Puppies!

My family is a bit dog focused.

This is a true understatement of the reality of which my husband married into with informed consent. Let me just be clear about this from the get go. He KNEW how crazy we were before saying the "I do's," (although he denies this). Also, I know how crazy we are and I am way ok with it.

My parents are sublimating their desire for grand kids through the dogs. They have two Scotties: Gregory (a rescue Scottie), and Dewars (a pure bred). When my parents bought Dewars they agreed to breed him once to help pass on a good blood line without any genetic defects. Believe it or not, one of the common problems with purebreds are the genetic defects due to over breeding and interbreeding so genetic screens are becoming customary.

Dewars is the most mellow dog on the face of the earth and not your traditional terrier. If he were any more mellow, he would be dead. At this point in his life neutering is not an option as: 1) It would be painful, and 2) We think the only thing that keeps his heart rate up is the testosterone level.

They found a Wheaten Scottie bitch named Roxie with equally impressive blood lines. Her "Mom" is actually a bit more crazy than my parents. She actually sends Christmas cards to President Bush's dogs (also Scotties) and the dogs send one back. They are now framed in her house and I actually believe she's a Democrat. At any rate, the deed was done via IVF. And yes, they do have IVF for dogs. Dewars, as a result, LOVES the vet.

Last Friday my Mom and Roxie's Mom were present during the C-section. There originally were 8 puppies. One was stillborn (a girl), which left 6 males (two black, four brindle), and 1 female (black). My ecstatic Mom was reporting the news to me as she ran out to get hot water bottles and nipples to help feed the puppies. My Dad, of all people, was proud of his dog's siring abilities. Within the first few hours, Roxie got a little carried away in cleaning and grooming one of the puppies and accidentally unplugged one of the brindle male's umbilical cord knots. This puppy died even after rushing him to the vet. Someone would have to be on watch 24 hours a day.

On Saturday Mom called me and held up the phone to the puppies so I could hear them crying (sounds like mewing). I then put my phone on speaker so Edgar could hear it. I don't know what I was expecting. He just stood there staring at the phone like, "What, lady?" At this point in time J was wandering around the house shaking his head proclaiming everyone but he to be crazy and said it was catching because I actually expected Edgar to have a visceral response to the mewing.

I finally received a photo from my family last night of one of the puppies from my brother's cellphone. I've been oohing and ahing over it and remembering my days back as a vet tech assisting with births. Its like I was a puppy Douala! When I showed J the photo this morning, his response was: "Its too embryonic for me. That could be a seal, or a puppy, or a some other mammal. Remember in AP biology where we learned that the theory of how phylogeny isn't the recapitulation of ontogeny? That may be so, but it certainly looks like it!"

"But look at the paw with the little toes!" I said.

"Um, that could be a flipper for all I know. Yup, looks underdeveloped." He said sipping his morning coffee. "And, it doesn't have any eyes."

"Yes it does! They are closed! That's how they stay for the first bit!"

"Uh huh, not ready to come out of the womb." He went onto elaborate about NICU babies and how they shouldn't have left the womb either.

It just goes to show you, one man's puppy is another man's biology lecture.