Friday, January 20, 2012

Why "Playing" Breeder Makes You An Uneducated Jackass.

Best.Dog.Ever


So everyone that knows me knows my dog Kita B is the love of my life. She’s a mutt that I bought from a fairly respectable backyard breeder before I was in any way informed that such a thing existed  She was treated very well at the house and has what in my mind is a perfect temperament. They did a good job with her from what I can see.

I have watched enough price is right to know it is important to spay and neuter your pets. It’s not just kind of important or important for ugly dogs its super fucking important for everyone. Why though? Breeding your dog is natural, people do it all the time and are willing to go to war for their reproductive rights yet we think we can just take them away from animals?! How dare you.

To spay a dog can be pretty expensive. My folks did not understand why I was so obsessed with the idea. I love puppies, and a Maltese/Chihuahua having puppies?! Those things go for about 800 bones at least. Kita the cash cow was my pet. I didn’t want that though, the overpopulation of humane societies is heartbreaking to anyone with cable and a love for Sarah McLaughlin.

However as a poor high school kid with no job I couldn’t afford to get my girl fixed, and it honestly wasn’t a problem because she had no interaction with male dogs (her best friend was an overweight golden retriever  ... not a pregnancy issue) so the issue kind of went away until she was 3 and my brother brought home a puppy. He was too young to have been sold from the breeder, who though he was a purebred dog he clearly came from something shady due to his “I’ve been abused” behaviours. We loved Thor anyways though and when Kita went into heat we figured; he’s just a baby and only has one ball. We would stop them if we ever caught them in the act, and when we weren’t home Thor was always locked in his kennel. However “shit happens” and our infant dog knocked up Ki.
My sister w/ Baby Thor. Babies havin babies.

I sat and cried for hours I was so upset. How could I let this happen? There are hundreds of dogs being put down every single day because no one wants them. I don’t want to bring more dogs into this world and for sure not some super mutt (Maltese/Chihuahua/Yorkie) but what was done was done. We were down for the long haul.

People often say “It is good for the dog to breed” or “It's natural, at least one litter is best” – this is complete bullshit. There is so scientific proof that links having a litter with positive mental and physical reactions from the dog. That is one that people say all the time and is just wrong.
Being that uncomfortable makes her SO happy. Just glowing right?
Pregnant Ki couldn’t go up or down stairs; she waddled everywhere and was miserable. Oh I’m so glad she gets to experience the miracle of birth! No. My baby was miserable and though I didn’t want the puppies in the first place I was nothing but upset with myself for allowing this to happen.
The morning she had them she was in so much pain, if you want your entire house filled with the sound of crying dog be my guest, I freaked the fuck out and called my mom like an adult because I couldn’t deal with it. Animals have babies in the wild all the time, by themselves. This may come as a huge shock to some but our PETS are not wild animals. They rely on us for everything; they are in no way as tough as the coyotes that you see popping out babies all the time. My dog was in extreme pain, and sometimes I think she still hates us all for putting her through that. That was an accident, I genuinely believe that no one who loves their pet would do that to them on purpose if they are educated.

The puppies were great they were adorable little fluffs and a lot of fun. A lot of vet bills, a lot of worrying, and turned my perfect little princess dog into a demon for the first few weeks to everyone but me. I was allowed in the pen with them but anyone else would get their hand bitten off. Isn’t she so glad she had those babies? You can see how thankful she is to you in her cold black eyes. We had to spend a lot of money on these puppies, we had to get them a pen and puppy-safe the place – the aforementioned vet bills with all their starter shots are not inexpensive, because Ki was such a small dog we had to get heating pads for them so they wouldn’t freeze to death. One of the puppies was born not breathing so Chaunster the hero (my mom) had to run her to the vet to get the gunk sucked out of her chest. Cute right? Totally adorable and so GOOD for your dog.
La Qweshia and LaFonda 2 of the 3 puppies. Cute right?

I love dogs, and I love puppies, I love them more than I love people rather openly. I only liked the puppies, why? Because they took Kita from me. She still wanted to sleep up in my comfy bed with me but was stuck in a pen in the kitchen, what is this bullshit she was thinking (I assume) when she would wine at night for me, to the point that I ended up setting up a bed downstairs so she would relax. It’s cool though – those babies were SO good for her. Totally needed it. Her body was mangled, she was so skinny despite us getting her everything we could for extra mom-foods she literally was udders and bone. 6 pounds cannot really afford to lose weight, but there was one point in her pregnancy that she was skin and bones and all I could think was wow I am so glad we have witnessed animal motherhood. Right? No. I was worried as fuck for my dog.
Finding homes for the puppies was in no way a problem, only 3 dogs and we decided to sell them for 400 – this was against my every wish. My brother who had technically paid for Thor though never raised him figured he deserved money for his “stud services” , I won one battle and we did just give one of the puppies to a family we knew would love it forever and the other puppy did not cover all the expenses we had from taking care of the puppies.

Bring in the fact that I had an entire family running this operation, taking them outside what felt like a million times a day. Giving them adequate socialization and playtime. 5 dogs was a lot of work and I had 4 people available to help me. As a twentysomething would I go through that on my own? Hell no. After everything that I learned that I wanted to avoid in the first place would I do it again? Never. I don’t think people who actually love their pets can treat them like that. Be responsible and FIX YOUR PETS. You want to witness the miracle of birth? Go on YouTube, don’t use your animal and justify it as “It is good for them” because it isn’t. They are just as happy not having babies and going through that and the millions of dogs and cats in shelters?? Those are the ones who need something “good” to happen to them. 


If you still feel its important to breed your pet please check out these links and actually read them. Thanks.
http://www.cyberpet.com/dogs/articles/general/breeding.htm
http://www.dogstuff.info/to_breed_or_not.html <--- this is my favorite. 

2 comments:

  1. It is nice to see you taking such a stand and owning up to your numerous errors. It shows your maturity now. However, you still made a poor choice by letting her have the puppies. You could have had her spayed at any point during her pregnancy and prevented even the waddling stage for her. You made the choice to let the puppies at more than one stage. I hope you own up to that, as well.

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    1. Thank you for your feedback, It honestly had not occurred to me to go the route of getting her spayed within the pregnancy. Our vet never brought it up as an option, and though of course there is abortion in the human world it certainly was not mentioned to us, who were admittedly ignorant to the situation. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.

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