More Pandemic Puppy Prep

Pandemic Puppy Prep was productive over the weekend.

I have exterior doors to paint but I am terrible at selecting colors — all those choices paralyze me! I blame this on Catholic schools, which were great for a lot of things but I never learned the art of making choices — I just put on my green plaid uniform everyday.

Luckily, I now have Friend Suzanne. Armed with her handy Sherman-Williams paint wheel thing, Friend Suzanne can find the perfect color for anything.

So far she has selected the correct blue for my office at the university (with perfectly coordinated trim, mind you), and the perfect color and trim color for the remodeled kitchen and dining area (and because it all flows together — the entry, living room and hall).

I sent out a Color S.O.S. with photos of the roof to assist and had the two color choices for the exterior doors within the hour. Suzanne is like a Magic Eight Ball for color selection!

Since I was in the painting mood, I decided the whelping box needed an update. Yes, I am nesting.

I called around to find a paint store where the employees were wearing masks and Sherman-Williams in Missoula was the winner.

I am a bit obsessive about toxic things and so the poor sales guy was prompted to call a manager to discuss which of their paints was lowest in the VOC department and so on — they were all so nice and helpful (and masked).

While he did that, I stood in front of the approximately 14 bazillion paint chips and tried to pick a color for the whelping box. I looked automatically for the familiar green plaid of my uniform but nope — I was forced to channel my Inner Suzanne and make a different choice.

It wasn’t pretty but in the end, I did it.

Well, I actually did it about ten times but I finally just handed the guy a chip and said, “this one.”

Later — when asked what color I selected — I could not remember. It turned out to be this kind of a teal/green/blue color. Not plaid but I like it!

And so the whelping box was painted and after a few stressful hours searching for the pins that hold the corners together (life in a construction zone is messy), we were able to set it all up.

There is a cushioning mat under the vinyl floor, and that all sits on top of the living room floor.

I have some touch-up painting to do, more linens to wash, hemostats to sterilize, and so on — this is quite a production and very exciting.

We expect to see a drop in Daisy’s body temperature when she is within 24 hours of whelping. I started documenting her temperature this morning to establish a baseline -- it was 100.6. I will check her temperature four times each day at roughly the same times.

The soonest we would expect puppies is Friday but the actual due date is Saturday/Sunday. I am confident she will honor my request to deliver at least some of the 47 puppies that appear to be inside her on Sunday so that the litter birthday can be the same as mine. I have also requested a daytime delivery — good thing days are long this time of year and Daisy is such a Cooperator!

And that is the latest from Puppy Central.

Masking Love

Pandemic Puppy Prep is complicated — and thank goodness for Amazon. Every day feels like Christmas around here, with daily packages arriving filled with such exciting things as bulb syringes and hemostats.

Yesterday was especially thrilling — the puppy collars arrived!

Sparkle’s mom and Daisy’s grandfather are littermates and so that means Daisy’s puppies will be Sparkle’s something-cousins…

We raise our litters in the house, OF COURSE, and so last week I went to Home Depot to purchase a piece of vinyl to cover the living room floor -- the whelping box will sit on it.

The parking lot was packed and mask-less people streamed in and out of the store.

I was dumfounded. And irate.

I called Dear Husband as I drove off and it went like this: @#$%& *&%#$

Lowe’s was the same.

And so was the next phone call to Dear Husband.

I went to the flooring store — no masks but also very few people.

I needed that vinyl! It had to air out before it could come in the house and so I put my own mask on and went inside.

I got my piece of vinyl — a remnant — FOR FREE! #score

I cannot afford to get sick for all kinds of reasons but especially because we have puppies arriving next weekend. Montana has low rates BUT the tourists are arriving and careless people are congregating again — I am worried about June.

I am now unwilling to go into places that do not require masks and in a Red State like this, those places are far and few between. Costco and the Good Food Store in Missoula — those are my Peeps.

Masks — the new symbol of Love Your Neighbor.

Dialing Back

This is the view I have this morning as I sit here in my dining area/work space…

I finally finished grading yesterday and can now begin to catch up on other things.

I am working through emails, need to watch some videos for people, make a couple of how-to-train-this videos, and so on — I have a list, of course.

And then, I will begin to shut things down and limit my commitments.

Life in a Pandemic is hard stuff. It just surrounds us — like persistent low fog — demanding a certain number of Little Soldiers just to navigate through it. This means we wake up with only 40 - 50 Little Soldiers each day instead of the usual 100; the rest are on Pandemic Duty.

We must not expect those 40 - 50 remaining Little Soldiers to do the work of 100, and so that means we MUST dial back and lower expectations of self and others. Nobody is helped when our finite coping resources are collapsed in a sobbing, exhausted heap.

I intend to not simply say that to others but also model what that looks like. I believe we can be kind, compassionate, and loving to others only when we do the same for ourselves.

In about ten days the long awaited K Litter is due.

Daisy Rey

Most of my available Little Soldiers will be happily on duty at Puppy Central. This includes, of course, sharing the Puppy Love with all of you — every single day.

After all, who cannot use some Puppy Love in a Pandemic?