Firstly my heartfelt thanks to Marie at the Little Pod Foundation for stepping in and helping our dilemna.
I'm not sure whether Suzy is pregnant, but almost certainly the one we call 'Mum' is. Although their seasons were virtually synchronised, Mum had a weeks start on Suzy and her main suitor, several times over, was a huge GSD thats been roaming the village for about a couple of months. Don't know if anyone owns him, he hasn't got a collar but someone is definitely feeding him...
Problem is that Mum is only little, even alongside Suzy she's small and pregnancy via a GSD doesn't bear thinking about.
Anyway, I took Suzy and Mum down to the Vets this morning; this was something of a series of scary bits for them; certainly first time in a car for Suzy, probably for Mum too, so thats Scary bit number one. Scary bit number two was actually going into the vets surgery. Getting plonked up on the examination table was something else... "I'm not getting up there..." seemed to be the opinion of both of them. As I have said before, both are very wary about humans but there was this huge guy in a white coat wanting to do all kinds of things.... Scary again...
Sophie the pup was getting a little overdue for her third round of vaccinations so I took her along at the same time. Despite her youth she is something of an old hand at Vets visits and she took the jabs and micro-chipping as if it was nothing and I think Suzy and Mum drew a bit of confidence from her.
Given that both Suzy and Mum could be pregnant the presence or otherwise of foetuses was largely irrelevant since they were there for a pre-spay op examination, so a quick respiration and heart-rate check was all that they had to endure.
And so the appointment is made for this coming Friday morning. Fingers, toes and everything else crossed that all goes well.
it all proved a bit much for Suzy on the way back home... I took them for a walk round before starting back just to take care of any pees or poohs they may have been hanging onto, then back to the car.... On the outbound trip Suzy had been sitting on the back seat looking out of the window and watching the world going by and she never batted an eyelid. The run back home was something else however...Mum and Sophie were in a travel crate in the back of the Scenic with Suzy laying alongside (her choice). There were a few protesting squwarks from the crate but not a sound from Suzy. So quiet was she that I stopped after about 10 minutes to check that all was ok... OH DEAR.... I think the words are projectile vomit... travel or tension sickness with a vengeance, but she had done it without making any noise... what a mess... and the smell....but what can you do...
I took her out of the back of the Scenic and plopped her down on a blanket on the back seats. I wiped her down with some baby wipes and kitchen paper and sat with her for a few minutes with her head in my lap whilst making what I hoped were soothing noises. Eventually she perked up and had a drink of water (something else we always carry on board the dog-mobile). The sailcloth sheet we use as a boot-liner was beyond cleaning so that got binned along with the used clean up kit.
Got home ok after that little episode and by the time we stopped outside the house all three inmates were voicing their discontent. This happened to coincide with a visit from the postman, something guaranteed to kick the remainder of the house pack into vocal action. So I had all nine dogs all giving it their best, including the wolf like howls of Izzy and Leo.
quote from an earler post....'Dogs bark its what they do'... yeah right! And how... Fortunately the neighbours weren't around.
As the three girls re-entered the house, al the noise stopped. I finished cleaning up Suzy and left them to it. They all settled down to a belated siesta.
Hopefully Suzy will have got over her travel-sickness and forgotten about it by Friday. I will have to leave her and Mum at the vets during the surgery and go back later in the afternoon. just hope everything goes OK.
More news on Friday evening...
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edited to add... Dedicated to all abandonados and those who care for them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt2mbGP6vFI&ob=av2e