Hondo is our first child, our only daughter. She's a 5 1/2 yr old blue heeler. She is sooo smart--she follows many commands, loves going on walks and ESPECIALLY loves playing frisbee. We take her to the cabin in Colorado whenever we go. She's our pride and joy!!! Well, James and I have argued for years about getting her spayed. I want her spayed and James doesn't. He would LOVE to breed her with another cattle dog and have a prodigy cattle pup. So, I have let him win that argument year after year, heat cycle after heat cycle.
PREGNANCY #1:
Low and behold, in '06 she got prego with Logan's (Scott's Siberian husky) pups. She was due around 4th of July and we were going to be at the cabin. We decided not to go since we didn't want to leave her behind. Everyone convinced us to go ahead and go, taking the VERY prego Hondo with us. Of course, she ended up delivering on the 4th, at the cabin. We had 6 live pups (#7 didn't make it) in a 24 hr period. So we drove home with 6 loud pups, a 17 mo old toddler, and a very tired Hondo...12 hours. The puppies ended up being really cute--they all looked a lot like Hondo, but 2 had Logan's blue eyes. We were able to give them all away, Logan got fixed, happy ending.
PREGNANCY #2:
That brings us to January of this year. We were eating Sunday dinner at Grams Melissa's house. Hondo comes inside looking all disheveled, we realize she's in heat and probably had just conceived. Blast! The spaying argument comes up again. We forget about the situation, a few weeks later she is showing big time! GREAT! I finally win the argument that after these pups, Hondo WILL get fixed. Here's where the drama enfolds:
Saturday, Feb. 28
4:30am: Hondo is panting and whimpering, I wake
James and say she's probably in labor.
4:45am: Hondo goes into Ethan's room and wakes him, I go in to rock him back to sleep and see Hondo pushing, I yell for James to let her outside.
7:00am: We haven't seen Hondo since we let her out, James goes out to find her under a bush with a little nest she had made. James sets up a place for her in the garage because it is FREEZING outside.
Today is Aidan's birthday, so we head out to Aidan's birthday party.
1:15pm: We get back home to find Hondo with one delivered pup (who did not make it).
4:00pm: No pups yet, still contracting
7:00pm: No pups yet, still contracting
9:30pm: No pups yet, still contracting.
At this point, we are getting worried. She should have had more pups! Last time there was a 3-4 hr gap between pups. Not an EIGHT hour gap. I'm so frustrated b/c this is my area of expertise and yet I feel helpless. Of course it's Saturday night, so we can't call a vet's office and of all professions we do not know a vet who goes to our church (seems like all of our other health care providers go to church with us!). So we call the Emergency Animal Hospital, they say to come in IMMEDIATELY. Of course they're going to say that, how else will they get paid? But, my baby girl's health/life was in jeopardy so James took her to the animal ER.
10:45pm: James calls saying that there is a pup caught in the birth canal and the vet cannot extract it. Our options are: A) to put her under and try to remove the pup and then send us home to deliver the other pups (which would cost an arm and a leg), B) a C-section to deliver all pups (which would cost 2 arms, 2 legs, and a torso), or C) put Hondo to sleep (WHAT??!!). I was steaming mad. I couldn't believe he would throw the "put her to sleep" card into the mix. THAT's how vets make $$$$$$, they guilt us into procedures. My thought was if we chose option A, what if another pup is just as large as this pup and gets stuck again and we have to come back for a C/S anyway? Plus we go through the stress of waiting it out to see how many pups she was going to have. But it was cheaper... I figured we should go ahead with the C-section so that we could safely deliver all the puppies and, at the same time, get Hondo spayed.
11:00pm: Hondo gets her C-section. The stuck puppy was very difficult to remove and was dead, of course. And--the strange thing--there were NO OTHER PUPS. She only had twins! My poor baby not only had to endure a day of labor, a c-section and hysterectomy, but she had no pups to show for it! I was so sad for her. Don't get me wrong, it's nice that we won't have any to keep for 6 weeks then find homes for. But after all of this, she wandered around the house and outside sniffing and looking for her puppies. It was the saddest thing ever!!!
So now, I'm definitely backing Bob Barker! It has been so sad to see Hondo go through this!
I cannot believe how time has flown! Just 4 years ago (on Feb 28th--I know, this is a late post!) I remember thinking, I cannot believe my doctor and the nurses are letting James and I take home this precious little man! And now he's mom's little helper and is still a James/David mini-me. He is such a good big brother (most of the time), always trying to keep Ethan out of harm's way. He has really started coming out of his shell this past year. Playing soccer, always wanting to play with his friends, and LOVING school. He's becoming so social and autonomous (my 4 yr old should NOT be autonomous!) :) But it's so fun to watch him reach more and more milestones. He always wants to be on the go. Every night before going to bed, he asks me, "Mom, what are we doing tomorrow?" And I better have a fun day planned or he will be greatly disappointed! I am so humbled that Heavenly Father would entrust us with such an amazing person to raise. Happy Birthday AJ!!!!!!
Aidan really really really wanted a Pump-it-up birthday party this year. I'm glad I agreed because it was FREEZING that day; an outdoor party would have been a big mistake! He had soooo much fun with his family and soccer and church buddies. It was the perfect party for him. Notice how they spelled his name wrong (even after I emphasized AidAn to the baker at the bakery! ah well).
