February and August, those two months are the ones I can’t wait to end every year. At least February is a short one. August just drags on forever. In March you know winter is almost over and the days are getting longer. In August you know the heat and humidity is almost over. We have had a long miserable week, and last night was a scary one with tornados popping up every where in Michigan, including 6 miles from us. But thank God we have not had some of the even worse weather other parts of the country have had. Grass is getting green again and we can now burn the trash. The sheep are finding stuff to eat in the pasture. Rain is good but I could skip the heat.
Dogs are driving me nuts too. Aug. 12 we had two litters born, one with 6 puppies and one with just one. On Aug. 19 after going through two days of off again, on again labor, Susan, one of our Jack Russells had a single puppy, too large for her, and born dead.
After we took it from her she got in the box with Sadie who had the other single pup. I thought ok, two mommies. But when Sadie left for a minute Susan would not let her back in the box. Sadie is a calm mom and she wasn’t too upset for a while, it gave her time to sit on Daddy’s lap. But after a few hours she wanted her puppy back and a fight broke out. We got Susan out of the box but she was frantic for a puppy. She was looking everywhere, whining and crying. It was near bed time and I wanted to get a good nights sleep having been up with Susan a good part of the previous night. So I had an idea. I moved Sadie and her single baby to the bathroom and then I went to Bessie who had the litter of 6 and stole a puppy that looked similar to Sadie’s and gave him to Susan, whose bed was in our room, so I could hear if anything went wrong. She didn’t have a speck of trouble accepting him, she was desperate for a pup of any sort. Bessie seemed to be ok with her remaining 5 pups in the spare room. But in the middle of the night Sadie came and got in bed with me. I remember sleepily muttering, “go back to your puppy“. She did after a while, but it was too late. When we got up in the morning no puppy was in the box with Sadie. A short search located him in Bessie’s bed with her pups, but he was dead, a single puncture wound at the back of the head. I thought I would hear if anything happened, but I was wrong I guess. Bessie obviously can count, and expected to have 6 pups in her bed. I didn’t understand why she had killed it though.
We carefully kept the bedroom door shut, where Susan was doting on her foster pup. Sadie mourned only briefly, she went back to being princess dog with little fuss. Bessie gave no indication she was still looking for her 6th pup. But a few days later, when I came home from work, one of the “glad to see ya mom fights” broke out as I walked in the door. Steve had been in the room with Susan and he rushed out to help me break up the fight, leaving the door open behind him. Susan came flying out to join in the fray. While everyone else was involved in the fight, Bessie saw her opportunity and rushed in and grabbed her pup and started running back to her bed with him. I yelled and Steve grabbed at her and the pup was dropped. I scooped him up and he was bleeding. Luckily he had only a small wound in the chest area. He was screaming his head off though, poor scared thing. Bessie went to her bed, Susan became frantic so I put the pup back in her bed. He cried for a long time and I was worried I had killed another one with my meddling, but he seems to have healed without any problems. I think Bessie gets nervous when she is carrying a pup and bites down too hard. It just amazed me that after 3 days she still remembered and was plotting to get her puppy back. She waited until everyone was occupied then went for it. I thought any mom with 6 pups wouldn’t really miss one, but that’s not the case I guess. We are really watching the door now and Susan is starting to relax a little too. I hope to put them back together when they start eating, it’s not good to raise one pup alone once they start interacting with each other. Susan should be easier to convince that it’s time to relinquish foster care by then. Isn’t it amazing what animals do think and feel?
So by this time in September we will probably have crisp days and cool nights, maybe even a frost to kill the bugs. And the puppies will be starting to eat and play and almost ready to go to new homes. Hurry August and just get it over!
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