When you go into your bank to make a deposit or your salon for a new style, perhaps the last thing you’re expecting is to be greeted by cute puppies! This has been happening quite often in Clarion lately though as Carol Brott bops around town sharing her seven-week-old puppies with anyone who asks.
Brott welcomed ten puppies on May 17, born to her 2-year-old yellow labrador retriever Sunny Daze. While this was Sunny’s first set of pups, it certainly wasn’t the first batch that Brott has brought up. She said that she has bred seven batches of puppies in the last several years, one about every two years. Sunny Daze’s mom Bella had three sets of pups, as did Bella’s mom, Lily.
Brott says she has always been an animal lover. She was raised on a farm and when her collie Beth had puppies when Brott was a girl, she thought it was so much fun. “When I was a mom, I wanted to share that puppy experience with my own son, Brady,” said Brott.
Over the years, the pups from Brott’s dogs were loved and sought after by folks looking for a new dog. “People would ask when I would have another batch. It just took off!” explained Brott. Sunny Daze’s recent litter of puppies is now the fourth generation of that family. There are seven black females and three yellow males, a divide that is quite rare, Brott says.
Taking care of ten little bundles of energy is a full-time job in itself. Brott spends her days repeatedly letting puppies out to play and potty and then bedding them down back in the garage for puppy nap time.
Though this is a lot of activity at Brott’s house, her neighbors seem to enjoy it. Shirley Berens, a backyard neighbor, comes out often to visit and play with the puppies. “We just love it,” Berens exclaimed. “It’s our summer entertainment and we look forward to the puppies. Carol does such a good job with them!”
Brott says she constantly has people over to visit as well. She is regularly getting calls from folks who want some puppy love. She adds that she welcomes this because as the puppies get older and get ready to go to new homes, they need that socialization. “I get tons of people visiting, especially on weekends. And now with the puppies a little older, I let other dogs come over, so they get used to that,” said Brott.
Another way that the puppies socialize is through visits around town. Brott has taken the little cuties to a variety of businesses around Clarion at this point, including daycares, banks, salons, the clinic and even the courthouse last week. She explained, “I only take about four at a time. I load them up in a laundry basket and off we go.” Brott says she has gotten more requests for puppy visits with this batch than ever before.
And understandably, people love it! “I think it’s good therapy to hold a puppy,” observes Brott. Kaysie King of First Citizens Bank, who received a puppy visit recently, said, “Carol and her puppies bring us so much joy here at First Citizens. We always look forward to their visits. We let them walk on the countertops and be their curious little selves. Getting to hold them while they take a nap in our arms is so precious and comforting. We wish they could visit us daily.”
Brott will probably be on the move with the puppies for little longer but says she will soon be wishing them farewell as they go to new homes.
Though Brott won’t commit to another batch of puppies quite yet, she is happy that others get so much enjoyment out of them. “They are just so loving. I am glad they can make people so happy,” she emphasized. Anyone lucky enough to cuddle one of the puppies definitely agrees!
