12/13/2024
Ok, here goes!
I’ve been breeding since 1995. I’ve always prided myself in loving my dogs, taking care of them, and striving to find good homes for my babies. I think, for the most part, I have succeeded in that! In my point of view, there is no better dog out there for unconditional love and doggy hugs, but I am partial.
I’ve had so many puppies over the years, met so many great people! I hope I’ve made so many just a bit more happy because I decided to take on this endeavor so many years ago.
In all those years, I’ve never thought of myself as a bad breeder, as a puppy mill. I knew who was getting my babies and I liked each one of them. I had my views of what a puppy mill actually was and that definitely wasn’t here! However, as I related to my sub group yesterday, at school, while we were reading I about the overcrowding of animal shelters across our country and how much of that might be related to pet stores selling puppies provided from puppy mills, I might just be close to that category right now.
How, you say? Recently, I purposely bred two of my sweet girls so we could have their litters this year. Their sweet babies are going on 4 weeks old and 3 weeks old. In total, there are 15 babies in those two litters, 10 boys and 5 girls. Yep, way too many boys! Another way my Trooper is in hot water around here. All ready around the second and third weekend of January.
This next part is my main purpose of writing and the part that puts me in closer to the puppy mill realm. A couple weeks later, my other two girls were in heat. They were not scheduled to breed until next year. They just had their beautiful babies last Spring. They deserved a break until next year. However, my Trooper had different views about that subject. I had let them into my attached lots off their kennels. They needed exercise and it isn’t fair to keep them penned up for three weeks! I’ve blamed him for what happened next but as I shared with my students yesterday, I was the one truly at fault! I’m the one in charge! I’m the breeder! He decided he needed to be with my girls so when I went back out to put them up, there he was standing in the lot with them. Oh, my gosh! He had dug under my fences, electric included, through rock, wood, and past rebar! Determined! In all my fuming, my husband reminded me that that was the reason I bought him! True! But he is suppose to mind me and have some scruples! I’d laugh if it was just funny! If I had only put him back in the house, in a pen, locked up, anything, that would not have happened. My only hope was that they weren’t in enough!!
I prayed and hoped but to no avail. This past weekend, on Saturday, my Mia gave birth to hers, without my help as I had determined them not to be due until this week. Due to the ice cold temps over weekend, she lost way more than she should have had I been prepared as I usually am. Again, no one’s fault but mine! She has two beautiful babies, one boy, one girl, pushing the number of pups to 17. On Sunday night and all day Monday, Scarlett and I stayed up to deliver her babies. She added 5 boys and 1 girl to our numbers bring the total to now 23 babies.
In my 30 years of breeding, never this many litters. Out of six kennel stalls, four of them are taken up with mamas and their babies!
You can not possibly judge me any harder than I’ve judged myself! They will have to be discounted way more than I would have ever dreamed and definitely not to lessen their sweet value at all, but because there are simply too many!
That all being said, I could use prayers for them to survive these up and down temps which are much harder than even the bitter cold temps. Prayers that this old woman holds up to the extra long days right here at the holidays, and extra work. And more importantly, prayers that they find good homes! Could use some shares in my posts that I will be making each week about them. Gotta get the word out somehow! And 16 boys! Whew!🤪😉
