It started last August, when a litter of 11 puppies was born at the Estevan Humane Society’s animal shelter.
Known as the Gem Litter, each of them was named after a precious gem or metal, because their mother’s name is Jewel. And once they were able to be adopted, it didn’t take long for the humane society to find them a home, making the owners of these young dogs very happy.
Some of the adopting families retained the puppies’ names, while others changed the name.
Now the process has started of reacquainting the puppies with each other, and bringing more joy to the lives of the owners in the process.
Nadine Elson wound up the proud owner of Jewel, a German shepherd cross, and Elson said Jewel is doing great seven months later. Jewel is happy and outgoing, and she has loved outings at the Estevan Dog Park.
The vet believes that Jewel will turn two years old this year.
“I can’t believe anyone would want to give her away,” said Elson.
Jewel was the first to be spoken for in the adoption process, but didn’t leave the shelter until all of the pups had a home. Elson saw Jewel and her puppies when she and her family members went to the humane society at the end of September for a fundraising garage sale and tours of the shelter.
“I saw her, and I didn’t really remember her, it was just these massive puppies,” said Elson.
It had been two years at that point without a dog for Elson and her family, and they planned to adopt another dog. They thought Jewel would be a perfect addition to the family.
“We started walking her, and we only walked her for about four or five days, and she was just so nice, and we thought we’d put in an application,” said Elson.
Once the last of the puppies was gone, the Elsons took Jewel home.
All along, Elson thought it would be great if they could have get-togethers for Jewel, her puppies, and the dogs’ owners. It started with a post on the Estevan Dog Park Facebook page, which was shared by the Estevan Humane Society’s Facebook account, and then resulted in the Gem Litter reunions.
“These pups are about the same size, same level of rambunctiousness, and they play together, and the ones that have been playing more often … they play really well, with lots of running and jumping and what dogs do,” Elson said.
Elson predicted all of the pups will be bigger than Jewel.
Among those to adopt a Gem Litter puppy was Heliana de Souza-Wagner and her husband Rick. They brought Jasper home, and de Souza-Wagner said he has been very smart and friendly.
It started for them on Oct. 6. She had dropped off her son at football practice, and visited the Estevan Humane Society’s Facebook page. She and her husband had a 13-year-old dog Sasha, who was sick, and they knew their old dog wouldn’t be around for much longer.
It was then that she found out about the litter of puppies.
“I got really excited about that, and I went to see them, without saying anything to my husband or my kids. I went to see the puppies and fell in love with them,” said de Souza-Wagner.
When she texted her husband, he encouraged her to bring a puppy home.
“Everything happened really fast, because they all got spoken for and they all got adopted so quickly. The application got approved really fast, too,” said de Souza-Wagner.
The family brought Jasper home on the Thanksgiving weekend – another reason for them to be thankful.
Sasha wasn’t too happy to have Jasper in the home at first, and it took about a month for her to adjust. But they became friends, and Jasper provided some canine companionship until Sasha was put down in December.
Then on Jan. 21, a friend texted de Souza-Wagner to tell her that someone had posted information on the Estevan Dog Park Facebook page regarding the Gem Litter. They were looking for all the members to reconnect the puppies for play outings.
De Souza-Wagner reached out to her, and they started texting back and forth and exchanging pictures. Elson joined in on the fun, and they were excited to make arrangements and contact other families who had adopted a puppy.
They have been meeting regularly since then, with the exception of a couple of the cold weeks in February.
“One person would hear about another family that had adopted one of the puppies,” said de Souza-Wagner.
The puppies and the mom get to play together and have fun in a setting that is well taken care of and large, allowing the owners to keep a safe social distance. The dog owners get to exchange information about puppy training and other tips for their young dogs.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, these outings at the dog park have been welcome, because they have given people a chance to socialize outdoors at the dog park.
“We bring our kids and then Nadine brings her grandkids, and then we’re observing the physical distancing aspect of everything,” said de Souza-Wagner.
As of Monday night, they had tracked down six of the 11 puppies’ owners, which means they had five to go before they can have a full Gem Litter reunion at the park.
They know that a couple of the puppies are outside of the Estevan area, but not that too far away.
“We’re hoping that once the article goes in the paper, that they will contact us, and if they hear about the Gem Litter group through the article, that they will contact us somehow, because we just think it would be so awesome to keep the siblings in touch,” said de Souza-Wagner.
De Souza-Wagner looks forward to the day when they can get a photo of the 11 dogs with their mother.
“I also hope that this is going to help the humane society in some way,” said de Souza-Wagner.
