Tiny Loss

Sadly, Mrs. Roper's tiny puppy did not survive.

Last week we had some frigid nights but oddly enough, Mrs Roper succeeded in keeping the puppy nice and warm so he seemed to be fine. However Sunday my husband noticed Mrs Roper carrying something in her mouth and upon further examination, it turned out to be a dead puppy. We were sad until we realized that it wasnt the one we had seen. I guess there had originally been more than one puppy in her litter and she was simply putting it to rest. We looked at her 'nest', and saw that the other puppy was still there, whimpering and crying loudly. I was so relieved!

But two days ago I noticed that the living puppy was not gaining well. He was obviously very weak and no bigger than when I had first seem him a week and a half before. Mrs Roper was still steadily caring for him and loving him so I left them alone, hoping for the best. I even called the vet to ask if I should take the puppy and try raising it myself but she advised against that since the mother had not abandoned it. She said if it was naturally a sickly puppy, the mother could take better care of it than I ever could. Since the rest of the litter had died, it was evidently just a 'weak litter', which is supposedly kind of common with a dog's first pregnancy. Sigh.

Yesterday morning I went out to give Mrs Roper her food and noticed that the puppy was gone. My dog was happily covorting around the yard, seemingly very happy to be 'free', which depressed me. I don't know what she did w/ his tiny little body but I'm kind of glad I didnt see it dead. It was such a precious little thing. One of its ears was permananty flipped inside out which was a birth defect but also very endearing. After a good cry, I soothed myself with the thought that at least now I didnt need to keep Bernice tied up for fear she'd eat the puppy or worry that racoons would find it. But it's still very sad.