This weekend we traveled west to enjoy the wedding of a couple who adopted a puppy from us last year. This work we do (fostering dogs/puppies) has opened our lives to a world of friends that we never would have known if we didn’t foster. We took Lulu and her pups to the vet who cares for all of our foster dogs so they could board their while we were gone.
While there, we planned for the the puppies to get their four week check ups and for Lulu to get fixed. I arrived at the vet today to bring them home to discover Lulu had quiet a rough time with the surgery. Apparently, the vet in Alabama had fixed Lulu (they told us she had not been fixed) when they did the c-section to retrieve the puppies, however, the quality of their work lacked considerably. It was ‘a mess’ when our vet opened her and he had to do extensive work to repair the damage and inflammation. Lulu bled considerably and was likely in a great deal of pain both prior to the surgery provided by our vet and after, when he repaired the damage caused by the previous surgery.
Lulu greeted me with kisses and whimpers. It was so good to see her. Is it possible the pups grew over the three day stay with the vet? Yes. These little pups are the plumpest puppies we’ve ever had.
Normally when it’s time to wean the pups we’ll get the mom fixed and send her onto another foster home so the pups won’t try to nurse from her. This little family is different; you can just feel it and I wanted to keep them together. So we decided to try keeping the family together. As if to support this decision, Lulu whined for her pups almost the whole time while at the vet (they were kept separate so she could recuperate from surgery). They brought the puppies out in a crate when we got to the vet and then they brought out Lulu. She immediately wanted to get down and see the pups. She nuzzled them between the bars of the crate and it was a happy reunion.
I wasn’t sure what the situation at home would be like because I’ve never had a fixed mom and her pups in the same home. Again, this family is different. I let the pups go outside when we got home and I put Lulu in a different part of the yard to keep them from trying to nurse. Lulu came right over to her pups and began to sniff and groom them. Of course, they tried to nurse. Most puppies will torment their mom to get milk but this little family was different. They seemed to immediately accept that mom would no longer be able to provide milk and went about their way just being together. It confirms to me that there is so much more that goes on in the world of a dog than we readily acknowledge. This is a beautiful little group of pups who adore their mom and hold her in very high regard. She too is a remarkable mom who regardless of her physical limitations, has no boundaries when it comes to her love for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment