The bag continues to be incredibly fun.
Jasper — check out all the dark eyes in these puppies.
Sapphire.
Star Garnet.
The puppies have paired up as playmates. Jasper and Star Garnet go and go and go and go.
Topaz and Sapphire have a more civilized way of playing together.
Well, if you call biting off your sibling’s face “civilized.”
On today’s agenda — visitors, more warm water floating for Topaz, and puppy training for all the Gems.
🩷💙💙💙
(Later)
As many know, the last time I had a litter was a bit of a puppy palooza (understatement alert). Claire had failed to get pregnant twice, and so I tried one last time. I was not at all hopeful and so I also bred Daisy. They each got pregnant — with ten puppies. The litters were a week apart.
I kid you not. There were 10 + 10 puppies.
By the end of puppy palooza, my resting pulse was up to 90 (from the normal 69 - 70) and I had lost 20 pounds.
Four puppies is easy. A walk in the park. The perfect antidote to my puppy palooza PTSD.
And yet my resting pulse is once again informing me that I am doing that duck thing 🦆
This is normal for where we are in the life of a litter but it is made worse by whatever is happening with Topaz.
I am his throughline. It is my job to marshal, sort, and access resources for his benefit. It is also my job to ensure we do not do too much and burden this young puppy with testing and interventions just because we can.
The just right amount of veterinary intervention is hard to know. Actually, it is impossible to know right now. That is what is so stressful.
When my entire reality blew up in the spectacular explosion of The Gaslighter, I learned something really helpful: Just do the next right thing. Sounds simple but it is really useful in all kinds of situations, big and small.
We get ourselves into a tangled, overwhelmed mess when we try to transport into future problems. The future is unavailable right now, and so how can we solve future problems when we are not exactly sure what they are? That doesn’t work.
Further, spending our internal resources — aka 100 Little Soldiers — to try and solve future problems that do not exist except in our imagination is a waste of present-day capacity. That doesn’t mean we ignore potential consequences for present-day actions, but we need to do it wisely and gently.
RUDE
Anyway, all that is to say that I am focused on the next right thing for Topaz. What that looks like is delaying the follow-up veterinary appointment to later this week, and having a conversation with the local veterinarian, Dr. B. That has happened already.
Dr. B reached out to contacts over the weekend and so between us, we have more puzzle pieces but no clear picture. What we have is a plan.
Puppy Confab to discuss The Plan
Topaz will continue warm water therapy. Dr. B agrees that we should not give any pain medication unless he is in significant distress. We have an appointment with her on Thursday. I will bring a clean catch urine sample from Topaz and a littermate (for comparison). Bloodwork will be done. I will bring all the siblings to the appointment for the purpose of comparing apples to apples on physical exam, and one brave puppy will have blood drawn to send off Titer #1 to the CAVIDS lab.
Star Garnet says, “NOT ME!”
If anything changes, I will do the next right thing.
Until then, the Gems and I will…
(Later)
Photos from the day 🩷💙💙💙
❤️
As I mentioned yesterday, WA Barb connected me with a lovely person named Cindy who does Hydrotherapy with dogs. Long story short — Kira’s family is getting their hot tub to 94 degrees so that Topaz can float (supported) in the warm water for 40 minutes today.
He was having a relatively good morning until one of his siblings stepped on his left front leg. Under normal circumstances, this would not be a big deal — it was a Big Deal 💔
After getting him calmed down, he spent the remainder of morning outside time not moving much and just playing with things I brought to him — and the towel. Puppies find the strangest things to be really cool.
I am hoping the warm water intervention will help Topaz.
Thank you to WA Barb for the connection to my new hydrotherapy friend, Cindy. Thank you to Cindy for reaching out and sharing her expertise. And so much gratitude to Kira and her family for all their help in making this happen 🙏❤️
I weighed puppies last night. Topaz has basically caught up — he was 8.3 pounds last night and Sapphire, pictured below, was 8.4 pounds.
Star Garnet was 9.2 pounds.
Jasper, shown here doing his bird dog thing after more geese flew over, was 9.6 pounds last night.
All four with their mom — look at all the floof!
The hydrotherapy session is going to involve all of us and so that means the Gems are having a field trip today. Photos later.
🩷💙💙💙
(Later)
The field trip was a big success. Topaz enjoyed his hydrotherapy.
Each of the Gems got an easy “Intro to Swimming” lesson. This is Jasper.
The puppies and kids enjoyed each other.
Berkeley and Capella got to swim — watch at the end for Atlas. Capella was SO happy to see her brother!
Thanks to Kira and her family for letting us invade 🙏
Topaz walked more this evening than he has in quite a few days.
Sapphire.
Star Garnet (with Sapphire).
Jasper.
Star Garnet and Sapphire.
❤️