Baby, it’s cold outside

Last weekend’s arctic front brought near-record low temperatures to the area for several nights in a row, with some areas reporting single-digit temperatures Saturday night. Residents -- both 2-footed and 4-footed -- had to deal. by Sherry Matney

Mama stands at the corner and waits. She has sat at the same corner for weeks, waiting. She really doesn’t know why she’s there. She only knows that the one she trusted dumped her at this corner only days before her babies were born. Now she is left with babies she must feed and protect. But it is so difficult!!

Mama’s senses tell her that the weather is changing and she must find a warm, safe place for her babies. She crawls into a cavity created by two fallen trees and arranges her young before she feeds them. She realizes that there may not be enough milk for her babies but she patiently waits for them to finish before she goes back to the corner.

Mama with her eight beautiful babies. Four males and four females. Sherry’s Shots Maybe today! Maybe today he will come back. She waits. Then a car stops and a lady gets out and calls to Mama. But Mama is afraid and will not go to the lady. The lady leaves something and as soon as she is gone Mama creeps forward and realizes the object is a bowl of food. Good!! Now she will be able to produce enough milk for her babies one more time.

The next day while Mama watches again the same car with the same lady stops with more food. This time Mama lets the lady approach and talk to her. While the lady is still at the corner, a truck stops and a man gets out. This makes Mama very nervous because she is afraid of the man.

The man seems to be looking for something and begins to crawl around getting close to Mama’s babies. Oh no!! Why does he want her babies?

A good samaritan rigged a tarp to shelter the animals. Sherry’s Shots And then he finds them. All eight of them! Pretty, precious, black and brown puppies that appear as healthy as if they had been living in a kennel. The man pulls something out of his truck and constructs a shelter what looks like a tent. He tried to get Mama to go into the shelter but she wouldn’t go. Then the lady picks up the babies, puts them into her car and Mama climbed in with them.

The good lady in this scenario is Jan Ramsey of the Buffalo Gal, and the good man is David Long. Ramsey had seen the black female dog at the corner of Highway 79 and FM 2539 (Harcrow Lake Road) for several days before she stopped to see if she could help. At first Ramsey did not realize the dog had pups hidden somewhere and tried to get her into Ramsey’s SUV.

About that time David Long drove up and said he had been feeding the dog for a while and was sure she had some pups hidden somewhere close. He had even set up a makeshift tent in hopes it would provide protection.

Together the man and woman listened for the sound of pups and eventually Long located them, crawled into the hiding place and pulled them out.

Ramsey was particularly concerned about the dogs since the forecast for the end of last week was so severely cold. She took the brood to her home, sneaking them in so her husband wasn’t aware, and set them up in a kennel. Before the weather dipped to record lows she brought the family into her bunk house and confessed to her husband.

Ramsey also put up a sign at the corner stating that she had found a mama dog and her pups and was shocked at the response. It seems that not only she and the Long’s feed our Mama but Claude Phillips and James Miller called to tell Ramsey that they had both been keeping an eye on her.

Ramsey is hoping to achieve two goals as a result of this article. Number one, she would like to find good homes for Mama and her babies. They are probably about ready to be taken off their mother, since they all have teeth and can eat dry dog food. There are four males and four females; seven black and one brown. A donation has already been pledged for Mama to be spayed and Ramsey is hopeful that whoever takes the pups will take care of that as well.

The next objective is to plant a seed for the creation of some type of animal shelter in Leon County. The Buffalo Animal Clinic helps find homes for homeless animals in Buffalo but there is nothing out in the county.

If you are interested in helping Jan Ramsey accomplish either of these goals please call her at 512-517- 4616.