---

Introducing Mabel

I'd like to introduce you all to Mabel, our new golden retriever puppy.

Mabel came to us from Southport RSPCA where she had been nursed back to health after a very ropey start in life. She arrived there in March as part of a group of eight puppies, all had come from the same "household" and all were dirty, covered in urine, and presented with symptoms of parvovirus. Her body condition score was 3/9 which is underweight. The vet estimated that she was 11-12 weeks old and she weighed only 3.3kg. A 3 month old female golden retriever should weigh 7-11kg. They treated what they could and put her into isolation since parvovirus is very deadly and very infectious.

Four days after that she was assessed again, not cleaning herself, too skinny, and too listless to avoid her own urine still. She had gained a little weight though which was positive. Unfortunately less than a week after that she was off her food and producing bloody diarrhea. The other female in her litter went downhill very fast, she had lost the weight she had gained and her body temperature was low. She was admitted for IV fluid treatment.

With treatment she regained her appetite, her body temperature came back up, and was starting to recover. her weight took time to start to come back, and about a week later she was returned from the vet hospital to the RSPCA much improved.

Around about my birthday, which is early April, she was marked as 'can go up for adoption in a week if still doing well' and not long after that our lovely friend Kemi who volunteers at Southport RSPCA contacted me to say that the puppies were ready for adoption.

We met Mabel on Sunday the 19th April, and we adopted her one week later (the minimum wait period) on Saturday the 25th April 2026. She was four months old and weighed somewhere around 5kg which is less than half the expected weight for that age.

Over the past four weeks, Mabel has settled into life with us and is a very happy very chill puppy who loves to snuggle and to play in the garden. She has gained quite a bit of weight, though not as much as we'd hope, and she's now nearly 6.5kg. She has had her first vet check and he doesn't believe there's anything to worry about and we should keep feeding her as much as she'll eat.

We are looking forward to giving her a comfortable and happy life for a good long while.

Mabel is, as I mentioned, a golden retriever - though as a rescue we're not 100% certain of her provenance and we're not doing a genetic test unless the vet suggests we should. As such we might expect that as she settles into puppyhood properly, and grows as we might expect, that she'll start to act a bit more like other retrievers.

Mabel is quite pale in colour, and a friend suggested that she might be an English Cream Golden Retriever but she may also just be a very pale retriever since colour does vary within the breed.

Retrievers are bred to be hunting dogs, specifically to retrieve the kills made by the hunter. They are loyal even-tempered dogs; gregarious, responsive, and make excellent pets who are often eager to please. Their friendly natures mean they are awful as guard dogs and will usually show the burglar where all the good snacks are.

This means that, in theory, we will be playing a lot of fetch in our future. Right now though all the wonderful smells in the grass are far more interesting than that ball which has stopped moving and isn't squeaking any more.

Please feel free to look on mastodon for many pictures.

---