As the Miracle Continues to Grow...so does the Family.

After Miracle's  conception and miraculous birth, we chose to keep her.  There was  no way that we could ever give her away or sell her to someone else.  Someone who was considered as a "False Pregnancy" had to have some pretty amazing things planned for her. 

I read up a lot about Singletons and I was surprised to read that singletons need to be handled differently.  They needed to be exercised and played with differently because there were no other puppies for her to play with.  It would instruct things like take a Q-tip and run it through its toes and exercise its legs and rub its muscles.   Create games of tug of war and other games that will help them with their muscle development.  I also was surprised to discover that singletons had more psychological issues that will need to be dealt with.  Taking them to a doggy psychiatrist could be something that we may need to find for our singleton.  Are you kidding me?  Really?  A doggy psychiatrist?  Special exercises?

You see, being with other puppies - not only do they help the puppies to not feel alone (the psychological part) but they also help each other to grow up and mature into adults.  They wrestle.  They play.  They chase each other.  They jump off high roofs (really just a stepping stone) and jump on the backs of each other.  They are non-stop helping each other to grow up.  With a singleton - that is not available.  Mommy tries - in fact she babies a singleton to death.  With Miracle, she cried all the time.  She was so vocal...basically, she was spoiled rotten.  She felt that all of us were placed on this earth to cater to her every need.  So that is what we tried to do because - afterall, she was a singleton and that meant she would have "special needs." 

So yes, Miracle became afraid of her own shadow and she began having anxiety issues.  She was quite crazy at times with her behavior.  If you took her out of her comfort zone - she would go into panic mode and that was indeed challenging.  Through it all though - there was a beauty and peace in her eyes that showed me more than her just being a little psycho.  She loved us in such a way that we knew she would overcome this and grow into a beautiful woman...which is exactly what she did.

We arranged for Susie to meet with Tico one more time.  Once again they went on a two week extended date and they had their dance routine down pat this time.  We gave them a different scenery by letting them stay over at Tico's place for their extended slumber party and this greatly helped.  Susie was more relaxed being away from her psycho daughter child and Tico was more relaxed being in his own bachelor pad.  They were more successful this time and they had their first "real" litter.

Susie and I had such a great connection in the delivery of her puppies.  We communicated through our eyes and I knew what she was going through by watching her breathing and seeing things in her eyes.  I would help her as she would deliver each one and she and I both would frantically break the sac and clean each one.  I would keep them safe and warm as she would deliver another one.  She delivered five puppies and we thought we were done.  Occasionally Susie would "push" as she would do before each puppy.  She had that look in her eyes and then she would just start breathing normally and it was like nothing was going to happen.  A little while later - the same thing would happen.  This continued on on for 18 hours. 

Susie then had a look in her eyes that I had not seen.  She had an anxious look and I knew something was wrong.  Again, her body would try to "push" out something from within but nothing was happening.  By this time - she was no longer dialated  nor did she have any fluid or lubrication that would help her.  So she and I had a long talk and I explained to her that I would have to do something to her that would not be very comfortable and it may hurt but we could do this thing together...we just had to be a team! 

Very carefully I was able to insert just the tip of my finger into her.  Then as I worked around until I was able to work my way up to two fingers and I was able to get in deeper.  I felt upon something that felt like a foot...yes, little toes and toenails; it is a foot.  As I worked ever so slowly I was able to get a grip around the foot and I began coaching Susie as I had just a day before.  Okay, Susie...I need you to push.  So she watched my face and as I chanted out "ppppppuuuuuuuuuuussssssssshhhhhhhhhh" she pushed with all that she could.  We continued with her pushing with my coaching at just the right moment until we were able to pull/push the puppy out. 

The puppy was large.  It had come out feet first which indicated it was not turned properly.  Either in our pulling/pushing then or possibly  it happened the day before - the puppy's neck was broken.  I instantly wrapped it in a towel and took it into the kitchen.  We were so upset and Susie wanted to see it so badly but I just couldn't let her see what I was seeing.  I tried to take her mind off things by giving her the other babies to nurse but she wanted her new baby.  I began crying and so did Susie.  She laid her forehead against my forehead and we both literally cried.  She was so sad and it took her a couple of days before she would wag her tail or smile at me.  I was so concerned for her but she checked out at the vet and he said that we both did a remarkable job delievering  the dead pup without causing any damage to Susie since it had been so long since she had delivered her other puppies.

So now - here we had five beautiful healthy puppies.  We were very blessed indeed.  It was amazing to watch them grow and to change from looking little mice with cow heads and alien ears to beautiful puppies.  Yep...I had it bad.  I was hooked on something that I had never planned to get hooked on.  Having Golden puppies was awesome! 

In everything - there is a beginning and there is an end.  For me - there was the beginning of these five little lives that grew up and then they went to their new homes...that felt like an ending to me.  It was sad.  I would cry as they were driving away.  But even through it all - all the hard work of taking care of them, feeding them, cleaning up after them - I wouldn't have traded one moment of it.

After the last puppy from our litter left - I went through puppy withdrawals.  We needed to get a puppy of our own.  It's time to find just the right little boy to permanently join our family.