Aspen and her progress

So, the puppies grew....and grew....and grew.....poor Aspen couldn't gain any weight so
the vet had us start weaning the pups at a little over 3 weeks old. The kids didn't take long
to catch on that puppy mush in a pan was yummy but they still got to "visit" the mom-cafe
on a limited basis. As the pups got more mobile Aspen began playing games with them
yet still keeping order in the ranks. It was wonderful to see Aspen play with a ball or chase
sticks or just plain be silly. She'd flop around on the ground with them and seeing her do a
play bow brough tears to our eyes as we doubted Aspen ever got to play very much living
in that "prison". By the end of October she was starting to put on a little muscle mass but
getting her up to her correct weight was going to take time and good food. As you can see
in the snowy pictures she actually has some meat on her bones but bald as can be after
having those pups. She had nothing but a rat tail on her at this point. By December she
was getting her coat back pushing 80 lbs, in fact she was actually pudgy now! The shape
of her head changed dramatically once there was some flesh on there and she was turning
into a gorgeous young lady.

By the beginning of January all of her puppies were in great forever homes and it was time
to focus on getting Aspen a place of her own. We were contacted by a family in Petosky
MI (about a 4 hour drive from Muskegon) that was very interested in Aspen. Their teenage
daughter has several health challenges and they wanted to see how Aspen reacted to their
daughter as well as the wheel chair. A meeting day was planned and we were
excited...................