NEW BETHLEHEM \u2013 It\u2019s been six months since a New Bethlehem family and their beloved Golden Retriever welcomes a near-record litter of 14 puppies \u2014 and a lot has happened since then as the pups have grown and moved out to families around Western Pennsylvania and beyond.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was complete chaos,\u201d Washington Street resident Julie Evans said of the eight weeks that the 14 puppies were reared alongside momma Fannie Lou.<\/p>\n
Born on Sept. 12, a front-page story in Oct. 2 issue of The Leader-Vindicator chronicled the first several weeks for the puppies, but those tiny little babies just kept getting bigger and bigger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t get much sleep,\u201d Julie said, noting that she and her husband Dave added two feeding troughs, made from roof gutters, to their dining room so that the 14 doggos could line up for chow \u2014 reaching the point where they were going through around 50 pounds of puppy food each week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were good puppies, and Fannie Lou was a good mom,\u201d Julie said. \u201cBut puppies require a lot of work.\u201d<\/p>\n
They were only in the Evans home for a couple of months or so, but a lot happened in that time.<\/p>\n
In addition to regular weigh-ins to make sure they were all eating and gaining weight, the pups were all given the equivalent of a puppy baptism by a local minister, took part in a pumpkin-themed photo shoot, and the entire lot made the trip to see veterinarian Brian Byers in Rimersburg.<\/p>\n
And how do you transport 14 little dogs? Evans said that with the help of friends Darla Hinderliter, Tracy Constable and Laurie Derringer, plastic totes were used, with two puppies per tote. Music in the car kept them nice and calm, with many of the little ones taking a nap during the ride.<\/p>\n
The dogs were all proclaimed healthy by the local vet, and after getting their shots, it was back to New Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
Julie kept a detailed puppy book about each of the dogs, keeping track of them with different color collars. Of the 14 puppies, 13 had the dark golden color of their mother Fannie Lou and father Archie Alcorn of Clarion, while one special dog kept her lighter coat of fur.<\/p>\n
Evans said that not long after the puppies were born, and the article came out in the newspaper and online, people began lining up to add their names to a waitlist for the dogs, which needed to be at least eight weeks old before they could move on to their new homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople just started calling and showing up at my house,\u201d Julie said. \u201cThey had seen it in the paper and wanted to see these 14 puppies.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time they were adopted, the dogs had taken over much of the Evans house, and they ranged in size from 11 pounds four ounces, down to eight pounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey took over my whole dining room, sometimes the kitchen and office area,\u201d she said. Neighbors and friends supported the cause by dropping off bags of food, and local children came in to play with the puppies.<\/p>\n
Celebrating their six-month birthday today (March 12), the roster of puppies (eight girls, and six boys) and where they ended up include:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Willow, female, New Kensington.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Luna, female, South Hills of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Willow, female, Shannondale.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Bailey, female, Templeton.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Lala Lou, female, North Carolina.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Nova Jean, female, Dayton.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ginger, female, New Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Nellie, female, Hawthorn.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Jax, male, Brookville.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Lincoln, male, New Castle.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sidney, male, Rimersburg.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Tank (the biggest of the bunch), male, Butler.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Joey, male, New Castle.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Hank, male, Seminole.<\/p>\n
Evans said most of the puppies went to families with children, and that one lives very close by and has been over to visit.<\/p>\n
As for Fannie Lou, Evans said momma is still her super friendly self, loving to play ball and not moping around at all despite the empty nest.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s getting back into shape,\u201d Julie said.<\/p>\n
Although she and Dave had originally planned to keep one of the puppies for themselves, they ultimately decided not to. But now, they\u2019re having second thoughts and might consider having Fannie Lou become a mom again at some point.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, she said she\u2019s waiting for summer to come around to try to bring as many of the puppies back together for a family reunion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to get as many as we can together this summer,\u201d she said. \u201cI wonder how they\u2019ll react when they see each other again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW BETHLEHEM \u2013 It\u2019s been six months since a New Bethlehem family and their beloved Golden Retriever welcomes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,296],"class_list":["post-135779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}