Both in humans and animals, we have gotten to a point of confidence in successful pregnancies that just assumes happy endings. I guess that high success rate makes dealing with situations when things go wrong all the harder. All in all, we’ve had a pretty good history of breeding dogs. Recently we lost our first full litter including the mother. Everything went much like every other pregnancy. Then for some reason that we don’t fully understand, we lost the mother. Things went down hill from there.
It Takes a Village
While you might find that breeding dogs is a solitary effort, it’s time’s like these that you find out you are part of a community. We had two other kennels provide substitute mothers, and even more people offered assistance. Despite everyone’s best efforts, it didn’t work. More than a few experts had their hand in this rescue operation. It just wasn’t meant to be.
Sooner or later, something will go wrong. We have dealt with birth defects, poisonings, one hit and run and killings by other animals. It goes with the territory. Yes, you will probably make some mistakes, but most of the time it’s nature taking it’s course. While this may sound like an overly objective discussion about a very emotional topic, don’t think you will get hardened to the losses that you experience. If anything it’s a new appreciation that each new life you bring into the world is a gift and a miracle and should not be taken for granted.