Divine Dreams - Pattie's Pampered Pomeranians

I am a breeder.....

My food receipts, for a family of 5, are less than my dog expenses each month. My water bill has doubled.
My electricity bill has tripled.

My animals needs always come before my own needs.  My feet find the way to the dog room before I have even grabbed a cup of coffee in the morning and the dog room is my last stop before bed.  I am a breeder.

While my friends are on a cruise to the Bahamas and my family meets for Christmas, I am home delivering puppies. I haven't had a real vacation in 7 years, but maybe soon. All plans are made around heat dates, whelp dates, and vet dates.

I shower and 10 minutes later I smell like a dog and am covered in paw prints and hair. My clothes are often stained with fecal matter, urine, afterbirth or bleach. I have to remember to clean my shoes before I leave my house.

Only another dog breeder could understand my life.

Who else can you call at 3 am for support?  Who else has the experience I sometimes need, the meds I sometimes need, or just an uplifting word I sometimes need? 

Who else would understand how it feels to have invested hours and hours in a weak puppy to lose it? Or the joy in investing hours in one that lives?

I have slept on the floor beside a litter until the crucial 2 weeks have passed. I have bottle fed puppies every two hours, yes even in the middle of the night.  It takes an hour to feed them, so after an hour break; I start feeding again, for a total of four weeks.  I have also bottle fed kittens, because they were orphaned by a stray.  I am a breeder because I love animals, all animals.  I will care for the sick and orphaned even when it costs me money to help them.

I have learned to be proficient at walking 12 dogs at a time, breeding, delivering puppies, resuscitating puppies, micro chipping, vaccinations, fluids, bottle feeding and tube feeding. My vet knows me by first name.

63 days takes on new meaning, still excited by every new life. Every birth feels like Christmas to me.  It is I who delivers all my pups, towels and heat lamps on ready - happiness and sadness sometimes intermingled.

Even though it increases my work load, I look forward to the 10 day stage when eyes open, and puppies begin to emerge from the helplessness of newborns. Puppy breath, a first bark, the wagging tail when they hear my voice, gives me so much joy. 

I am not uneducated, unemployable, illiterate or lazy as some Animal Rights folks would imply of breeders. I am also not crazy as others would say, because I live with so many dogs.  I am a conscientious lover of animals and I have found my niche. I am a breeder.

And although I feel no shame there is a part of me that feels the need to hide from powers that could come to invade my home and take my dogs I feel I should tell the kids and friends to hush, do not tell others we are dog breeders. I wonder when did breeding puppies go into the same secret place as criminal activity? I am a breeder and I am not cruel, dumb, uncaring or criminal. 

I am not raking in money while sitting on my butt. Every penny I make I earn through blood, sweat and tears. There is much joy, but there is also many tears.  At times that money is spent for the care of a puppy and it is not recovered through the sale.  There are often more losses than gains.

My greatest joy is a healthy puppy and a wonderful home. The cards of thanks and the pictures of my puppy with its new family is the fringe benefits of my efforts. 

I am an animal lover, nurse, midwife, heavy laborer, customer service representative, photographer, website designer, secretary, marketer…
AND I am a breeder.

 Did I also mention that I am a wife, a mother, a music teacher and a home school mom ........