As a breeder life can sometimes be a rollercoster. Things go up and they go down. Last year we thought our special girl Ämmi had had her last litter, it was her third and she was soon 8 years old. She had been a showdog with numerous titles and wins to her credit and so had been a lot in the showring and not always had time for litters and so "only" had 3 special litters for us. We were sorry she did not have more, but happy with the puppies we had from her accepted that in Denmark you can not mate a bitch who has turned 8 years old. However after moving to Sweden I noticed several other breeders were mating older bitches and so I asked our vet who said that up here it is not the age of the bitch which count it is how many litters in total and most importantly that a vet makes a health certificate on the bitch stating she is fit for pregnancy. As Ämmi really is a special bitch both for us but also in our modest opinion for the breed we decided to go for it and mate her again. Vet checked proved her to be fit and healthy as a junior and we could go ahead. And who would be better fitted than our most special boy Ilo. He too an old star and very special dog it had always been in my heart to mate the two of them. I did not announce the mating anywhere as I am always so supersticious and felt sure something would go wrong if I told too much about the mating. I had a feeling Ämmi was pregnant, but not untill the last weeks did I feel completely sure, but she was not big so we did not expect it to be a big litter.
The 14th of April she delivered 3 lovely puppies, one girl and two boys and naturally we were really really happy with this for us special litter. Everything went by the book however when the second puppy was delivered Ämmi was very fast to bite the cord and the placenta did not come out. I expected it to come out with the next puppy which it didn´t. Ämmi did not seem done after puppy number 3 and for a while I wondered if there was a 4th puppy, but after taking her out and feeling her through I concluded I thought there wasn´t and imagined it was the placenta acting up. She really was restless, scratching and moving around all the time and could not find rest neither for her of the puppies. I contacted the vet to get an injection, but he advised to wait a few days as they normally come out by themselves. In Denmark my vet has always been very quick to give an injection to make sure everything was out and we have always used this, but I thought to myself maybe it was hysterical and thrue enough after two days the placenta came out by itself. However those two days Ämmi did not find rest at all :-(
The result of her scratching around, moving, jumping in and out of the box was that the puppies started to be stressed too, they were getting colder as they did not have their mothers body heat and they did not eat enough as she kept moving. I am a firm believer of not interfearing too much and letting nature go it´s way, but on day 3 my gut feeling was this was going wrong. One boy was completely normal, big and fat and warm, but the other boy and the girl were getting weaker, did not eat enough and seemed colder than I wanted them to be. By that time the placenta had passed and Ämmi seemed to settle down and rested in the whelping box with them, but by then it seemed like the two of them had become more passive and cold, did not eat enough simply kind of like they got used to not being full so now they did not care to really eat. This resulted in Ämmi stressing again as she did not know what to do with them - an evil circle! Even if I rarely do this I decided to step in and help and so the search in Sweden for formula began!
We went to the pet shop in Rättvik who did not have any formula for puppies, they did have for kittens however and told me I could just feed them that! I really did not feel like that and told them and let´s just say there was a discussion and I think we won´t be shopping a lot there again. We then went to the vet in Rättvik who is not a vet we have otherwise used more than once, but she was extremely helpful and checked out the kitten formula situation for us and spent her time (and no - she did not find it a good idea either......). They were sold out on formula though so we had to drive to Mora to the pet shop there. Stressing! Finally home after 4 hours driving around the two pups were even more cold and seemed a bit dehrydated so they spent some time on my stomach to get warmed up and then got some formula. Shortly after the boy died. Really sad, but it seemed like his body had just closed down some how. The girl however got warm and was eating and putting on weight. She was a real figther and the two of us started a struggle for life. Every second hour day and night I was feeding her and at the end she seemed more attached to me than Ämmi. First I had placed Ämmi in the kitchen in my mum´s house so she could have peace, but when we stepped in to help we moved her to outside our bedrooms where it was warm and we could keep an eye on what was going on all the time. The reason she was not there from the beginning was because Mia and Killi are always there and I thought they would stress her, but I was proven wrong. Feeding the little girl became our mutual project and soon she did not only have one mum, she had 4, me, Ämmi, Killi and Mia. The three girls were sitting in a half circle around me both in day and nigthtime when feeding her with their heads tilted to one side looking how she was doing and each time she was done eating they all three gave her a good licking and made sure she was okay. Her brother was still managing just perfectly on his own and the last two days she started eating by herself with ämmi too and she was putting on weigth so my hopes were up. After a week of hard work I was starting to be worn out as this was hard work, specially as I am also blessed with a human baby who thinks he can not sleep without his mummy so to have him on one side and then wake up every second hour with the puppy on the other was hard, but when I felt her little body cuddle in to me and rest when she could smell me I felt it was worth it. This morning I got up as usual after having been up with her in the night. Checked her and Ämmi on my way down to the kitchen and made her bottle. I could then hear ämmi bark upstairs and when I went up to see what was wrong I found the little girl dead. She was lying just as if she was sleeping next to her brother. People who say animals have no feelings are so wrong, Ämmi was devastated and no doubt she knew what had happened. Puppy was still warm and soft and was alive few minutes earlier when I checked on them, but Ämmi clearly knew things were wrong. She was so sad and whining and trying to push her to live again. I sat down to hold the puppy and could not help to cry and Ämmi and Killi and Mia all came to sit around me and looked so sad too. When I carried her out they all three jumped and wanted to lick her and they all pushed their noses on her just as if they were saying goodbye. Ämmi was clearly moarning and if a dog could cry that is what she did. I took a deep breath and went for a walk in the forrest with the dogs hoping she would be alive again when I came back knowing very well that of course she would not.
This was hard even if she was so small because I put so much time in her and she was special to me. I have been in this game for years, but I will never become tough I guess.......Now she is burried with her brother and Namu under the birch trees we can see from our kitchen window. It is 3 months since Namu died, but I had not been able to burry her before now. We had her cremated and brought her home as it was too cold and frozen to burry her when she died. The last many weeks I was thinking that now we should do it, but I just couldn´t, I felt somehow she was still here if I didn´t. But now it was time and her and the two puppies could keep eachother company and I dedicated the day to saying goodbye to some special ones.
This is the really hard part of being a breeder. I normally don´t interfear much in either matings, whelpings or caring of puppies and am lucky to have healthy natural bitches who take care of everything themselves and it is very rare we lose a puppy. However nature is cruel and it is survival of the fittest and in my heart I know that even if it is difficult. I don´t know if we were just unlucky with the different circumstances or if something was wrong and we can´t know. But sad it was and a rollercoster week, first so happy to get three beautiful puppies out of this special combination and then to lose the two. But I have collected myself and find joy in looking at the boy who is left, fit and healthy and hope he stays that way + Säde delivered 6 big and healthy puppies two days after Ämmi and all of those luckily (knock on wood!) look big and fat and doing well. Teir father too is Ilo and apropriately they were born on his birthday which also happened to be the birthday of my old Uuriel as well as the Danish queen so it has been a week of ups and down here for us. We have to find joy in the living instead of thinking what if and what could have been done differently about the past. But specially the girl will have a place in my heart and the love I saw from Killi, Ämmi and Mia will have a very special place for me. The way the three of them cooperated and really felt for this puppy and eachother was touching to see. The fat boy left does not have one mum now but three as either Killi or Mia jumps in to lie with him when ämmi is out to pee and after losing the girl they seem very nervous to make sure all goes well with him.
Life goes on even if it did not feel like it for a short moment this morning and so on a less dramatic note the spitz club had a club show in Denmark yesterday with good results for Lapinlumon dogs. Lapinlumon Bohjanpoika won best male puppy, Lapinlumon Zulo won best male out of a big entry and BOS, Lapinlumon Merirosvo won the open class males and Lapinlumon Quunloiste won the open class bitches. Lapinlumon Lapintähti won the res. CAC. Great results and we are happy with our great puppy buyers doing a good job there.
Another exciting thing is the planning of a very special lagotto litter which has also become possible with the help from another great puppy buyer. Mating was done yesterday which made me happy in the middle of all this sorrow and we hope there would be a result in nine weeks time, but let´s wait and see.
So the morale of today will be that life goes on even if it is sometimes difficult and that big joy can be turned into sorrow fast, but that is life and I decided after saying my goodbyes to look at all the joys and positive things in our lives with the beautiful puppies around me who are still here, all the adult dogs and then I spent a nice day with my two lovely children and my great husband.
