Puppy story (long!)

Subject: Puppy story (long!) Sat 22 Sep 2007 - 16:18

Sorry this is very, very long (not all typed today!) I just didn't know when to stop!!!

At the end of my last installment I mentioned that Lucy (greyhound) had come in season in the autumn 2003 & that David was going to breed from her.

Earlier in the year she'd had a season, but the stud dog that David had chosen didn't have "the necessary" available ( because the dog was ill) & so the opportunity was missed.

After that he did lots of research into bloodlines etc & found another likely candidate to sire her pups. There is a company who specialise in organising artificial insemination for greyhound breeders. The service isn't cheap, but you are almost guaranteed that the bitch will get pregnant & it's much easier that organising a trip to Southern Ireland .............

David had everything organised this time & as soon as Lucy came in season the ball started rolling & she was collected and taken off to Liverpool Vetinary Hospital where the insemination took place & she was returned two days later.

( I won't tell you how much that cost, but let's just say David worked a lot of overtime!!! )

Then it was just a matter of waiting. It soon became obvious that Lucy was pregnant, the pups were due around the beginning of February & David had made arrangements for her to go & stay at a friends farm until the pups were old enough to be sold.

He was planning on keeping one or two, preferably bitches, for future breeding. Lucy had been to Sarah's farm before,
when we were on holiday & when she'd been in season. Sarah has been breeding greyhounds & looking after bitches with their pups for many years & we were confident everything would go to plan.

David had decided not to have the pups here for several
reasons - obviously I wasn't fit to look after them when he was at work - we hadn't really got the space, both kennels had dogs in them & more important he didn't want us to get too attached to the pups, because they were likely to be sold at some point which would be impossible for Katherine & myself to face (David too, but he wouldn't admit it!).

Around Christmas time & about a month before the pups were due, David took Lucy over to Sarah's. The farm is over Rochdale way & quite a long way from here. He called in to
see her on several occasions & was happy with the way she was being cared for & with the preperations for the birth - in a quiet place, away from the other dogs.

Katherine was getting very excited, her 15th birthday was going to be on the 2nd of February & she was determined the pups would be born on that day. On the 31st of January Sarah rang David & said she thought the pups would be born within the next day or so & David took Katherine
over to see Lucy, who was HUGE!!

She was obviously carrying quite a large litter & was getting very tired, but restless. The 1st of February dawned & still no pups .......... by this time Katherine was hoping & praying they'd be born on her birthday - and they WERE! Lucy had 9 pups, one was stillborn, but the others seemed healthy enough & Sarah was happy that everything was going well ........... the pups were feeding OK, Lucy was eating, but was very very tired.

To be honest at 7 years old she was probably too old to have a first litter, but the vet was confident she'd be OK as she was very fit & healthy, in fact she had been racing until she was well over 6. The litter was perfect - 6 dogs & 2 bitches. 3 fawn, like Lucy & 5 brindle - probably like the sire.

On the 3rd of Feb. after work & school, David took Katherine over to see them. I would have liked to go, but the journey would have been too much for me. When they arrived Sarah said that two pups had died. She had called
the vet who said everything seemed OK & Lucy was doing well etc etc

The vet said it was just "one of these things" .... but he did take the two dead pups to do post-mortems, just in case there was a problem he'd missed.

The next day Sarah's husband rang - wanting to speak
to David. Katherine answered the phone, but he wouldn't talk to her. I didn't think that was odd because he is a very quiet person & not good with children.

David was at work, so I spoke to him. He asked me to make sure David rang him immediately. At this stage alarm bells were beginning to ring & so I contacted David at work.

A few minutes later he rang me back & said he was going straight to Sarah's after work, but wouldn't tell me anything, which obviously made me very anxious.

When he got there, two more pups had died & the vet said he thought the whole litter probably had "fading puppy syndrome" which is a bit like cot-death in that no-one is quite sure exactly why it happens.

Sometimes this is caused by a virus passed from the mother, but when the vet examined all four dead pips he had found nothing & Lucy's blood tests were all OK

The vet concluded that Lucy was just a bad mother & her age wasn't in her favour. She was allowing the pups to feed, but not really fussing over them as bitches normally do - cleaning them etc & she had probably killed the pups accidentally - possibly by lying on them.

David was devastated. He had planned to sell the pups for about £500 each at 12 weeks old, or for much more than that if they were sold at 18 months, once they were "schooled" & ready to race. Don't get me wrong, David wasn't doing this for the money, but it would have been nice to get the money we's spent back.

The vet suggested that they could either leave Lucy to get on with things herself, but risk losing the whole litter, OR someone could watch her for 24 hours, every day and night, until the pups eyes opened, when they'd be in less danger.

Obviously Sarah couldn't be expected to do that. She had 30 other dogs to look after & obviously needed to sleep herself. So David decided to take a week of his holidays & for a full week he slept here during the day & drove over to Rochdale every night & stayed up all night with Lucy & the four remaining pups, until Sarah could take over & look after them in the daytime.

There were one or two scary moments, but the four remaining pups seemed to be thriving, although Lucy
still wasn't really being the perfect mother. Sarah said she'd never known a bitch to be so disinterested in her pups like Lucy seemed to be - but on reflection I think there were a few factors that hadn't helped.

She was a bit too old to have her first litter - she wasn't settled at Sarah's & it might have upset her when David kept visiting. Also there were probably too many people fussing around ...............

......... at the end of his week off work David decided he was going to have to bring them all home. Obviously he couldn't continue to go over there every night & work during the day, it would be easier at home & as half-term was looming he thought Katherine could help with the dogs

We still had the other 3 (Oliver, Dolly & Squealer) here that needed walking - & because of my illness I couldn't do that. David arrived home with Lucy & with the the 4 pups in a shoebox (yes they are very tiny at birth).

It was too cold for them to be outside in the kennel - even if we'd sent Oliver away to stay at Sarah's -
so we had to put them in the front porch,with the letterbox sealed up!!

It was a very difficult time for us all & I felt guilty that I couldn't help more, but they all pulled through. As the pups grew David put some special waterproof fabric
over the carpet in the hall & they lived in there until they got to the stage when they were escaping!

Lucy still wasn't particularly interested in the pups, but thankfully she was able to feed them. She would come & tell me if she needed to go outside, and was pretty good on the whole, but to be honest I don't think she was ever really settled in the house.

Can you believe that David actually slept downstairs for the first few weeks - until he thought the pups were out of danger!! LOL ......... my cleaner thought I'd kicked him out of bed !!!

Even at this stage David wouldn't let Katherine give the pups names, in case anything untoward happened to them, but somehow they survived. David decided to turn his workshop ( a room inside the garage) into a kennel for Lucy
& the pups, so when they were a few weeks old , ( can't remember exactly, it was about 4 weeks I think) they went to live in there.

It soon became obvious that Lucy was getting fed up of the pups - we'd already introduced them to solid food (in the loosest sense!) & they were all lapping OK - so we put her back in with Oliver & she was taken to feed the pups two or three times a day.

She never really got the hang of being a mother. She didn't play with them in the usual way, as we'd seen with our other bitches. She was much too rough with them ! I suppose you get the odd one like that - just a pity Lucy
had to be that one!

When the pups were about 3 months old David decided the pups needed somewhere to play outside, so he decided to buy a cabin & fence off part of the garden.

At first they kept escaping, by pushing their way under the fence & wriggling their way through the tiniest of gaps!! David made a whole lot of metal tent-type pegs & tried to anchor the fence down so that they couldn't get out, but somehow they still managed to get out !!!!

Katherine was eventually allowed to name three of the four pups :- "Marco" after one of her friend he is a brindled dog and was David's favourite when they were still babies
"Charlie" - a fawn dog - the biggest pup, she named him after the old man who lived next door & had died in the previous year,
and "Ellie" - a fawn bitch, looks just like her mother, she's Katherine's favourite!

The 4th pup we named "Socks" because he has 4 white feet & we once had a dog of that name before & he was my all time favourite.

There is lots more I could tell you about these 4 scallywags - and I will, but not today.

Everything hasn't always been plain sailing, but things could have been so much worse, we could have lost them all.

Here are Marco, Ellie and Socks at about 3 months old

and now ...............here is Charlie

I haven't taken any photos recently, I shall put that on my "to do" list, which grows longer by the minute !

Anne

Subject: Re: Puppy story (long!) Sat 22 Sep 2007 - 18:09

Awww poor Katherine not being aloud to name them but she could in the end! Ivors birthday is the same as Kathine's..
I keep forgetting to write things on my to do list So you do better than me...lol
_________________
Maxine
Friendship~
Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. - Oprah Winfrey

Subject: Re: Puppy story (long!) Tue 15 Jan 2008 - 15:40

Thanks very much Anne & this Topic is now included in

>> Index to Justanne's Greyhound Stories
_________________
Carole, Smith Project/Smith Chat Admin
Nothing is too small to know, and nothing too big to attempt (William Van Horne)

Subject: Re: Puppy story (long!) Tue 15 Jan 2008 - 19:19

Coo an index all of my own !!

I shall have to add our latest 4, beautiful little black greyhound bitches, when I get time

Anne

Subject: Re: Puppy story (long!) Sat 19 Jan 2008 - 16:42

Haaaa haaa - yes well!! - you've written such great stories Anne, they deserve a special index. Did the same on Literature Board for Daz's poems.

Just written to you on "Lucky the Pony".

Oh great!! - will look forward to hearing about your new pups Very Happy

Carole