She was nearing 5 years of age when I met my husband and I was so worried that she
would object to an adult male. I was explaining to my then boyfriend that I would need to bring her with me on my next week
end at his place. No one was going to be home that week end to let her out. As we were talking on the phone he suddenly stopped
and said, "Wait! You mean your dog lives in the house???"... ho boy........ My husband
has been on an animal learning curve from HELL since then! LOL! And he's gotten very good a reading just about any animal.
My soon-to-be-husband was astounded at Baby's manners and obedience and floored when he learned that there would be no
fleas as they now had a monthly dose of stuff that kept them off. My husband was in love with her and she with him from the
beginning. And I was worried that she'd object??? *SNICKER* I had to tell him not to stop too fast on the way to the bathroom
as she was always on his heels.
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I had waited to breed her to be absolutely sure nothing genetic would show up in
later life but 5 years of researching and I had found a suitable, pedigreed stud that had everything that I wanted. As the
pregnancy progressed, I realized that she was HUGE! I thought, "Man, there has got to be 5 or 6 puppies in there!"
Finally the day arrived when her temperature said that delivery was imminent. She had learned real fast to try and hide when
I reached for the thermometer but as in all things, obediently came when I called, thermometer or not. If she didn't like
something she would show me in every line of her body that she was objecting and objections were always allowed... disobedience
WASN'T. First pup pops out and I attach an elastic band around it's neck and made a hash mark on the impromptu collar and
wrote down time and sex of the pup in a note book. I sat it in front of her in the whelping box and she looked at me as if
to say, "IT'S MOVING MA!" Then growled at it. Ok. I tucked it safely under the ledge and the next one popped out.
Robert stuck his head in the door just in time to see me snatch up the latest placenta muttering, "This ain't Wild Kingdom,
Chick, you are NOT eating that!" Thought Robert was going to pull a muscle laughing. A couple of hours later, puppy number
6 pops out and I carefully felt of her belly.... Don't feel any more pups. Baby had stopped growling by the third pup
and was happily licking away at them so I got up to send a birth announcement via email and as I was doing so, one of my sons
stepped in and asked how many, "Six!" says I......... "Nope, 7!" Says son.... "ugh, what?!".....
"another one just popped out Mom." Not only did we now have 7 but I could see that an 8th one was on the way! YEEGADS!
A couple more hours later and there are 10 pups! WOW! But that has to be the last of them.... Off I go to re-send a new birth
announcement when I hear Baby give an odd bark. I guess she figured that since I'd been present for the first ten, I should
be alerted to the 11th pup!! Holey cow! 11 poop machines with no off switches! Yeah, I was SO glad we had three
teen boys to help out.... we went through grocery carts full of recycled news paper. Having noted each pup as it arrived and
made the appropriate hash marks on the collars so that I could know one from another, I watched and made sure that the smaller
pups got first go at her while the larger ones waited a few minutes. The group that got first go began to be bigger than
others so that group changed and after a couple of weeks I realized that Baby just wasn't producing enough milk
for all of them so I began supplemental feedings using milk, raw egg and Kyro syrup fed from a needle-less syringe.
Again with the note book so I could keep track of who took how much and who was getting bigger as well as notes on temperament....
oh, yes, they start showing personality within the first week! As I sat trying to fed one I noted that he'd been a real brat
the day before about it. And he was that day too.. First he tried to evade the syringe and I muscled my way to his mouth.....
then he actually GOWLED at me at two weeks of age! Then he took it a step further and yelled for his Momma who came charging
into the room looking for the transgressor messing with her pup and she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me with the
pup in hand. She looked a bit confused, sat down with head cocked to the side and watched for a minute...... *the
look* "So what's HE fussing about Ma?" She'd been delighted when I started supplementing feedings as if to say,
"Yeah, you handle them.... my work here is done." That pup by the way could not go to just any new home, I
matched pups with new owners and Gave them 3-4 pups to see which ones would go with whom. I asked a LOT of questions of prospective
new owners like "couch potato or jogger?" More sedate pups would be brought in to be a couch potato and more energetic
pups brought in to meet the joggers..... that is a generalization of course but you get the picture. A liter of puppies ain't
for Sissies! That little boy that called his Mamma on me had to go to an experienced owner that could deal with a 80
lb brat.
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I kept track of all the puppies in their new homes and made it clear that should they find that they could not keep
the pup, I would re-home them. I only had one pup to re-home and that was because the owner had gotten a job in Alaska and
they did not allow dogs inside the house and he could not bring himself to make his dogs stay outside. That dog was Maggie
and she is still happily with her new owner who had originally bought one of her sisters. One pup went to a couple who had
no children but furry ones and they enjoyed the life of the show ring. That pup won nearly every competition he was entered
into. Another pup went into training for the police force and did very well at it. I had a list of folks that had my pups
or had met my pups waiting for me to do a second breeding and I did consider it but with the male I had used at stud before
having died, I never found another stud of equal quality. I intended to breed Ember just once but at age 4 had not found a
suitable male when I began to get reports that I didn't like one bit. Despite my carful research, two pups had von willabrawns's
disease (free bleeders) which is a common genetic trait in a lot of pure breeds but it meant that though Ember had showed
no sign of it at that point, she carried the gene and would pass it onto her offspring. At least two other of the pups had
died of heart failure by that time too and though that may or may not have been a genetic issue, between the two conditions,
I decided that Ember was out of the gene pool.
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I had picked out the daughter that I wanted to keep (reason for the breeding) and
had most of the pups spoken for when I noticed Robert favoring a dainty little girl. I was still working night shift and my
new husband was astounded when I suddenly burst out, "You have been sleeping around on me haven't you!??!"
His jaw hung open and he began to stutter a defense but I cut him off, snatched the covers from my side of the bed, pointed
at the puppy hairs then at the little dainty girl and said, "And THAT'S the bitch you have been sleeping with while I'm
off at work!" That's when he realized that I was just poking fun and he busted out laughing.... Fessed up that yes, he'd
been letting her sleep in the bed..... so that was two off the market. Angel and Ember joined our family.
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I never bred
her a second time as I never did want to BE a breeder but when I DID breed her it was with all home work done and the raising
and matching of the pups all done correctly..... That means that some folks were just not suitable for a dober kid..... Dobers
are just not suited to being anywhere other than with their family. If you want an outside dog, you do NOT want a Doberman.
They are indoor dogs, though I have met some exceptions to this that were quite happy outside. ...Oh, and I got one phone
call from the add that still makes me livid to this day. It went something like, "Hello?", "Yew got doberman
puppies fer sale?", "Yes, I do.", "Duh they fight good?", CLICK. Some times I think the gene pool
needs a little chlorine.
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Now, Hubby, myself, one of my teen boys and two of his were all happily renting a home... a home with a postage stamp
for a yard..... and now THREE dobermans.... So we went looking and found 30 acres for sale so the dogs could really RUN every
day. Don't get me wrong, I'd been exercising Baby daily using a bicycle leash and ALL the pups got leash training and the
beginnings of house training and manners before they went to new homes. But with our own land they could run all day if they
wanted.... and they frequently did. We didn't have food issues because it was available at all times.... but they stayed trim
with all the exercise. I trained my girls to be on guard with strangers until one of us opened the gate and then it was like
a light switch as they went from on guard, to all about "PET ME PLEASE!" They never failed to impress visitors.
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By now Baby had me pretty well figured out and since no feet on people was a big rule, she learned to fake people
out. She would head trait at them like a freight train, skid to a halt at their feet and lift hers off the ground just enough
to make them flinch in anticipation of getting knocked over..... and then you could see the silly smile on her face.... she didn't
break the rule so I refused to get onto her about it.... but I did try and warn folks that she would try it. Silly bitch just
thought it was hilarious. Robert enjoyed it immensely when a crew came out to do some work and stated flatly that they were
not coming in until the dogs were put up and wouldn't believe that Robert could keep them under control.... well, the
job took longer than expected and finally Robert told them that he HAD to let them out for a while but promised that they
would not bother the workers..... they looked on apprehensively as he let them tumble out of the house and he said,
"Sit!" and three butts hit the ground and all six eyes on him and him alone. The work crew were duly impressed
at his ability to give voice command and at a distance, when one headed for the crew, he gave a command and she did an about
face in mid stride. Yep, they were THAT good.
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Dogs are a LOT more complicated than most folks give them credit for. A situation
came up that I had the darnedest time figuring out. I had noticed Angel (Roberts little dainty pup) picking fights with Ember
who was quite a bit bigger than her but she would still aggravate until there was a fight. Baby would blaze over and pin one
or the other (usually Angel but not always) as the aggressor that started the fight. Robert kept defending her saying that
Baby and Ember were beating up on Angel..... well that's not what I was seeing!... then one day I happened to have been working
in the garden by the front door.. I'd been there long enough for the pups to have lost interest in me and were having a jolly
good time wrestling. I heard Robert walk through the house and just as he got to the door, Angel suddenly threw herself on
her back and screamed like Ember was killing her...... Ember just stood there looking puzzled as Robert came storming out
the door saying, "SEE! I told you they were beating up on her!"....... Oh, man..... Angel was playing him like a
fiddle and he just would not believe a dog capable of such deceit....... Angel was looking kind of ragged after a couple of
years of being on the losing end of their brief fights. When she started to challenge Baby, we decided that she needed a home
where she was top dog and a year later we did find the perfect situation for her with an older docile dober boy and an experienced
family that was delighted to let her be top dog.
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The year before last at the age of 7, Ember came down ill with an infection and
bad went to worse in the two weeks she stayed with the vet as everything including the kitchen sink was thrown at her to get
her healed. After a major surgery, the vet called late the next night and said that Ember was just giving up. So I gave permission
for the vet to put her to sleep once I was assured that there would be a sleepy shot BEFORE the paralytic that they use to
stop the heart and lungs.
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Now we were back to just Baby and she was getting on up there in years.. her hips would inexplicably just come out
from underneath her at odd times and she wasn't as spry as she once was but she could still keep up when she wanted to. With
Baby nearly 14, Robert started hinting hard that we needed to locate a new pup because, if I'd waited until Baby passed...
I would not have the heart to get another dober pup...... and he was right.
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So we brought a new pup with more energy than brains
as dobermans often are until they mature. At about a year and a half they get a better handle on controlling themselves and
their rampant energy levels. Before that their energy and intelligence just leads them into mischief more often than not...
Neekie the new pup found it way too funny to goad Baby into a reprimand that she was way too slow these days to carry
out. But Baby would let us know when Neekie was pestering her and a sharp command and Neekie backed off.... for a little
while anyway.
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Our children had all long since sett out to make their own families but when my oldest son Cory came for a visit
from the Navy, I noticed a hind leg on Baby that was suddenly, badly swollen and making her limp. As I reached under her to
check it I felt the hard mass in one of her teats and with a sinking heart, I already knew what the vet would confirm.
Cancer. My son picked her up and off we went to the vet.... I was so hoping that I was wrong but I knew that I wasn't. The
vet said, "At nearly 14 years old, you've already beaten all the odds." No, I could not put her through surgeries
and chemo at her age, not to mention the stress of vet visits, IV's, and side effects. It was not a matter of money however...
had I thought it would work, I we'd have gladly paid it. The vet said she had a few weeks at best and put her on a drug
that he said would help with her mobility and some mild pain pills when it was needed. Home we went and wonder of wonders....
not only did the swelling go away but the new drug did it's trick! She was moving and running as she hadn't in several
years. She was playing and having a grand time of it this past summer. But I knew it couldn't last and it didn't.... but the
vet's few weeks turned into 6 months before trouble reared it's ugly head. She began to limp again and hind end would suddenly
fall and her breathing became heavy and labored. Both hind legs and one front leg began to swell. She was still interested
and fairly happy so I just watched closely. The swelling in the front leg and one of the back legs began to go down but she
wasn't feeling better, weight began to drop off. With her legs swollen I had to grab her thighs and help her up the steps
to the house. I didn't mind but she did. Then, last night as I helped her up the steps, I realized that it would be the last
time as she didn't have it in her to do it again. I knew it would be a rough Sunday night.... and it was.... one of the hardest
nights of both of our lives..... By one am had I been able to carry her I would have driven the hour and a half distance and
paid the emergency fees to have the deed done but I couldn't carry her and so long as I stayed cuddled up next to her and
did not stop stroking her face, she was calm and at piece. If I so much as got up the use the rest room she would begin to
cry out in pain so I stayed all of that night, never stopping the stroking as we weathered the night. My husband needed to
go to work and so long as she was at piece we would wait for daylight for him to help me carry her to the car although I'd
truly wanted to avoid the stress of the move, the long ride and strangers touching her at this time in her life. I gave her
the pain pills and that did help but she never once slept that night...... not until just at day break when she peacefully......
just..... stopped........ And my heart broke. She'd given me my wish and passed peacefully there in the spot she always had
laid down in. She passed on December 6th, 2010 at 5:25 am.
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As
I sat with tears streaming for the loss of a daughter....... I sewed her into a shroud and Robert and I dig the grave in the
spot she liked to lay in shade in the summer... She was the best dog I have ever had the privilege of living with and I can't
see myself ever NOT missing her.
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So that is Baby's story from my side of it anyway. I think she had a good life and I know she made mine richer for
having her in it.
