This morning I found little Treble (the boy with the blaze on his chest) under his mommy. He was cold and still, my heart broke. This little man has been fighting hard for life during his short time here. He has had many ups and downs. We were making progress for about 36 hours, but yesterday we had a setback and his will to live was leaving. I contacted some fellow breeders to ask for advice. I implemented a few suggestions and hoped for the best. Possibly the best course would have been to remove him from his siblings… possibly. It is a hard thing to decide. How much intervention do we offer? Was there a more underlying issue? There are breeders in both camps. Those who do all they can to save all the puppies. Those that do nothing. I take a more middle ground, offering support, but not full intervention.  Jazz’s milk supply wasn’t an issue, she always had plenty, even with this large litter.  He had issues suckling, so I bottle fed him a fair bit.  Treble was not the smallest puppy in the litter, yet he did not thrive like the rest of his siblings, who had doubled in size during this week. I know canines have large litters because nature expects some loss. It doesn’t make it any easier for me or my children.

We had the hard talk of ‘death’ this morning. Heavy stuff for 5 year olds. They both touched and kissed our sweet boy goodbye and learned a hard lesson. Death is forever here on earth, he won’t be coming back. We won’t see him grow into a lovely sweet boy. Keep us and the rest of the pack in your thoughts and prayers. Jazz is taking it rather hard.

~Becky