Last Christmas I posted a diary here about a wonderful day with my three legged dog Moose at the Big Dog Parade in Santa Barbara. This Christmas I have a kind of sequel to the story.
My life partner Ross and I are really into our dogs. They give us so much joy and love, but also teach us some really important life lessons. Our journey with Moose opened our eyes to so many things about life. Today's story is also about how our dogs have given us insight that we would never have had without them.
Moose left us less than a year after the wonderful day we shared at the Big Dog Parade. After loosing such a wonderful dog and falling in love with Danes, we wanted another Great Dane puppy as soon as possible. It only took me a couple of days to put in a request at the local animal shelter to let us know if they got in any Danes. Ross started burning up the internet tubes looking for a Dane puppy from a breeder. We both felt that it was important to get a Dane that was bred with health in mind after going through the bone cancer with Moose.
I never got a call from the shelter and Ross spend hours contacting every Dane breeder in our state without finding a puppy. Ross went down the Great Dane of America breeder list and when he contacted one of the last breeders on the list it turned out they had one female puppy from their last litter available.
The only catch was that along with giving them lots of money, we had to sign a "puppy contract" that would commit us to breed her once and the breeder would get pick of the litter. The contract also required us to do a whole series of health tests to "qualify" her to be bred. I think we both knew at the time that it was not wise to sign the puppy contract, but we wanted that dam puppy so bad we signed it in spite of our misgivings. Neither of us were thrilled about bring more dogs into the world, even though they would would be easy to sell and most people who are willing to spend the money for a harlequin Dane are going to give it a wonderful forever home.
So we got our harlequin Dane puppy, Hazel and headed home. Hazel turned out to be a wonderful dog, just as sweet as Moose, but in her own unique way. Hazel fit in great with our two other dogs (mix breeds from the pound). She grew fast and before we knew it she was almost two years and we needed to start the health testing. We were kinda secretively hoping that she would fail one of the tests so we didn't have to breed her, but we didn't want her to have any health issues. She passed the echo-cardiogram, eye CERF exam, the pen-hip test, and thyroid test, so she was "qualified" to breed.
We started looking for a sire for Hazel. It turned out much harder that we anticipated. The sire had to not only be fully health tested like Hazel, but in breeding harlequin Danes, the color combinations don't work like one would think. If you breed two harlequins, you can get harlequin, black, gray merel, mantle (marked like a boston terrier), and white. Hazel's breeders warned us about getting an all white puppy, they are often deaf and/or blind. You can avoid the small chance of getting an all white puppy if you breed a harlequin to a mantle. We looked and looked for a health qualified mantle stud and had a big difficulty finding one.
To make a long story a bit shorter, we bred Hazel to a beautiful mantle stud, but 30 days later when we did an ultrasound, we found out she was not pregnant. Five months later when she came into heat again, we tried again, but this time were convinced to breed Hazel to both the same mantle stud and his brother who was a harlequin to be sure she gets pregnant.
I spent three days out of town in a motel 6 with Hazel to do the breeding. It was quite an experience for me. As a gay guy, I am clearly not the world's authority on strait sex in humans, little own dogs. I have to say it was very interesting, nothing like I expected. The stud's owner had been breeding Great Danes her whole life, so she directed the entire thing. I thought that we would just let them be together for 15 minutes or so in her yard and I would be on my way. Well, much more complicated than that. The stud is 175 lbs and I also did not realize that in dog sex, they are stuck together or "tied" for 15 to 60 minutes. While they are tied, if the female sits down it can permanently damage the male's equipment. So once they were tied, I had to sit in a chair supporting Hazel so she could not sit down or move. Like I said, quite an experience.
Thirty days later Ross took Hazel to the local vet for an ultrasound. The vet told Ross that he could only find one puppy which is quite unusual. We repeated the ultrasound a few days later and still only one puppy.
We were happy to have her pregnant, but we were hoping to keep one of the male pups for ourselves. The contract was clear that Hazel's breeders get pick of the litter, so if there was only one puppy, it legally belonged to them. Ross and I agonized over this quite a bit. We were so relieved when Hazels breeder told me that when they raise a full litter of 8 or so it is hard to give up any of them (even though you know you have to) and that she knew that we would fall so in love with only one puppy, that they would not take it from us if there was only one puppy.
Next we discovered that in dogs, a single puppy litter has potential complications for the birth as well as the development of the puppy. The dog world even has a name for single litter puppies--singeltons. It turns out that with only one fetus getting all of Mom's nutrition it can be too large for a natural birth and a C-section is needed. Also once the pup is born it has no litter mates to play with and learn dog behavior from. From what we read singeltons relate better to humans, but can have difficulty with other dogs. Singeltons also can get too fat being the only customer at the Mommy milk bar and have difficulty learning to walk, they are called "swimmers". So if the ultrasounds were correct, this puppy could have extra challenges to overcome. But from what we read, if we spend extra time interacting with him and provide tons of socialization opportunities with other dogs and people he should do just fine.
Hazel's due date was fast approaching. There was a 3 day window when she was due. We prepared her whelping box for her, read every internet site about whelping, and watched every youtube video on whelping. The "window" passed without anything but at about 4am the next morning, Hazel woke me up and seemed excited. I took her temperature as a drop in temperature indicates whelping is about to begin. But her temp was normal. I started to worry that she should have whelped by now and something was going wrong, so at 4am I got on the computer to try and research complications. I was in the room with the whelping box, Ross was asleep in the same room next to the whelping box. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hazel get up out of the whelping box and lay on the floor next to Ross. A few minutes later Hazel went back into the box and laid down. As I clicked my way to more and more dog pregnancy websites I kept hearing a licking sound, but I thought it was just Hazel. I looked over at her and she was sitting looking at me, but wasn't licking anything but the licking sound was continuing. I jumped up, Ross woke up and ran over to the place on the floor where she had been and there was a tiny Great Dane puppy. I grabbed it, took it to Hazel, and put it on one of Hazel's nipples and he went to town immediately.
The emotions at that moment were something I have never experienced. Both Ross and I were running around the room like chickens with our heads cut off. I didn't expect this intense of an experience. While we were relieved that Hazel had a successful birth, we then began worrying about every possible threat to our new puppy. Was the room warm enough, was he really getting some milk when he was nursing, and on and on. After a bit we gathered some of our wits and realized we were supposed to weigh the puppy; one pound 12 ounces, big even for a Dane. We also realized we could see if he was a boy or girl, he is a boy. After about 2 hours it hit me to see what his marking were. I checked him out and realized he was mostly white with a few black spots. Definitely not a show quality marked harlequin, but that did not matter to us, I was just relieved that he had some black on him and he was not a "white puppy" that is prone to being blind and/or deaf.
Hazel showed us how good a mother she is. She knew just how to deal with everything concerning the puppy. And for the first few weeks, we did not have to do much for the puppy, she took care of everything. For the first two weeks puppies are pretty helpless, unable to control their body temperature, unable to see or hear, even unable to releave themselves without stimulation (licking) from Mommy.
We posted proud puppy pics on facebook and emailed to all our friends. Hazel's breeder called after she saw the pictures. She was very helpful giving rearing advice. At the end of the conversation she mentioned that she was concerned that he had so much white and there was no black around one eye and very little black by the ears. She told me that a "white puppy" does not have to be completely white to have hearing/vision problems. Sometimes the genetic problem that causes the "white puppy" is present, but a bit of pigment "leaks" through allowing some black spots. At first I dismissed this, thinking that he had too much black to be a "white puppy".
I started researching the "white puppy" issue and found out that Hazel's breeder was correct. At this point the puppy, now named Pilot was too young to tell if he was blind/deaf, so we would just have to wait. The more I waited, the more I worried. At two weeks Pilot's eyes began to open. After the eyes open it still takes a couple of weeks for the vision to start working very well. So even with his eyes open, it was still a wait and see worry process for us.
When Pilot was almost 4 weeks old, I took him outside for the first time. It was a bit cool, so I put him in the sun. I noticed that he closed his eyes when I put him in the sun. I shaded the sun from his eyes and he opened them, unshaded them and he closed them. I did this about ten times and proved to myself that he had at least some vision. As he grew a bit older, it was clear that his vision was fine.
Puppy ears open after a couple of weeks, but like the eyes, it takes a while for things to start working. So I started testing him to see if he could hear. I banged pots together behind him, no response. I rant the vacuum cleaner in the room while he was sleeping, no response. I tried everything over and over and by the time he was about 6 weeks we came to accept that he was completely deaf. Again, back to the internet to research what this means. I was happy to have found that a deaf dog is pretty easy to deal with. With a bit of training they can respond to hand signals, just like hearing dogs respond to verbal commands. When Moose was diagnosed with bone cancer I found a yahoo group dedicated to bone cancer in dogs, so I found another yahoo group that is dedicated to deaf dogs. The yahoo group has been very helpful, giving tons of support and training advice.
Pilot is now 9 weeks old, already 35 lbs, and is doing great. Pilot is going to "puppy kindergarten" once a week where he can socialize with other puppies. Hazel is being a wonderful mother. Our two other dogs have accepted Pilot as part of the pack. They all go out to play together, and I even catch my grumpy 14 year old pit bull mix named River, taking time to teach Pilot about the dog world.
I think the other dogs already understand that Pilot can not hear. Ross told me how when Pilot was about 5 weeks old he stumbled into River, when they both were laying on the bed. River erupted in a barrage of barking and growling and Pilot did not react at all and just kept doing what he was doing. River apparently looked at Ross with this look of question that made Ross crack up. River gives Pilot more latitude than any of the other dogs and I think it is because he knows he can't hear. Pilot gets many clues on what to do just by watching the other dogs and I swear it looks like the other dogs are all watching out for Pilot when they are playing outside.
Ross and I are so grateful for this experience. It is a wonderful thing to experience the miracle of a new life from so close. We both look forward to watching Pilot grow up and progress. It also will be wonderful to watch Hazel and Pilot grow old together. There is no doubt in my mind that Hazel and Pilot's bond will last forever. While I am sure it is different, this has to be something like what couples get to experience in having a child. And as that is unlikely for Ross and I, how wonderful that we had this opportunity.
Many of our friends, after hearing this story respond that we were meant to have this puppy. They all say that we are the perfect people to help raise this puppy. While neither of us are religious, we both tend to agree that this was somehow supposed to happen. It is interesting that we never wanted to breed a dog, that there were more than their share of barriers to getting Hazel pregnant, and the odd result of a singleton pup that is deaf. But when I think about it, it all has worked out perfectly. While Ross and I certainly are the unlikely parents, we would not have traded this experience for anything.
For the rest of my life I will forever have the memory of picking up that tiny guy off the floor and re-uniting him with Hazel. I somehow think that Moose had a hand, or should I say a paw in all of this.