Bad news, mostly. . .

Puppy H

Although Kenya’s puppies were all still alive as of last Friday, all but one were dead as of the c-section this morning. This puppy is a girl, 8.3 oz — which is a good size — beautifully marked except for a very definite smudge on her face. The smudge is not a total killer in the show ring, but it is definitely not desirable.

There is no reason to think this girl will fail to thrive, but one puppy out of two attempted litters is definitely a disaster. This is even worse than three living puppies from two litters last year. I may be done breeding: let everyone just get their puppies from puppy mills. But today is probably not the right day to make big decisions like that.

So . . . no way I can do any useful writing today. I’m going to go read a book. And sit with Kenya while she decides to accept her puppy. Experience leads me to suspect that her maternal instincts will switch on tomorrow or the next day. Earlier would be nice.