In Honor of the great Dog and Horse Moms that I have had the pleasure of knowing.
Julie, Julie, Julie. An amazing Miniature Beagle Mom that I was blessed to have. Julia had many pups over the course of her life and she loved every single one of them. In fact she loved all puppies. Her’s, her sisters’, her nieces! If it was puppy she loved it and would care for it.
One year,I created a spot for Julie to have her pup at the end of the concrete alleyway between the runs in my kennel and the backwall. I fixed up a den made of straw and she was delighted with the arrangement. She kept her 5 puppies snuggled up in a ball right in the center of the den.
About 2 weeks after Julie whelped, another little miniature beagle girl had her first litter. Everything seemed to go wrong for her! She lost one puppy. Then another. Nothing I did seemed to help! Within a few days we were down to the last pup and he wasn’t looking good.
I decided to try a crazy thing. I would give the last little pup to Julie, My SuperMom. By now, Julie’s pups were plump and 2 to 3 times bigger than this poor little pup that was clinging to life.
As I placed the pup in the group with her other pups, I thought, “This will never work. The pup can’t compete for a teat. He can barely move.” I was sure that he would be pushed out of the den and away from the other pups.
With my options down to double or nothing, I left the pup with Julie and her other babies, vowing to return in an hour or so to see how things were going.
When I returned, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Julie had made a new nest about a foot from her puppies’ nest. In the middle of this nest, lay the little orphaned puppy with his new Mom, Julie. She was licking him and cuddling him as he nursed.
Julie maintained these two nests, keeping the lone pup warm and full as well as her own pups. After a couple of weeks Julie must have decided that the little guy was big and strong enough to mix in with her pups because I found all the pups in the same pile of puppies.
Julie nutured all the pups into healthy, happy little pocket beagles. I named the little orphaned puppy, Lucky. Lucky to have survived. Lucky to have had Julie accept him.
Lucky grew into a beautiful male and I used him as the stud dog for my kennels for many years. He was the sire of many puppies and is in the pedigree of almost all the puppies that we have today.
Today Lucky is 13 years old and still lucky. The last couple of years, he and one of his lifelong girl friends lived together in a retirement village on the farm. His mate, Birdy, developed breast cancer in her later years. She manages to get along OK and they waddle around the ranch. Lucky with his arthritis and Bitsy with her enlarged teat. He cleans her face, guards over her and encourages her to take a little exercise every day.
This behavior is a bit out of type for a male dog but it reminds me of the great care that he had a pup. The nurturing of the young is one of the most important thing that determines what kind of adults they will be.
In my experience, I have found this to be true for dogs, horses, cattle and people.