The Shakespearean Puppies Visit Highmark Blue Shield

 

The Shakespearean puppies had their first official outing today. They visited Highmark Blue Shield for their United Way campaign kick-off event. Thank you to Highmark and the United Way for inviting us to be one of your featured organizations at the event!

Hamlet, Brutus, Falstaff, Queen Mab, Cleopatra, Portia, and of course, Bill Shakespeare had a blast at the Highmark building. Several of our puppy raisers and puppy sitters work there, so first the puppies got to meet many of our puppy raisers’ and sitters’ coworkers. The pups took over a conference room and played until most of them fell asleep.

Then it was on to the main event! Our volunteers and some of the wonderful employees at Highmark carried the sleepy puppies down to the cafeteria, where the United Way kick-off event was being held. There, the puppies were passed from one set of arms to the next as they greeted and snuggled with Highmark employees. One employee said that getting to pet and hold the puppies was like waking up on Christmas morning! The pups certainly put smiles on everyone’s faces. 

SSD Bill asleep in someone's arms

The puppies benefited from all the attention, as well. Meeting so many new people is an important part of the puppies’ training. They need to learn that all different types of people are friendly. Every single person who interacted with the puppies today was helping them on their journey to becoming service dogs.

SSD Queen Mab and SSD Portia

 Thank you to everyone who has or will donate to the United Way in support of SSD! The United Way is a wonderful organization that raises money for the needs of the community, and SSD is a part of the United Way of the Capital Region. Many company and groups, like Highmark Blue Shield, hold large campaigns to raise money. If you would like to join Highmark in supporting the United Way and SSD, you can make an online donation. If you choose to support SSD, please remember that you need to designate your donation to SSD using this code: 7024DOGS.

The puppies and their future partners thank you!

SSD Brutus

Puppy Cam: Meet the Shakespearean Puppies

It's not the Globe Theatre, but the Shakespearean puppies are still center stage. They're now live on the puppy cam! Watch them as they eat, sleep, play and take their first steps as service dogs in training.

We would like to introduce:

SSD Brutus (dark blue collar)

SSD Hamlet (light blue collar)

SSD William Shakespeare (red collar)

SSD Cleopatra (yellow collar)

SSD Falstaff (green collar)

SSD Portia (purple collar)

SSD Queen Mab (pink collar)

SSD Bill Shakespeare is named after one of our long-time volunteers, Bill Hahn. Bill passed away in May. He and his wife, Sue, have raised several puppies for us. He will be greatly missed.

We hope you enjoy the puppy cam!

The Shakespearean Puppies’ Birth: A Comedy of Surprises

Just like Shakespeare’s comedies, the birth of Midge’s puppies was full of surprises. Midge started nesting and panting – some of the signs of labor – in the early afternoon on June 12. She delivered a black male, followed by a yellow female, but when the third puppy appeared, we were in for a surprise. The third puppy was a chocolate female!

Midge soon delivered two more puppies like a pro. Since her ultrasound had revealed five puppies, and Midge has been pretty consistent with her litter size, we thought she might be done, even though she still looked pretty big. We always stick around for a few hours, though, just to make sure, and sure enough, another puppy appeared! Half an hour later, the last puppy, a yellow male, made his appearance, although he was more white than yellow.

These are the kinds of happy surprises that we like to see in a whelping! Midge and her seven puppies are doing great. When the puppies are several weeks older, one of them will be joining its father at the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind.

We will be setting up the puppy cam next week, so you can start watching these adorable puppies. You will also be able to hug these puppies! Puppy hugging will start when the pups are 4-5 weeks old. If you’re interested, sign up online to be a puppy hugger!