Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Waiting...

Five minutes after passion with Monte, both Emma and Caldas declared that they are pregnant.

It is hard to believe that Caldas is the same dog as the sex crazy bitch that was chasing everything on four legs a week ago.  She loves puppies, whether her own or any others, and now she has decided that puppies are imminent and she has to be prepared.  She has started nesting in her bed, arranging the blanket for maximum comfort for her soon to be family, and prefers to spend all her time either curled up there, or curled up on the sofa with me, as close as possible and preferably on my lap with her head under my chin, looking soulfully into my eyes. Where is the little firebrand who spends her time running and jumping?  When she is outdoors she does remember that she is a podengo and loves to run around.  But it is not easy to persuade her to go out – she looks at me from her bed saying, “But I can’t leave my puppies!  How can I?”  “But Caldas, you don’t have any puppies! You won’t have any for seven weeks!”  “It doesn’t matter, I have to stay in practice!  I can’t leave my potential puppies!”  The only thing that will tempt her to leave her bed and come out is to go to the refrigerator and take out a bit of sausage – a treat still has a lot of influence, though she does think about it for a few moments before getting up…

Emma has always been very affectionate.  But now!  She wants to spend all her time on my lap (it is rather difficult with both Emma and Caldas pushing and shoving to take over the largest part of my lap…), and if not on my lap, then pressed as close to me as possible.  She is constantly looking for cuddles and petting, and has started to lick my face, something she was never keen on before.  At night, she crawls under the blankets so that she can press herself as close to me as possible. I have to be careful not to roll over suddenly at night, because there is that little lump of podengo pressed against my side. 

Rather than following me all around the house, the two of them have started to take up positions on the sofa or my bed and just stay there nesting.  Each one seems to think that if she gets up, then her rival will grab the better place (both Caldas and Emma have decided that the spot they have taken over is the best, and can’t be shared.)  I am determined that this time, no one will be having puppies either on my bed or on the sofa – but we do not seem to be in agreement on this point.

I am finding that there is little room for me on the sofa these days and not much more in bed…

And there are seven weeks to go!!!!






Friday, October 10, 2014

The Lady and The Tramp

Caldas and Emma, the two podengo girls, have just been in season.

Caldas is a little firecracker, in ordinary life, but even more so when she is in season.  She is extremely enthusiastic and from very early days of her season on, she flirts, kisses, licks, mounts, plays, flashes her tail, and sticks her rear end in the face of everything with four legs.  She couldn’t care less if it is a male or female, big or small, everyone is welcome to try and satisfy her raging desires.  I have no doubt that if, in this period, she met a cat or some other mammal, she would try to entice it as well.

She also has a very long season, and for several weeks she goes around trying to find someone who will give her what she wants – sex!  She adores Habibi, and will not leave him alone.  She is about as high as his ankle, and there is absolutely no chance that he could ever do anything to satisfy her, but she will not give up.  She flirts with him endlessly, pawing at him to get up when he is lying down, running after him and shoving her rear in front of his nose, inviting him to play, anything she can think of.  Habibi looks at her with a despairing expression – “What do you expect me to do?????”, unable even to get his paws underneath her.

This time, I decided that the two girls could be bred, it is a good time of year, there are no other puppies around, and there is starting to be some interest in the breed.  So Monte, the prospective father, came to live here for a few weeks, so that he could do the job.

Caldas was thrilled!  She was so excited that she almost exhausted him with play before she would stand still enough for him to get down to business.  But she finally stood, and Monte did the job.

Immediately, as Caldas found herself “trapped” in a tie, she started to scream at the top of her lungs, twist around like a dervish, and do everything she could to try to get loose.  “I just wanted sex, this was not part of the bargain!!!!” was her attitude.  I had to hold her head so that she didn’t injure Monte or herself with her bouncing around.  Although I have found that the podengos are unbelievably flexible and athletic and bounce like a rubber ball….

Caldas is not a virgin, she has had one litter.  She knew exactly what she was doing, but after all, putting on a show is very important.  And all the while this was going on, Caldas’ tail was wagging like a helicopter propeller…

So Caldas is the Tramp…

Emma is a very different personality.  She is quiet and gentle, even in play, and she much prefers cuddling to crazy activity.  She gets along fine with the other dogs and is very tolerant of everything, but has not shown any particular preference for anyone’s four footed company, she much prefers people.

With her, it was hard to see that she was in season at all, she was extremely clean, and not at all demonstrative.  But when she was introduced to Monte, it was love at first sight.  With him, she was happy to play, and to flirt, and to stand without complaint.  Her season also has been quite long, and she was constantly asking to be let out with Monte.  These podengos certainly are determined to get pregnant….

Habibi has been much more attracted to Emma than to Caldas.  Apparently she is a very sexy lady.  He follows her around, whining, trying to get down to her level (impossible…), courting her and trying to get her attention.  He looks at me in desperation – this is not fair, two bitches in season, and neither for him!  And Emma is so beautiful…!

Emma, however, is not in the least amenable to his intentions.  She ignores him, and when he becomes too much of a pest, Emma, who has never in her life growled at anything, snarls at him to get away from her.  “Just because we both sleep in the same bed,” she says (my bed, by the way), “that doesn’t mean you have any rights!  I love only Monte!”

Emma is the Lady…



Life

It has been a long time since I have posted.  Yes, I am still alive, still at Shaar Hagai, and still surrounded by dogs.

I was having a very difficult time for some months, and didn’t have the energy or will to write.  To start with, I was not feeling very well.  I am a very healthy person for the most part, and as someone who spends a lot of my time doing physical work, I tend to have various sorts of aches and pains which I try to ignore.  And since every day I look in the mirror at a face that is a little older, I also tend to believe that this kind of feelings are a natural result of being over 25.  But I finally came to the conclusion that the way I was feeling was more than the normal aches and pains – I was exhausted all the time, had no energy for anything, my legs felt weak (not great when you live at the top of about 50 stairs which you have to climb many times a day), and had aches in muscles I never realized existed.  So maybe it was time to consult the doctor…

My doctor has known me for many years, and she knows that I do not just come around to complain.  But she couldn’t find anything specific that was wrong with me. So the agenda was to do all the various tests that she could think of.  A huge nuisance for me!

While this was going on, I had puppies.  A population explosion of puppies!  First was the litter of podengos, and then a few weeks later, two litters of Canaans – one with six puppies and one with ten puppies!  It is very rare for Canaans to have a litter as big as ten!  And I had certainly not planned to have so many puppies around!

Then there was a tragedy – two of the three podengo puppies, which were adorable, sweet and happy little things, got sick with an unidentified virus at six weeks of age and died.  Although the vet and I did everything possible, only one survived.

This was extremely depressing for me, but also a source of tremendous stress.  I had sixteen younger puppies, and I was terrified that they would become infected also.  Of course I tried my best to disinfect everything, but a dog breeder does not have a sterile environment…I watched those puppies like a hawk, analyzing anything that was even slightly out of the ordinary.

To my great relief and joy, the Canaan pups did not catch the strange disease, and grew rapidly.

Sixteen puppies, as you can imagine, is a huge amount of work. And a number of these puppies were destined for new homes abroad, which meant they would have to be with me to a minimum age of three to four months, and some for longer.  This meant that in addition to the usual work of raising a litter, I had to start taking all these puppies out in the car to see new places and meet new people, teach them to walk on a leash, and some basic proper behavior, and all the other things that it is necessary to do with a growing puppy so that it will be happy and well adjusted.  Considering my “normal” state of exhaustion, this all required superhuman efforts.

But finally, most of the puppies were off to their new homes, where, to my great satisfaction, they settled in and adjusted well, and life became a bit easier around here.

While all of this was going on, of course we had a little war in Israel….True, sadly, that this is not a very rare event, but it certainly did not help, especially when a few of the young people that helped me out sometimes were called up for army duty.  This was much more disturbing than the few bombs that were blown up over our heads…

And of course, the usual problems of not enough work (and with the war, even less), not enough money…

So I did not do any writing.

Finally, in August, I had a few days off, to go to the World Dog Show in Finland. I had been looking forward to this for a long time, a chance to get away, get out of the heat of the summer (although it turned out to be just as hot in Finland…), meet a lot of old friends and dog people.  I gave a lecture for the International Collie Society, saw some wonderful dogs, and had a lovely time, although the exhaustion was always there in the background.

On the way back, the airline I was flying with apparently decided that they could save on service if they froze us into suspended animation.  I was prepared for the normal cold on the flight, I was wearing a jacket – but this cold was really something I not expecting!  And of course, there were about three blankets available on the flight for two hundred or so passengers, and I was not one of the lucky ones…By the time I got home, not only was I exhausted, but coughing, sore throat, sneezing….I fell into bed and other than getting up every now and then to take care of the dogs, I stayed there for about ten days.

Finally deciding that maybe this was a bit exaggerated, and maybe I should really see the doctor, before I died of pneumonia and left my dogs all orphans, I dragged myself to the doctor’s office.  She did not immediately pack me off to the emergency ward, she prescribed some antibiotics and sent me home.

And it worked!!!! Maybe all I had needed for the last six months was a course of antibiotics!  Finally, after ten days of treatment, one day I woke up feeling human again!  Antibiotics are actually a good thing!  Maybe if I had taken them when I started feeling poorly, I could have avoided all this…but I am afraid that in future my behavior, which is a very well established habit pattern, will be the same…


So I still have the normal aches and pains, still have plenty of things to do around here, still have no money and plenty of debts – but this is what I am used to coping with.  So here I am again!