Happy Birthday Cheetah & pups!

[pictures to follow later]

I can't believe it has been almost a year since I helped Cheetah whelp in my bedroom closet. Feb 2, Cheetah will have her honorary 2nd birthday (since we don't really know her actual day) and 7 of the puppies will turn 1. Feb 3 the youngest will celebrate her very own day to herself :-)

I can't begin to tell you the impact that Cheetah and her babies had on me. It was not something I wanted to share at the time, but with a little time, I am ready to share a pretty intense story how our lives intertwined. In many ways I feel that Cheetah saved me as much as I saved her.

January 2009 I got a call from the head of our rescue. We had pulled a dog who was not on the list but she was so pretty and sweet that the transport could not resist saving her from certain death. She was chunky and a little shy, and her name was Anastasia. She was adopted immediately off of the transport by a nice single woman who lived nearby. But when they took her to the vet - surprise! - Anastasia, now renamed Cheetah, was expecting "at least 7 puppies." I was the only one Kristina (rescue founder) could think of that could possibly take this on. We were still a pretty tiny rescue at the time. Poor Mr PM listened to me on the phone knowing something was up. I had to help - there was no one else to do it. But I cautioned, I was in the middle of an invitro cycle and these puppies had to be out and with other fosters the second they were weaned. (yeah right)

So into our house entered what Mr PM dubbed the trojan dog; sneaking 8 additional dogs with her! I was immediately taken with her. She was sweet natured and very sedate (ha!) and followed me everywhere. I took her in as we suspected her labor would approach so that she could get used to me and the house before giving birth. I would sit and watch her belly undulate and twitch and she would just look at me as if wondering what in the world had happened to her world. I read everything I could get my hands on about whelping. For some reason I was entirely confident we could do this despite the fact I had never done it before. She was a larger breed, unlikely to have complications and by the time she had her puppies, I felt like a certified midwoof.

In the mean time, I was going through my own pregnancy fun. I was taking my hormone shots to stimulate egg production so we could start ivf. The big day arrived and I went in for the procedure, where they put you under general anesthesia and aspirate your egg follicles with a needle. Turns out I was a bit prolific and we had a good showing. :-) They took the eggs and proceeded to fertilize them all and would report to me the next day that we had 10 embryos out of the over dozen eggs they had gotten from me! To put it in perspective, the woman in the bed next to me yielded 3 eggs. So we were pretty pumped. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I came home on vicodin because it was pretty painful - and I was supposed to stay in bed the rest of the day. But I had a funny feeling about Cheetah, who insisted in burrowing into my closet. So instead of laying in bed, I hauled a bunch of boxes out of my closet and moved all of my clothes, lined the closet with newspaper, and got out my whelping supplies while Mr PM was out at the pharmacy. He was none-to-pleased with me when he returned to discover my little moving job. Before my procedure we had prepared the spare bedroom with a place for Cheetah, but she wanted none of it.

My mom called to see how I was doing and I looked down and there was a puppy in the closet with Cheetah! That puppy was Mocha and she was being dragged around by her umbilical, as Cheetah had not yet birthed the placenta. So I basically hung up on my mom and began my long vicodin filled night of delivering puppies. And so went the day Button was conceived. All went really well and we delivered 9 live pups - a few of which I had to stimulate into breathing but they all made it! I put them all in a laundry basket lined with soft towels and blankets and a hot water bottle. It completely amazed me how trusting Cheetah was with me – not to mention what she let me do to her in the way of examination, etc. She sat in my lap for a lot of the labor and pushing.

Cheetah wanted nothing to do with nursing the puppies and was snapping at them. A breeder I spoke to said that was fine until she finished birthing (turns out this was bad advice). We took Cheetah and the pups to an emergency hospital when she continued to push and there were no puppies (she was, in fact, done; but better safe...) and while there, we lost the smallest pup. At that point I had Kristina and the owner, who both attended most of the whelping session, hold her down and I latched all of the puppies. I wasn't screwing around anymore. We also had the oldest and smallest pups tube fed to make sure everyone was hydrated and fed. I still blame myself for the loss of that one little female. I made the mistake of entrusting her to the vet on duty, who was, quite honestly and frankly - a complete ass. (I later saw her not be able to differentiate Cheetah’s uterus from her intestines on x-ray!!! *I* could do that and I did not attend veterinary school.) I feel I could have done a better job of re-stimulating that puppy. But in the end I guess it is what it is (and I am a control freak). Now I know for next time, if there is one.

Following is a list of the pups to refresh everyone’s memory:

PUPPY 1: “Mocha” (now still Mocha) Born 2/2/09 at 8:55pm – 11.5 oz female. True to her name, Mocha is a red merle. Mocha seems like she may be the first to walk – classic overachiever first child! :-) She became very talkative and loved to try out her voice in growls and barks. She led the pack in learning how to scale the fence of her enclosure (thanks a lot Mocha). She was adopted by a great guy in NJ who I have known for years and he is wonderful to her. She is very social and playful and is doing great!

PUPPY 2: “Hoover” (now Zibby) Born 2/2/09 at 9:07pm – 10.5 oz female. Hoover was named after a famous seal, who could mimic human vocalizations. She reminded me of a seal when she crawled around and was definitely the most talkative of the bunch! She was the larger black and gray merle with the smaller spots. Hoover was the loudest of the bunch and also one of the smartest at the time. She was the first to figure out how to drink water without submerging her nose :-) She was adopted by a great couple who live in a townhouse in DC and take great care of her. She is an exact replica of Cheetah from markings to personality, and she seemed to remember me when I saw her at the dog park months after her adoption – a testament to her smarts.

PUPPY 3: “Junior” (now Schroeder) Born 2/2/09 at 9:19pm – 7 oz male. Junior had the exact same markings as Cheetah, down to the white blaze on her chest. He is very pretty. He was the smaller black and gray merle with the larger spots. Despite being second smallest, Junior really caught up to the rest of the group. He was the calmest of the merles and was pretty low key. He was Mr PM’s favorite puppy. He was adopted by a wonderful family with older kids, and a mom who is a dog whisperer in her own right. He has an elderly sister now and keeps her young, and gets a long great with his kitty sibs as well. All of the pups are high energy dogs, but he still strikes me as having a mellow streak the others don’t have.

PUPPY 4: “Mouse” (now still Mouse) Born 2/2/09 at 10:06pm – 5.5 oz we originally thought female, then hermaphrodite, now we know MALE! Mouse is our surviving runt and we spent lots of time being paranoid for him. But he got in there to nurse with the best of them and always had a lot of heart! He looked and sounded like a mouse, and was is all black with a little bit of white on his chest and paw. Mouse later developed a white muzzle and multicolored paws. He was adopted by a lovely family who didn’t give a fig about his gender confusion :-) He is the family clown and they adore him. He definitely caught up with the rest of the puppies on size!

PUPPY 5: “Blondie” (now Poppy) Born 2/2/09 at 10:25pm – 10.5 oz female. Blondie was the lightest of the all blonde puppies. She had some undefined white on her head and had the pinkest nose. Like all of the blondes, she slept well and was laid back. Blondie was affectionate and you could put her to sleep almost instantly with a belly rub. Pawpads were pink rimmed in black. Poppy was adopted by a single woman who is also a vet at a prestigious local animal hospital. She gets to go to work with her owner every day, has made multiple news appearances and is often the subject of her owners blog!

PUPPY 6: Angel Puppy (never got a name): Born 2/2/09 at 10:37pm – 5.5 oz female, brown and black merle. She really struggled and it took me a while to get her breathing when she was born. For the next few hours she labored. At about 4am, we took Cheetah to the emergency vet to make sure there were no remaining puppies. While there, this little one passed on. We believe her lungs were underdeveloped.

PUPPY 7: “Cuddlebug” (now Belle) Born 2/2/09 at 10:59pm – 12.5 oz female. Cuddlebug was one of the 3 blonde puppies. She had a defined white star on her head. She was one of the first to separate herself from the group to sleep and would whimper. When I picked her up she snuggled right in, quieted down and was completely content to sleep in my arms. She was the smallest of the blondes, slept the most and is still very cuddly - pawpads were black. Belle was adopted by a family with two small children. They could not handle her and returned her. However we almost immediately found a fantastic couple who now dote on her the way she deserves. She sounds happy as a clam!

PUPPY 8: “Mugsy” (now Charlie) Born 2/2/09 at 11:51pm – 12 oz male. Mugsy is the third blond puppy. He was named for the black 6 o’clock shadow he had on his muzzle. He also had a defined white star on his head and he had really cute teeny pink and black pawpads. His 6 o'clock shadow went away, but his paw pads were pink and black alternating. He was adopted by a family with a lot of land, and loves to explore every inch of it.

PUPPY 9: “Velvet” (now Maddie) Born 2/3/09 at 1:30am – 13.5 oz female. Velvet was completely black. She was born the largest and works hard to retain that title! Truly she was last but not least! Velvet developed neat, merle colored socks, but I think they have since gone away and she has similar markings to Mouse. She was super friendly and always came over to say hi to the people first. She is now a little more picky about who she likes and she is a whopping 80 pounds!!!!! She was adopted by a teacher who lives in a group house and they all adore her. She gets to spend summers playing with her owner, loves the beach and is a sweet dog.

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For the next 4 or 5 weeks you all watched the puppies in my bedroom closet. I could see them from my bed and they were pretty low maintenance. Once Cheetah got the hang of nursing, she really did all of the work and was a good mommy. She did develop some soreness, and I would occasionally get in there with her to encourage her to nurse. She would sit on my lap and I would pet her while the pups nursed. In the mean time, I had the embryo transplant and was expecting! Mr PM and I were absolutely thrilled. I was tired, but overall I felt surprisingly good (first indicator of a problem).

I think the puppies were about 4 weeks old when we transferred them to the pen in the spare bedroom due to size and their ability to scale the board keeping them in the closet. We weaned them on a combination of puppy kibble mixed with puppy milk formula, and as the weather got warmer we started taking them outside to explore the yard. Cleaning that pen was no fun! Nor was getting up at the crack of dawn with them. But they were so sweet and so happy to see me whenever I came in, I barely noticed it.

When the puppies were about 4 weeks old, we went for our 6 week pregnancy ultrasound and there was no heartbeat. As it turns out, we had what was called a blighted ovum. There was a pregnancy sac, a placenta, a yolk sac, but no baby. It took them a couple of weeks to convince me that there was really no baby in there. But my body apparently liked being pregnant and I had plenty of time to learn to accept it. I was so happy at that point to have the puppies to nurture and throw myself into their care. It was devastating news after thinking we had been successful after three years of trying to conceive and it helped a lot to have those little beings to love.

At around 7 weeks old, they were fully weaned and Cheetah went home to her owner. It took about a week to start getting reports that Cheetah was not doing so hot in her home. By this point she had spent more time with me than the owner. She was also still dealing with postpartum hormones, and was left alone in the apartment for 11 hours a day while her owner worked. She decided to do some redecorating by ripping up the carpet and eating some expensive textbooks and became very people aggressive and barked a lot. Her owner sadly decided she could not keep her without getting evicted, so I agreed that after the puppies were placed, I would take her back and find her a new home.

In the mean time I started doing interviews for the puppies. That was incredibly difficult for me because I felt a huge responsibility to make their lives as great as I could. I had a few applicants that were very bad choices, although I could not have told you why at the time. I learned to follow my instincts and I think that in the end, everything worked out for the best!

When the puppies were 8 weeks old, they started going home. This was about the time that I also had to have a D&C to terminate the pregnancy that wouldn’t go away on its own. For those of you who watched the puppy cam – you saw exactly how emotional I was. It was a lot of loss all at once. Mocha went a little before she was 8 weeks, and everyone was home by 9 weeks. A day or two after the last two puppies left, Cheetah came back to me fresh from having her spay surgery. She had a lot of trouble with her incision and I was giving her multiple pills a day and putting warm compressed on her incision to nurse her through. I think this is when the bond between us really solidified. I was in terrible grief and she was in trouble (again) and needed me. She could read me like I can’t begin to explain and responded just the way I needed.

Cheetah stayed with me until we were ready to try again. She was adopted again during that time, but it didn’t work out. As most of you know, she took a great amount of energy for me to train and rehabilitate. She had a score of issues, but by the time she left, we had addressed most of them. I was so proud of her. I often had to shut her out of the room when Mr PM gave me the shots to prepare for another ivf pregnancy, because she did not take very kindly to something she could tell hurt me. But I started holding onto her when I took them (they were intramuscular and very painful) and she would sit still and look at me while I hung onto her fur for comfort. Then on August 26, we finally had the procedure to transfer one of the frozen embryos we had conceived on the day she whelped her own puppies. I immediately became exhausted.

In the mean time Belle was coming back. I knew that Belle and Cheetah together would be too much for me. And Belle needed me just a little more in the immediate. So I made arrangements for Cheetah to go into foster care elsewhere. There were a couple of days of overlap when I had them both, and Cheetah was very jealous of Belle. It was the right decision not to have them here together. While I had Belle, Cheetah was desired for a foster to adopt situation. I *knew* that it was not going to work out, much as I liked the people. But I figured it was a good temporary option. By the time the people realized it wouldn’t work and Belle had been placed again, I was so sick with being pregnant that I couldn’t take her back. So Cheetah ended up in a no-cage boarding facility that works with the rescue. She also spent some time at the rescue founder’s house.

All reports were that she was doing very well. I saw her occasionally at adoption days, but it was hard for both of us – when I would leave we’d both cry (and I would throw up). Finally I was told she was placed. I had horrible guilt for my lack of involvement, but I was *still* completely incapacitated with being sick (this lasted through 18 weeks – very healthy pregnancy this time). I did communicate via email a little bit with the new owners, but I was getting reports that a lot of her old behaviors were resurfacing and I was very concerned. I gave as much advice as I could and promised to visit as soon as I could manage it.

This past Sunday I finally made it over there. I have to tell you – these people are FANTASTIC. I could not have picked better owners for my Cheetah. They are so patient and committed to her that I know she will be OK and work through her issues once more. When I saw Cheetah again she was so excited she whined and peed all over the place. She was clearly beside herself. We played and went through our tricks and I petted her and petted her. Eventually she laid down on my feet so I couldn’t move without her knowing. I spent two hours with her and had a great talk with her owners. She clearly loves them and they her. Finally I said “well I should probably get going” and I swear she understood me. She undoubtedly felt something in my demeanor shift, because she immediately started jumping on me and whining again. She always read me so well. But this time, I felt no guilt – she is in a perfect home and I know I will see her again.

I love Cheetah with all my heart and miss her every day. I will never forget what she gave me during one of the most difficult times in my life. She gave me purpose and a love like only a dog with a soul like hers could give. She understood me and comforted me in a way that even Swiffer could not. I helped her through the worst time in her life and she did the same for me.

Thank you Cheetah. I love you always. Happy birthday.