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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Puppies!

I put that exclamation at the end of "Puppies" but I only partially feel it.

If you've been around here a while, you'll remember our dog Betty. We have three dogs. Amico is the red one I always take pictures of, and Mo & Betty are our outside dogs.

Lots of people have negative opinions of outside dogs, and I'll be honest, I did too before we had them. I was of the opinion that your dogs are your family members, but if we're going to be honest, they are animals. When you consider how much more the dogs are able to run around when they're outside instead of being in a crate all day, it really makes sense for them to be out. They have better houses than we do (I watched Josh build them, they're double walled and insulated, and have TWO ROOMS. Truly, better than ours.) That being said, all three of our dogs are pitbulls. If that isn't going to bring a negative opinion to your head, I don't know what is.

People hate pitbulls. Specifically the media and uninformed Americans.

I didn't like them either, until we got them.

Growing up, my family had a dog that what a Boxer/Chow mix, and he was known to be aggressive. He growled at a lot of people, and bit. I thought this was normal dog behavior. Our cousin has a chihuahua that bites. It doesn't hurt, but he still bites. Lots of dogs growl, even a service dog that I know growls. Since I thought that was normal, I assumed that pitbulls were 1000x worse. I mean, you see horrible stories about them all the time. They're mean, they kill babies, they rip arms off, and kill cats. They do kill cats, but I mean, they kind of have it coming. I kid, I kid.

This post is getting way off topic, but I do want to say that if you have never been around a pitbull, you should reserve your judgment until you have. I'm definitely not saying that they're all nice, but I was surprised at how sweet they are. Since we've been together we have had five, and I've never heard any of them growl at a person, even once.

Anyway, Joshua decided he wanted to breed Betty. I am always the one who doesn't want to do anything about expanding our dog farm. I never want another dog. Ever. We live in the middle of the city. One of our neighbors hates us. It isn't an ideal location for a farm. So like most things in our house, Josh got his way. Fun fact: dogs only gestate for two months.

Betty is pretty small, I think she's usually around 35lbs, and she got huge. The poor girl was so uncomfortable. Joshua and I work opposite schedules. I'm on a regular Monday - Friday, but Josh works Friday - Sunday in the evenings. I knew, without a doubt that she was going to have those puppies on a Saturday night. I knew as soon as she got pregnant that there was no way I would be lucky enough to get away with having nothing to do with the puppy birth.

And just as I predicted, she started delivering around 6:00 pm on Saturday.

Josh had been reading about and watching videos about dog birth for weeks. I watched three videos a few days before, just in case it happened. I was given a crash course in being a dog-midwife. Basically: make sure the membrane is off and that they're breathing. Otherwise, let the mama do everything.

I got a message from my mother in law that dinner was ready at their house, and I wrote back that I wasn't going to make it because we were having puppies. My mother in law panicked, and sent the entire family to my house. Lisa, I love you to death, but I was so pissed at you that night. Josh's cousins Carsyn and Jason were there helping me.

After quite a bit of pushing, and a few hours, Betty had three puppies, and then everything seemed to stop. Josh had taken her to the vet for an x-ray earlier in the week, so I knew there were more in there, but she stopped contracting and pushing, so I wasn't sure what to do. Josh got home around midnight and since she wasn't distressed at all decided we could wait to see what happened. I slept for a little bit and when I woke up again decided we should call the animal hospital and see what they thought. They suggested we bring her in because they were coming out too far apart.

We got there and they did an exam and found that the fourth pup had died and was stuck. Once they got that one out, they gave her oxytocin (same as pitocin) and the last two came out quickly.

Everyone is home now and resting.



And we are not having puppies again for a long time.

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10 comments:

  1. congrats on the birth! I am sure the mommy dog really appreciates your help :) Post more photos!

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    1. I will definitely post more! They're so cute. :)

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  2. Congrats Betty and to you. I can't imagine what it was like to be there i would be worrying. I so want one though, damn condo board and your three pet limit.

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    1. I was so nervous! I'm glad it's over and won't be happening again for a long time, if ever.

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  3. Aww...that's sad that one of them passed away. :( However, 5 puppies sounds exciting! They're so tiny and adorable. :-) Congrats!

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    1. It was really sad, but I hear it is common. Still sucks though. They are sooo cute :)

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  4. That is so brave to have puppies! I grew up with outside dogs and totally agree with you that is good for them and have had such a hard time with my inl-aws large dog who only is ever let outside to go to the bathroom it is so sad for her I think.

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    1. It is so sad to see dogs that can't move around. Ours have such high energy so it's super important for them!

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  5. OMG this is so sweet. First of all, I think pits get a bad rap. It is all about the owners (also, my dogs are wild as shit... can I say shit on here?) and bad to the bone (one of them) and super crazy... I digress. One of ours (the good, less destructive one) roams the house freely during the day. The bad one we kennel (which I didn't believe in until now) because when we got him he was super tiny and hurt so it was the only thing we could do so he wouldn't injure himself more. Then he loved it so much (its become his room) and then we discovered he was a destructive demon that can't be left alone for even a minute... But they run and play outside all the time. Scout spends so much time chasing his own tail that he gets plenty of exercise on his own... We also have 2 big parks within walking distance so they drag us over there quite a lot. It is nice that Charlie is home a lot to be with them.
    Charlie wanted to have Buddy puppies, but I refuse. Buddy is "my" dog and I would want to keep his puppies. I am very attached.

    Sorry for the comment book.

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    Replies
    1. You can say whatever you want on here. :) You can also say it as long as you want! All animals are different, and I don't think it's fair to lump them all together.

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