All this talk of puppies got me thinking about how little I knew when we first started breeding! Honestly how did we ever make it through?!

Our first litter of OES by our first Champion, Tessa, did not go exactly as planned. After pondering many pedigrees, checking out dogs, etc we finally decided on one to breed to. Tessa went to her breeders, and we waited to hear the good news. Well, they didn’t think the breeding took, and as it was January, they kept her there (we shared her — they loved having her). Well, about 2 weeks before she was going to be due, I got a panicked call saying that she WAS pregnant, her belly just exploded [LOL]. We rushed to meet them and bring her home.

The big day arrived, but after a few hours I just knew something was wrong. Off to the vet, and sure enough, she just couldn’t get that first one out. So that was our first (but not last) emergency C-Section. Of course she was put out for that, and then we found out that in most cases, they don’t know that the puppies are theirs right away, since they weren’t aware they had been born. We had to watch her at home as she started to become more aware, but she still managed to catch one with a tooth when she snapped as it crawled on her. Took the newborn to the vet, where they had to tend to the wound. We gave that pup a lot more attention, and it was on meds too, but alas, it didn’t make it. I took it so personally!

Tessa did get it after a short time and was a wonderful mother. Unfortunately, she never had big litters, and almost always needed help.

My friends, who are also Trav’s breeders, lost one of their OES a couple of years ago….she had a litter of pups, then 2 weeks later, she died. It happens, and I can’t remember the term for it. It was devastating and they had to care for the pups round the clock after that.

I am always grateful when things go smoothly, but always mindful of what can go wrong. Then we have the worry that she will sit on one by accident and kill it (it happens) or that the pups will catch something that someone brought into the house without knowing… gee, why do we do this?

I think I like the Daddy end of things [G]. I can play with them and watch them grow but not have the worry !

Oh well, enough of Days Gone By for today…

Enjoy the weather and have fun cleaning the yard!

Val