I can’t believe it’s been 4 years and yet it seems like this litter took more than 4 years to get on the ground. Carmela decided to come into season on the 4 month plan (she does have a double dose of JillyBean after all) so we had daily blood draws for lh testing and period progesterone testing.
The girl is an ABSOLUTE statue for blood draws (especially the jugular ones). It’s rather amazing how excited she was to get on the table at the vet each day. She was however NOT particularly cooperative when we had to get the cytology swabs. After a few fake outs on the lh tests (we’ve only ever had a faint positive live when we then had the real positive the next day)
We’d all just about decided that she was going to do a split cycle (her progesterone stayed at less than 0.2 for 12 days - and we’d had to get more cytology slide to make sure it all indicated she was taking her time much to her displeasure) and I ordered more lh tests. Much like the best way to get a bitch to come into season is to enter her in a non-refundable event that she can’t participate in if she’s in season; apparently buying a lot of fairly expensive, not returnable test kits that will expire before you will be ready to use them the next breeding is the way to get her to ovulate.
Of course, the (real positive) lh surge was on a Saturday evening so we had to get our ducks all in a row for arranging the breeding. As we were arranging for out trip to North Ridgeville, I noticed that the vet that would be collecting and shipping Eddie’s contribution was 15 minutes from my sister’s house. So we went south instead and visited in GA. Apparently, we do that with the brown girls because we also did it with Carmela’s Grand dam Bela
The MSU (aka not the Mama by the dogs) had a total ankle replacement in early December so that threw off our schedule for getting the ultrasound. The Villagers were also recovering, having grand skin puppies or otherwise occupied so I enlisted my niece (technically, she’s my cousin’s daughter but since our mothers are twins, we are genetically siblings so niece it is drove Carmela and I to North Ridgeville and back to hear/see puppies on the ultrasound.
Just to keep things interesting, my “birthday snow” this year was a massive event with lots of snow and some ice (any ice is too much) followed by more snow and a lot of very cold temperatures so that it didn’t melt, We managed to pre treat the driveway so we eventually had the driveway cleared enough to let another round of snow cover it Friday night. One of us can’t see and one of us was in a walking boot from that total ankle replacement so it was a an adventure getting off the hill and to North Rdigeville for the xray and a progesterone test on Saturday.
Sunday, we met Tootsie with Debbie Totten at Scott’s bakery for a nice visit and some goodies before heading over to have another progesterone test and an ultrasound to decide whether the puppies were likely to hold off until the next day.
And, fortuntely for us, they DID! The best part of them waiting for me was on Monday, “Uncle Dr Brian” as he is known by us (I have no idea ig he knows that’s how we refer to him but I guess he definitely will if he reads this 😀) was working abnd brought Bagby to visit us while we were there. Bagby is from our second litter (Jill X Boo) and it was great so nice to visit with him (and give him lots of treats). Debbie Totten met us at the clinic so the MSU could rest with his ankle up before the long drive home. We both really appreciated her help! She even took Carmela for her second poop of the day while I got the pool set up for the long long ride home!
We got home and even made it up the driveway after a few tries. Mama and puppies are all settled in; now the humans will work on getting into soem sort of routine. GrandPaw Deja says he is available to assist when needed, too.
Nighty nighty nighty from the 7 newest Allyn PWDs: 5 black wavy girls, 1 black wavy boy and 1 brown wavy/soft curly boy
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