This was the litter I learned the most from. We were so excited in this breeding. Mitchell is small, has amazing dark curly coat, and is incredibly typey. Rhi is large and very extreme. We hoped to moderate size, improve coats and keep mom's work ethic instead of dad's "I do what I want only" attitude.

12 puppies born a week early and things went rapidly downhill from there. Puppies were dying at birth and over the next 3 days. It got to the point that Rhi was afraid when I picked up a puppy that it would die. A devoted mother she grieved with every loss and would count her puppies constantly.

With the stress on her came a massive case of mastitis. We treated at home until it became apparent that we had a serious problem. She was rushed to the emergency room where she was put on fluids and antibiotics and sent home. She showed some signs of improvement that evening but by morning was crashing. The breast that was infected had enlarged to approximately a third her body length (it looked like a cantalope). I took her temp and it was 103. I got dressed and called work and took her temp again, it was 104.

I drove to my vet (normally an hour and a half away) in rush hour morning traffic convinced she would die before we made it there. My vet took one look at her and the red streaks and rushed her into surgery. With no techs in yet he and I performed emergency surgery on her. He cut open the infected breast and removed all the pus. We applied alcohol pads to her arterial areas to help cool her down. We put her on an IV. The IV had to go into her neck because that was the only vein we could access. The vet then drew blood to try and determine what other organs may now be in distress from the infection and fever.

I had to then leave her there so I could take care of the pups we had left. I was convinced that the next time I saw her I would be saying goodbye. Fortunately she pulled through and was able to come home the next day. We had her stay at "grandma's" house since she wouldn't be able to be with the puppies and that would cause her distress. She was able to come home a week later and help raise what was left of her litter.

8 weeks came and we evaluated what we had. 5 gorgeous puppies. Moderate in size, covered in dark curly coat, and very sweet in personality. While not worth the anguish we'd gone through, at least we'd succeeded in our goal for the breeding... or so we thought.

We "lost" one pup when the owner never contacted me or returned any of my calls, emails, or letters approximately a month after receiving her pup.

One pup developed lepto. Generally an easily treated disease and, due to the strong reactions, one often not vaccinated against. He had a rare form that attacked his kidneys and shut them down. Given weeks to live he made it a year before the light started fading from his eyes and his family kindly let him go.

My pup ended up with her dad's bratty personality. Part of why I chose to keep her as I knew she would be a handful for a novice owner. Sadly we discovered that she had cataracts. With this discovery we made the decision that the remaining girl would not be bred even though her eyes were clear as the risk of her being a carrier was too high.

Have you read "Should I breed?"