Hi Everyone -- I am sad to report that the siamese pup that Blossom was fostering died this morning (17 days old). I think I may have caused or aggravated the situation. I had been making a fire in the fireplace and my hands smelled like charred wood when I handled the pup. When I put him back his foster-mom (Blossom) kept attacking him. The saddest thing, was that no matter how horribly she treated him he continued to follow and seek comfort from her :(. I kept her off him and put him under the 5-pup, pup pile for about an hour until she was sniffing, but not hurting him. Then I went to bed. In the morning he was kicked out of the nest and not doing well. At that point, I did remove him with a heat lamp and tried to KMR feed him, but couldn't get him to eat much, and finally he faded away. A big lesson learned is the importance of washing hands before handling young pups. A similar incident happened a while back where I had placed a 4 week old pup in some stale litter and the mom attacked her upon her return to the tank. In that case I did remove the pup right away, and was able to successfully KMR feed her through weaning. -- Donna
