Breeding for fun and profit.... That caught a few people's attention, didn't it?
The fun part is, of course, when you can hand a baby over to the eager and excited hands of the family that has waited, hoped, and watched through the planning stages, the birth, and each development phase of the litter that *their* puppy will come out of. The fun is all the emails and photos shared between the breeder and the family. The fun is watching a litter of puppies taking their first �bites' of real food - or swimming in it. The fun is laughing at the antics of a litter racing around the family room with squeaky toys and bouncing balls. The fun is in the rare moments of calm where you can sneak a quick snuggle with the rolly-polly furbabies. And the profit? Well, that's a nice bonus to those that have lotsa puppies often, and with low overhead so we can churn them out to make lotsa profit. Or is an infrequent and highly appreciated rarity for most of the rest of us. I wouldn't know about that part big profit part, however, even much as I've fondled the thought. Then of course, there is that other side: the sadness of all that planning and anticipating erased as you watch the premature neonates struggle to breath; or feel helpless when you realize that there is only so much that can be done to keep alive a fading puppy; or the overwhelming sadness when mother licks and licks and licks her baby, and you know it's already too late... There is that heart- wrenching phone call to tell yet another family that you won't have a puppy for them after all, and please would they give the children a hug from you when the bad news is spoken? Gone is that dream of the puppy for oneself, the reason the litter was bred in the first place. Buried in a special place - in the yard and in your heart - is that puppy with the perfect markings in the color and gender you've coveted for so many years. These are not just puppies, are they? They truly are dreams in small fuzzy forms. We want to see those hopes and dreams grow up to be full fledged realities. You don't want to be reminded by your well-meaning but thoughtless lawn man that it's an awful lot of money you're burying in the yard under the dogwood tree. You don't want to think in the future of ever breeding another litter - will this happen all over again? Will you lose more puppies? Will you cry until your eyes are swollen, your breathing is ragged, and you're sick to your stomach? It's an especially tough thought when your teenagers suggest that �this dog breeding stuff' is too stressful and heart- wrenching for you. Achhh, what do they know? Maybe one part we don't understand of the puppy mill mentality is how they feel when they lose a puppy. Is it a matter of �damn, there goes the profit', or is it a sadness that there's one less family with a new pet to love? I know where I'd vote. While I have never begrudged a serious hobby breeder a profit, I can't condone profit as the sole motivation for breeding in the first place. To me breeding my girls isn't about money, it's about having that next generation of happy beauties to snuggle with, or to know that there's a family with a new puppy to love. It's about creating that next perfect show dog, the one that will light up the ring with her presence, the one that you can visit the group ring with. The one that brings home the coveted BISS ribbon and memories, or the green obedience ribbons, or perhaps the orange ribbon of a field title. Forgive my rambling, I think that I'm releasing the emotions that are ripping at me right now; I think that I'm angry that Flopsy-dog down the road can get knocked up by Mugsy-dog down the other road, and she'll whelp 8 healthy babies - unassisted under the tool shed, and raise them all to the 5 or 6 weeks when the owner "gets rid of �em". Why can't *I* have a trouble-free litter where everyone of them will be embarking on a �happily ever after'? Why is this litter so marked by sadness and loss that I know I'm burying one, and probably two, puppies tomorrow? Why am I so cursed that I have to phone another family to break the sad news? How are these poor families going to feel? How do I explain to Jasmine that I'm taking that soft little body away, and not bringing it back. How can I make her understand that her over-achiever motherhood instincts will have to focus on just one puppy, and then hope to heck that he'll be fine. Why is it that those little dreams that should've been champions, or champion pot-lickers, or champion snugglers, are gone? Why me? So, my babies that were about three days early have had breathing problems; a seeming gasping for breath and/or gulping for air kind of motions. I'm eager to avoid this in the future and welcome conversation about avoiding premature births, saving fading puppies, or what - if anything - can be done for the ones that seem to be okay, but just really weren't thriving and growing, and then, the big question, how can they live for two weeks, and *then* have the lung problems surface. The vet(s) that I've rushed to are reproduction specialtists, so I'm guessing that they know of which they speak. However, you guys are breeders and probably have more collective knowledge. I need to tap into that... Right now I need to know that, somehow, I can have another litter without going through all this heartbreak... Sandra Dark Star Cavalier King Charles Spaniels http://www.DarkStarFamily.com/cavaliers.htm <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
