Rain, Rain,...

For the last two days, it has been raining non-stop.  Not a pleasant fall drizzle, with periodic pauses when the clouds thin out and you can feel the sum behind them.  This rain is a steady downpour, cold, hard, and so dense that looking through it is like looking through a curtain of water.  This is spiced up at times with some spectacular special effects – booming thunder, crackling flashes of lightning, and even heavier wind driven downpours that are like standing under a waterfall, with vision of about two centimeters.

This storm was promised to us on the weekend. Because of that, a dog show that was scheduled for Saturday and was to be held in a location out doors, was cancelled.  So of course, on Saturday, there was sun and a few clouds, an ideal day for a dog show.

The storm moved itself to Tuesday. Tuesday was a busy day for me, a day that I had a lecture to give in the early evening near Tel Aviv,  and then at 3 in the morning, I had to take Tutti, the pregnant Canaan girl, to the airport for her flight to Italy.  Of course, as soon as I left the house to drive to the lecture location, the storm began.  I hate driving in the rain and winds, and I hate driving in the dark, and now I had all the factors that I most hate together.  The force of the rain and wind hitting my windshield made it almost impossible to see, and I could only drive very slowly, with the feeling that I was undersea, not on the highway. (Later weather reports reported that the amount of rain that fell in that time period in that location was the most of anywhere in the country).

Well, I managed that, gave my lecture, struggled to drive home, with the thought always in my mind that in a few hours I would have to be driving through that again to take Tutti to the airport.

At three in the morning, when I came to take Tutti out of her warm bed to go down to the car, she looked at me in confusion. “You can’t be serious! You really expect me to go out in THAT!!!! I don’t want to go anywhere!”  Well, Tutti, the choice was not yours, and I did not really want to go out either…A pile of warm blankets in her crate made it all more convincing, and once again I struggled to see the road through the rain as I made my way to the airport.  Fortunately, at that time of night, and in those conditions, there were almost no other cars on the road, so at least all I had to worry about was the weather and not crazy drivers.

Tutti was settled in her crate with her pile of warm blankets, ready to travel with the guy who was accompanying her, while I again was out in the storm, on my last trip home for the night – or morning, in fact.  Again I had the feeling that I was underwater as I slowly made my way home, accompanied by thunder and lightning (my dogs are not at all afraid of thunder and lightning, but I am!).  At last, I was home, just in time for the morning feeding and cleaning hours.  The dogs didn’t care about the weather, they wanted their food!

Soaked, but with my tasks all finished, I was finally able to relax in the house for a while, grateful that I didn’t have to go anywhere for the next few days.  And this was really lucky – as I watched the incessant curtain of rain from the window, I could see the rivers running down the highway and the traffic slowed to a crawl.  Later, I heard on the news that from the quantity of heavy rain, some holes had opened up in the highway (the main highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, not a small little road), and the traffic had to be stopped several times during the day so that the holes could be fixed. This recurred a few times over the day, as the rain continued to pound down. 

Two entire days of heavy rainfall, with just about no breaks at all!  In some parts of the country (including my area), in two days we had about half of the yearly average of rain….

The dogs, for the most part, were not concerned.  The collies don’t care at all about rain, they look soggy and messy, but underneath they are dry, and although they can go into their kennels and dog houses, most of the time they are happy to run around in the rain, going in just when it is really a downpour.  The Canaans, on the other hand, usually curl up in their boxes and sleep, ignoring what is going on outside.

Except for Ben.  Ben is a seven month old puppy, who is due to go to his new home abroad in a few weeks.  He is an active and opinionated pup, and having been born at the end of April, has never had any experience with real rain.

The rain itself did not bother him, he ran around the yard ignoring it. What did attract his attention was all the flotsam that was carried along as the water drained off the cement.  Ben decided that these were things that had to be caught!  I heard him barking a strange sort of bark, and saw him running from one side of the yard to the other, head down, and obviously hunting something.  He also ran over to the top of an old doghouse which I had left in the yard for the dogs to climb on, and kept barking at it and nosing and pawing it as well.  I couldn’t see any reason for what he was doing, but since we do have snakes in the hills here, although it is late in the season for them, that was all I could imagine. I went out to check, turned over the dog house and inspected the area and found – nothing!  It took some time before I realized, as I watched him continue this behavior, that he was hunting leaves and things that were floating in the rain, and the raindrops falling on the dog house made noises that he thought were animals hiding inside.

None of the other dogs were in the least interested in this imagination game…

Habibi, of course, spends the minimum possible time outside when it is raining, and is quite capable, I think, of not peeing for 24 hours if it means staying dry inside.

And then there is Emma and Caldas…They hate rain, even a sunny day with the patio wet from morning washing is not something they like stepping on.  And now, in their delicate condition…well, going out at all is not something they want to do, and in the rain???? No chance!!!!  Caldas, with a few days to go now until whelping, and with a belly that makes it difficult for her to move at all, has taken up position in her whelping box, curled up in the rug and newspapers, with the intention of not moving from there until her puppies are born.  Emma has the same attitude, but her hiding place is under the covers in my bed – even when the bed is made.  Yesterday when I called the dogs to go out, there was no Emma.  I looked all over for her – no Emma!  Until finally I noticed that the bed cover was not completely flat…there was Emma, in her blanket cave. Go out in the rain???? You can’t be serious!!!!!

This morning, thank goodness, the sun came out….

Ben

The Continuing Saga of the Pregnant Podengos

Several weeks have passed but there are still about two weeks until the puppies are due.  But there is no doubt that Caldas and Emma were absolutely correct to declare themselves pregnant – with the bellies they are showing, there is no question!

Caldas in particular is enormous.  She is a bit shorter in body than Emma, and she seems to expand in all directions.  At the moment, she looks like she has swallowed a melon whole, and is nearly as broad as she is long.  One of the activities that she has decided is suitable to preparing for a family is to squeeze through the bars of the garden fence into the flower bed, where she is no doubt looking for soft enough earth to dig herself a big hole.  The problem is that at the moment she can barely get her belly through the bars, and in another week or so, this will certainly be impossible.

Emma is not quite as big, but there is no question there either. She looks like a very well stuffed sausage.  Emma, however, has absolutely no interest in digging holes, she wants nice warm beds and blankets.

Both of them spend most of their time sleeping and dreaming of puppies.  Sleeping means either on the sofa, under the blanket I keep there for cool evenings, and most preferably cuddled between me and the sofa back.  They are not at all concerned that this means that I am half off the sofa and have absolutely no room for my feet. As long as I provide a warm body and periodic petting, that is quite sufficient.  There is a lot of jostling for position, each of them preferring to be as close as possible to my head and hands, and they will push and shove each other to try, with their persistent little muzzles and licking tongues, to get the most choice spot, until I intervene and send them down to the foot end. 

On the bed, they make themselves a lovely den on the pillows under the blanket.  Usually I don’t see dogs on the bed, just little lumps curled up under the bedding.

There have been a lot of changes in their eating behavior.  Caldas has always been a very eager eater, and Emma a little lady who eats sparingly.  For the first part of their pregnancy, both of them were more picky and each would eat part of their meal and turn up their noses at the rest – but as soon as they were let out of the pens where they were fed, each would sprint to the other’s dish and gobble down the food.  Now, Caldas huge belly makes it difficult for her to eat a quantity, so she eats slowly, while Emma is ravenous, gobbles down her food, and waits impatiently to see if Caldas will leave anything that she can also grab.

Of course, the pressure of the puppies inside, and food, means that they have to go out much more often – a good night’s sleep is a thing of the past.  I have to get up to open the door for them at 2, 4 and 6 in the morning to keep them comfortable, as well as frequent times during the day.

But if it is raining or the ground is wet…!  Self respecting pregnant mothers-to-be can’t possibly go out when it is wet!!!  I have to physically push them out the door, and then they stand huddled on the porch, pressed to the glass, pawing to make it clear to me that they have absolutely no desire to be out in these terrible conditions….(Of course, at this time of the year, when there is rain, it is mostly a drizzle…) Caldas will not even come to the door on her own, she curls up in the far corner of her bed, and looks at me in horror – “What? You expect me, in my delicate condition, to go out there???? Impossible!”  The only way to tempt her out is to go the refrigerator, take out a little treat, and bribe her to come out.  So far, this has worked very well, as the bits of sausage are very desirable, but the last few days I have noticed that her response is a bit slower and her expression is starting to show suspicion – “I know what you are doing, and now I am not sure it is worth it….”

Emma, on the other hand, does always listen when I ask her to do something – but her expression clearly shows me what she is thinking.  She has a gremlin face – she narrows her eyes to a slit, curls her mouth up in puckered smile, ears back, and shows the world how totally miserable she feels about being asked to do things, when in her condition she should be pampered.  One of her favorite times for the gremlin look is when I tell her to get off of my stomach – a place that, for some unexplainable reason, she has decided is the best sleeping place.  “But why?  It is so comfortable!”  Well, not for me…

Caldas is an obsessive groomer, and has always spent a good deal of time grooming Emma. But now Emma is not interested.  In the year and a half that the two girls have been living with me, I have never heard Emma growl at anything.  But now, when Caldas starts with the endless grooming, Emma puckers her lip and growls under her breath.  “Leave me alone.  I am contemplating motherhood.”

In two weeks, the waiting will be over. But I am anticipating that motherhood will bring new challenges…

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!!!!

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!

Caldas

Although Caldas seemed to be very reluctant to give up her sex life – she seemed to be in season and begging for male attention for longer than any bitch I have known – she finally was finished, to Habibi’s great relief.  She soon began to show the signs that she was pregnant.  As her belly grew and grew, she found it more and more difficult to leap onto things way over her head, and to squeeze out of fences and pens.  However, knowing her proclivities, I arranged a whelping pen for her in the kitchen, with a nice big crate with comfortable bedding, surrounded by a very nice strong puppy fence.  She inspected it and approved, and this became her sleeping place at night.

By the time a month had passed, her belly was very apparent, and as the days went on, she began to look as if she had swallowed a football.  This did not at all dampen her spirits or influence her to behave in a more matronly fashion, but it was really funny to watch her making her leaps in the air for attention with this huge belly.  She also was very solicitous of Habibi’s attention – even though technically nothing had happened, she seemed to believe that these puppies were his.  Habibi was not very interested…

It was getting difficult for her to control herself for more than a few hours.  One night, I was rudely awakened by Caldas leaping on my head in the bed with a wildly beating tail, to tell me that I had to get up and let her out, time to pee!  What a good girl!  But then I realized that to do this, it meant she had jumped out of the whelping pen.  How, I really don’t know, she is much cleverer than I am at figuring out things like that.

So now it was necessary to build a roof on the whelping pen, which I did, with some pieces of fencing which I tied on across the top.  And my night schedule now regularly included a three a.m. pee break for Caldas.

She also was eating more erratically, as obviously her stomach, pressed on all sides by these developing pups, could not hold very much food.  She was getting several small meals a day – this made the other dogs very jealous, and made Caldas very happy.

As the expected date for the whelping approached, I kept watching for signs.  Well, yes, she was roaming around the house, nosing here, scratching around there, checking out the sofa and the dog baskets, and obviously looking for a good place. But no stress, no panting, no introverted expression…

The week she was due, my schedule was planned so that I would be at home almost all the time.  This was her first litter, and my experience with little dogs whelping was not vast, and I wanted to be with her.  The days went by, no signs of imminent puppies…

Saturday we had a dog show, and the other two podengos, Monte the prospective father and Emma, were entered.  I would only be away for a few hours.  I carefully watched Caldas’ behavior in the morning – she was as active and chipper as ever.  She ate her breakfast and looked at me – “I am fine, you can go, nothing is happening.”

So off we went to the dog show, where Monte and Emma did very well.  And in a few hours I was home.

And there was Caldas, on my bed, on the pillow, with three big fat clean active podengo puppies.  She had managed – and don’t ask me how! – to get out of the whelping pen, even with her enormous stomach, and had gone to her chosen spot.  No mess around the house, and not even any mess on the bed – the puppies were born on the pillow and she had cleaned everything very thoroughly.  She was extremely pleased with herself – “You see, I had to wait for you to go away. I knew where I wanted to have my puppies, and since you didn’t understand that, well, I just had to wait so I could do it alone!”

I love primitive dogs!

Sex

Caldas, one of the podengo girls, has come into season.  It was expected, I have been keeping a close eye on both of the girls lately, as this is about the time that they are due.  Habibi has also been keeping a close nose on them, checking them out carefully every day when they go out to pee.  But since there are a few other bitches in season in the kennel at the moment, I was not sure if he was really hinting something to me, or being hopeful.

It became obvious that he was hinting when I spotted a drop of blood. Yes, one drop!  Okay, I thought, Caldas is just starting her season, so there is not much blood around yet.

I started to figure out the logistics – the podengos live in the house with Habibi, and I don’t really have an outdoor kennel that is suitable for a little dog – especially a little dog like Caldas who jumps like a kangaroo and is a total escape artist.  So she would have to be crated in the house.  I anticipated three weeks of hell, with Caldas protesting being jailed and Habibi protesting for other reasons.

But after a day or so of being crated, I noticed that there was not a spot of blood anywhere.  Caldas is an incredibly clean dog, and if I had not by chance seen the one spot of blood that she hadn’t managed to clean up before I noticed it, I would not have noticed that she was in season at all.   Canaans are very clean, and it is often very hard to see that they are in season, but this was really amazing – in the house, after all, where everything is visible.

Habibi was also taking everything very much in stride.  He was sniffing around, but didn’t seem to be stressed or over anxious.  I thought that Caldas must be at the very beginning of her season, so under the circumstance, I could let her out of the crate until she got to the more interesting days.

This made Caldas very happy!  And the expression of her happiness was to run after Habibi, stick her rear in his face, flag her tail strongly to the side, invite him to play, and tear wildly around the house inciting him to follow.  Caldas running through the house leaping on the sofas and beds is one thing, but Habibi bouncing around after her is something else entirely.

And this behavior – obviously, Caldas was not at all at the beginning of her season, she was right at the stage of looking for a mate!  This was on the third day from the time I noticed the blood spot – what a little sneak she is…!

Habibi was ready to play with her, but (to my surprise!), he made no attempts to try and mount her.  I underestimated him – he is not stupid, and it is obvious to him that there is no way that he could stoop low enough to even get a foot under her.  He stands there with a resigned expression as she flirts and does all she can to be sexy, and turns his head away when he is lying down and she comes over and shoves her rear in his face.  The things a dog has to tolerate…!

I made an appointment to take her to meet her intended husband, a beautiful young Portuguese fellow.  We met at the kennel where I work.  I sat on the side waiting for the dog to be brought in, Caldas sitting quietly on my lap watching the trainers working with other dogs.  But as soon as Monte appeared in the doorway 30 meters away, Caldas ears pricked up, her body quivered, and she leaped forward almost pulling the leash from my hand.  A very eager bride – and who says that dogs don’t recognize others of their own breed?

So we will be expecting some new additions in a few months. 

Meanwhile – poor Habibi….Emma, the other podego girl, is also due to come into season at any time….