We were short-term dog breeders. We have Northwest Farm Terriers, and were requested to breed in order to get the breed known.
We bred Jessie 3 times and had 3 great litters of pups. But the process of selling the last litter was filled with turmoil, frustration – and ultimately death.
We had sold 2 pups to good homes and everything was going along as usual – until buyer number 3 entered the picture…
Marilyn had wanted to keep one of the remaining ups – she was the mirror image of her grandmother, “Marilyn Monroe”, so we nicknamed her MM2 (short for “Marilyn Monroe the second”).
Anyway, this couple came to look at the pups and ultimately, decided on MM2 – and Marilyn conceded and allowed her to be taken by this family.
3 weeks later, I was dealing with a distressed woman, who was frustrated with attempting to house break MM2. I calmly walked her through the steps, and followed up with “if you have any issues, please call us back”. We would have given her money back in exchange for the pup, just to make sure she had a good placement.
Anyway, 2 weeks later, I get an email from a worker at a “high kill” shelter in Louisville, KY. The woman had given up the pup to the shelter instead of calling us back, and had given our name to the shelter – so this shelter employee emailed us to try and save the pup.
We went down to Louisville, confirmed it was our pup and filled out the paper work to “adopt” her back. This was on a Friday, and we had to wait until Monday to pick her up, because they automatically fix the pups adopted (she was only 3 months old).
We brought her home and everything seemed fine…
We had a family come and look at the last 2 pups and they decided to take them both – they brought their boys back to look at them, and the entire family fell in love with the pups, named “Dot” and “Ivy”.
They were going to go on vacation, so they left us a deposit, and we kept the pups to start house breaking for them, and “puppy sit” until they returned.
The day before yesterday, Dot started throwing up water.
yesterday, Ivy was missing and we were worried about her.
We found Ivy this morning under a bench on the porch – soaked from the rain, cold and somewhat listless.
I left for work and Marilyn called me around 8 – “I think Ivy is dying”. I told her to call the vet and get her in.
Well, Ivy died in transit to the vet office and Dot had to be put down – parvo.
Unfortunately, we think the parvo was spread by the pup we “rescued” from the shelter (MM2). MM2 seems to be doing fine, and may never get parvo – time will tell, but the loss of 2 precious pups that we helped bring into this world is devastating to us.
Had that woman simply brought the pup back to us, all of this could have been avoided. Now we have to pick up the pieces. My boys watched Ivy die on the way to the Vet, and they were present when the vet said that Dot had to be put down. I had to inform the family that wanted the pups that the pups were dead. I feel for those parents, having to explain to their 3 boys what my boys experienced, first hand.
–Pat