Off Topic about Jole' and puppies.
Bad news. There were three puppies and all of them died. Jole went into labor, and when she hadn't produced a puppy after 30 minutes of hard labor I made arrangements to take her to the ER Vet. I took her in to the Vet. Palpitation and X-rays showed that a puppy was right at the birth canal. They tried the usual shots of pitocin(oxytocin), and although I disagreed and believed there was some underlying problem(and not that her contractions were not strong enough), I let them give her the pitocin injections. I could feel a puppy very close to where he would have exited, but the puppy had been there for a while. And, her contractions appeared to me to be very strong for some time. Anyway. I went ahead and waited with her after the injections to see if she could have a puppy on her own. Instead her labor just stopped, and when she stood up a bunch of blood spilled out of her(about 1 pint). So they did an emergency C-section.
Apparently, a large male puppy with a very big head got stuck and held up the labor process. Unfortunately, NONE of the puppies made it. Jole' is still at the Vet, and she is weak but doing fairly well. Thank God she is okay--this could have killed her, too. I should hopefully be picking her up tonight. She lost a lot of blood. It was awful.
I didn't want to even talk about this but, friends here have been asking. This happened last night. I got home at about 3 AM, but I didn't feel like logging on at all.
Aside from my love and concern for Jole' and her puppies, I was so looking forward to raising a new SAR puppy. And, I had to call everyone who was going to get a puppy that none of them survived. I feel very sad, emotionally drained, and tired. Yet, I feel grateful that my Jole' made it. I am crying as I write this, so if I am not speaking clearly, I'm sorry.
Lion