Life Changes After Pups …
It had been over 10 years since I had a puppy, the last dog was a quite devastating end. It was raining, foggy, I was on vacation and the poor pup was rushed to the pet hospital in Philadelphia. The situation was traumatic enough that I held off until I found a breed that would suit my personality, cattle dogs.
My friend from the Rez (Native American Reservation), called me up telling me my favorite dog he owned just had pups. Of course, I had wanted Sassy from the time I first saw her, but my friends were not willing to let her go at the time.
As soon as I heard she had pups and who the papa was, I knew I had to have one. Immediately, I asked him for photos and the white one was definitely mine. Once I got to the Rez I knew I had to have at least two since they were so bonded, and the love was noticeable.
That is when I chose two and if I had some land and a home I might have taken all four girls. As a responsible mother, a week later I took the pups to the Veterinarian to start their first cycle of shots. They were only “almost 7 or 8,” weeks old and to be honest I thought they were already 8 weeks old. I felt quite guilty to find out they were so young. So, the training commenced, and it has been exhausting from stability to ensure proper behavior without emotional or mental wounds to their psyche.
Typing these words, I quickly look at myself in the mirror and wonder has Eagle Spirit become a snowflake? I grew up during a time where if a dog is getting sick we kicked the dog outside, or if the dog was cut, we let them lick themselves ‘til they were healed. I mean has humanity really gone this far to ensure we do not have wheat in dog food, it must be real grains and what is with brushing their teeth? Gah!
On the daily, I’ve begun to question my sanity and the list of what I need to do for these two little souls. It seems way too much ... then I look at them and feel the love. It’s unconditionally sweet and pure. Truth is these little creatures become a part of you.
Spay or Neuter Your Pet? That is the Question …
Finally, after the pups reached four months and all the puppy shots are given, including the rabies it is time to think about spaying. In a perfect world we could let them choose, right? Now we must think about phrases like pet ownership responsibility or pet control.
I was being asked about spaying when the pups were only 8 weeks old, although I knew I would spay them I still cringed and cried “they’re just babies!”
After I started to look up facts regarding spaying the darling girls on the internet little did I realize there are debates as to if we should really spay. How old the girls should be, does spaying help or harm their emotional psyche, etc. All these opinions started to concern me, if only a little bit.
Honestly, with all the pets I’ve had in my life I never realized something so simple had to be so difficult. Seems to be the case with the world we live in today. Everything seems to be an issue, or there is an argument for the other side waiting to ambush us and cause some sort of mind-fuck.
Well, now I can say after many years of not having to go through this the girls have been very needy and almost worse in behavior since before the surgery. There were reports this might happen. Also, they cannot be together since they both start to fight for attention. So far, they appear to have lost all sense of any training; potty training, staying, the word “no.” This past weekend has been a reiteration of every moment spent for the past few months, and my patience is near its end.
With 10 more days to go with the Cone of Shame, I can only hope it will get better after all of this and someday soon the girls will be friendlier towards one another and I will be able to finally get more socializing with other dogs in, and hit the trails and camping sites I had planned before I picked the two babies out not that long ago.
If you ask me if I would do this all over again, I would say yes. Although the girls have been in a great deal of pain, I’ve been giving them non-stop Reiki, reminding them to not jump or run has been a test for all of us. The girls are great companions and now a large part of my life. They bring me joy and a hope for the future. The plan is that they will someday be a part of a small homestead, and a push to finally find that piece of land I’ve been looking for these past three years. Wish us luck!
Kisses from Tala and Mika. In Recovery ...Question: Would you spay or neuter your furry companion?
Love,
All photos by @EagleSpirit
You could say my dog got "lucky" when it comes to this. He was born with only 1 testi so he didn't have the aggressiveness problems you find on young male dogs and since he's in a pretty safe place where we know he can't escape(he can try but we built some good stuff to prevent him from escaping and he stopped trying years ago) we know he won't go around impregnating other doggers around the block :^)
You might think, hey don't you take him out? Sadly we can't since in the past few years it has turned pretty unsafe around where I live and a friend of mine was walking his dog around and a thief came up to him with a gun and he got scared of the dog when he was stealing and shot the dog :-( since that day I never took him out again...
One testi 😮🚨🤣
He can still make babies!!
I’m glad you don’t take him
Out. Are you back in VZ???
:-)
Firstly I must say they look so cute, and spay or neuter is such a tough decision to make and one I think each person has to weight the options and pros and cons for themselves, for our cat we choose not to as she was an indoor breed of cat and there was no chance she would be mixing with male cats, so we were fortunate to not have to make that decision
Tatt!! Thank you for stopping by and no worries, I just got back from a Steemit-break. I needed a rest! Thank you for answering, yes it can be a touch decision and it’s for each one for sure.
NO problem a pleasure to visit and with the pups you have been so busy I bet, welcome back :)
Thank you so much! Yes new job and pups
Those will both keep you busy for sure
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Gosh, this post brought back SOOO many memories and agonizing thoughts. Yes, our cats needed to be desexed for practical reasons but I felt I was taking away part of their identity. I HURT when I brought their neutered selves home. 😭 I STILL (18 months on!) whisper to my boy cat Ginger that he's just as handsome to me without his balls and that I'm sorry. We have just adopted another 8 week old kitten that the neighbour wanted to drown - a handsome little 10ish week old black kitten named Moxa. My almost first thought was the challenge of desexing him and taking away his natural manhood. Sob. A thoughtful post!
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You did the right thing @eaglespirit they have less issues after spaying. 👍
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I hear you I had this same dilemma with my dog, there is a huge problem where I live with people dumping dogs, their are so many also that are not looked after and then puppies are constantly being dumped. I really really did not want to do anything to my dog that I was not prepared to do myself, but when she had 10 puppies with her first litter, I knew I had too, there are just too many stray dogs where I am I did not want to be bringing more dogs into the community. I did manage to rehome all of her pups but it was hard work and a lot of travel . It is a decision I did not make lightly, but we are responsible for them at the end of the day x
its one of those REALLY hard questions for me! I had several generations of cats and it was HARD work.. and way too many kittens.. I also kept losing them as they vanished whilst finding mates .. so finally i sterilised and neutered all three of them.. it was one of the hardest things to do in my life, second to putting my dog down on the dining room table..
but
it was the right thing to do.. they have a very easy life, the female cat Grey is so happy and peaceful and she had one litter and lives with her son.. Ironically one of the cats had a litter of kittens many weeks after the operation.. VERY strange!