position).  AGR transporters drove to pick up the puppies. There were two black ones (one male and one  female) and three gold ones (one male and two females).  For names, they were given an Irish theme for St Paddy’s Day:

Keely - “Beautiful” red and green collar
Kiera - “Black-haired girl” red collar
Aiden - “Fiery One” dark blue collar
Charm - “Lucky Charm” black collar
Guinness - I just like the name and it’s Irish; light blue collar
All the puppies met their prospective families at our foster's house before they were moved to their forever homes.

Kiera was the black female and was the largest puppy in the litter. Arriving at the adopters’ home, Kiera was met by the whole family: mom, dad and two young boys. The boys had even made a cute Welcome sign for her. This was to be their first dog. They renamed her Winni. The adopter wrote:

Winni has already brought so much joy to our family. She is a sweet and playful girl and is having fun with her two human brothers. She loves early morning walks, daytime naps outside mama’s office, and her favorite activity is playing in the sprinkler in our backyard. She loves to run and play in the water and has even tried swimming a few times with us in the pool! She enjoys belly rubs and napping on the cool tile floor. She’s learned a few commands such as sit, down, off and come, and we’re working on “shake” because the boys want her to be able to shake hands/paws. We are so happy to have Winni as part of our family!