Little Puppy

3 weeks ago we found a little puppy on the side of the road in our apartment complex. Someone had left him in a shoe box. He was crying and dragging himself out of the box. It was so pitiful to see. We felt so bad for the little guy. We asked the people who were standing around looking at him who's dog he was but they told us he was no one's dog, that nobody wanted him.
Our hearts went out to the helpless creature so we picked him up and rode to the vet.
The veterinarian told us that he was about 1 week old and that it was hopeless.
Any time someone says something is hopeless, I feel something rise in me, maybe my spirit which has been rescued from many hopeless situations by my sweet God, and so we took him home, proclaiming it was not hopeless!

Chara checking out the box. Chara never quite knew what to do with him. She would look at it like it was something very odd, just ignore it completely, like a jealous teen or be super playful trying to get our attention away from the puppy.

We had no idea what we were getting into.

We now know that he must have only been a day, maybe even hours old. His umbilical chord was still attached when we found him and his eyes and ears still closed.

We had no idea that mother dogs did so much for their pups. Baby puppies cannot go to the bathroom on their own so the mother dog licks those areas to help it relieve itself. Did not know that!

And so for the last 3 weeks we have helped the little guy go to the bathroom and bottle fed him around 6 times a day and all through the night. Sweet, amazing husband Zachary fed the yelping pup every two hours through the night during the 3 weeks we had him. He will be such an amazing father! Not sure what this says about me... but at least he'll have his game on. :)

We looked up tons of information online on how to care for him and how to feed him.
Here's some useful links, in case you too are taking care of an abandoned pup.
http://lotofguides.com/502/how-to-care-for-a-puppy-who-has-no-mommy.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_5419552_care-abandoned-new-born-puppy.html
(Only show, but still useful information.)

http://www.ehow.com/how_5419552_care-abandoned-new-born-puppy.html

We used a substitute puppy formula, since they don't have puppy formula/milk in China, with an egg yolk, liquid baby vitamins and baby formula. He seemed to like the stuff.
We had to heat it just right for him to drink it.

Since his eyes weren't open the first 2 weeks it was pretty difficult to feed him. He sniffed and sniffed and would not stop moving his head searching for food.

The worst part of feeding him was that his little tongue kept getting stuck to the top of his mouth. Sometimes it would be stuck for an hour, so we'd have to put him down, so he would stop sucking and wait for his tongue to unstick. Poor guy.

Finally, after 2 weeks  and a few days (another sign he was much younger than a week when we found him) his eyes opened.
We were so excited because this made him feel more like a puppy to us. He even started crawling around and playing a little.

We took him to the vet on Thursday, before our move Friday, and they said they would take care of him.
In just a few weeks he will be able to eat puppy food and should be playing and active the next 2 weeks.

We hope the best for the little guy whom we named Hero, a derivative from the Greek work Heron, which means 'found.'


(Sorry we didn't get any pictures of him with his eyes open! Too busy!)