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| Wake up Mom Shimmer ... I'm Here! |
15 months ago, my 37 year old dream of having my own litter of specially bred Golden Retriever puppies was "crushed" by the sudden devistating death of my sweet 3 year old girl "Lyric" who was carrying 5 day old eggs/semen implanted surgically ... everything related to having those puppies was then carefully and sadly packed away up in our cabin loft :-(
Lyric's 5 year old mom "Shimmer" was hopefully to give us another "special" daughter, but the subsequent Ultrasound was negetive and that special girl was not to be :-(
That is when sweet "Willow", who was ironically born on the evening of Lyric's death, joined our family ... and what a special joy she has been ... she just loves being "head" councelor for 8 week to 7 month old "foster" pups that come to Camp Cedar for socialization, training and fun!
Speed ahead to the last planned breeding of "Shimmer" ... a surgical insemenation on March 12th and confirmed Ultrasound for 4-5 pups about 20 days later ... with exciting anticipation, a little extra special doating was bestowed on this Golden mom with planned C-section on May 10th ... "Hope there is a girl"
May 8th, in the middle of my three 7p-7a night weekend shifts to work, Shimmer let it be known that puppies were not to wait till the 10th ... so leaving directly from work at 7:30am on Mother's Day morning (thankfully Sutter & Willow had wanted to come to work with me), we arrived ready for the 10am C-section preparations!
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| Dr Claire "It's a GIRL" |
Because of the recurrent cysts that formed inside and outside of her uterus, it was planned that this would be Shimmer's last pregnancy and she would be spayed ... when Dr Clair reaches the uterus she announces that there is now only one puppy ... 3-4 pups have been reabsorbed (not known why) ... Kara standing at the incubator and I watching thru the surgical suite window with my camera, look at each other and silently mouth "IT'S A BOY" ... but wait, the puppy is out of the sac and Dr Claire exclaims "IT'S A GIRL" ... shock and thrill in the same breath ;o)
SUNKISSED EMERALD DREAM CATCHER "EMMA" is born ;o)
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Cord is Tied
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The decision is made to spay today ... recovery, then mom & pup are on their way home ... complications 2 hours later and Shimmer is rushed back to surgery ... problem resolved and blood loss replaced, Shimmer returns home and
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| Puppy Dreams |
dispite a shot of Oxytocin to stimulate milk, there are only drops of colostrum for lil' "Emma" ... another decision after searching for colostrum "on-line" is to give Emma to another mom "Billie" who has 1 1/2 week old pups and willingly accepts "one more pup" ... "Shimmer" while groggy from her 2 surgeries, has not really realized that she has a pup ... after a brief photo session and as sad as the human feeling is to seperate mom & child, "Emma" meets her new family ... it will be the best decision for "Emma" to have plenty of mother's milk and siblings to grow up with for 8 weeks ... "singletons" have proven problems without socialization with litter siblings ;o)
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| Pup & Human Mom Bond ;o) |
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I Now Have 8 Brothers & Sisters!
Biological mom "Shimmer" is doing well, eating and peeing and sees the vet every morning for exam/ultrasound ... still being pampered ;o) |
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| New "Foster" Mom "Billie" |
Emma gets special feeding times, then joins her brothers and sisters in the whelping box ... all seems to be going fantastically well ;o)
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| Emma in the Bed ;o) |
EVERY WOUND IS AN OPENING ... PERHAPS SLOW to HEAL but DEFINATELY the START of a NEW BEGINNING ;o)
It's the day before this year's late Easter ... outside, huge falling snowflakes are covering the pansy baskets, that are now in the cool basement to melt their load of snow ... the pond is open and the girls have already made small circle swims in the frigid water off the dock ... the ice was 5 days later than usual disappearing ... just yesterday we were basking in sunshine ;o)
