So little time, so much to do

sweet puppy facesI can’t believe it, it is almost over. It is so abrupt; one day you are scrambling to find time to sit down and the next day they are gone and there is this huge hole in your life. But now is the busy time, where they are needing SO much and I have so little left to give. Plus, I am letting go, spending far less time with them so it doesn’t hurt so much when they leave. I am up late at night, reviewing the adoption decisions I’ve made, hoping the families will be good matches. I can only do so much and then I have to just let it go. Let it be what it will be. This is difficult work. Remember when I was saying that I would be happy to see them go? Well, I will be happy to have my house back and my time back and my dogs and family back but I will miss their little fuzzy bodies and puppy breath (what makes is stink so?) and their growing personalities. But they are little dogs now. No longer babies. And they need some rules and manners and I frankly don’t have it in me to do that work. So, I hope the families are ready for them because they sure are ready to have more in their lives.

Annie senses the change in her role and seems confused. Every time she goes to nurse I yell at her. She doesn’t get it. She really is an amazingly tolerant dog. Every other mama we’ve had has weaned their pups long ago. I think she’d still happily nurse them for weeks more, as long as they asked her to, as long as they were around. They whine and she wakes up and listens, they bark and she takes notice. I do think she will miss them when she leaves in two days. But the weaning is going well, thank god. Her milk seems to be stopping and she hasn’t nursed them in earnest in two days, although her shirt is wet and stained from times her milk either leaked or let down on its own. But she isn’t getting fuller, so it is happening. A little too close for me but happening.

This is a tough time, so little of it left, so much left to do.

January 7, 2009 • Tags: , , , , • Posted in: Annie, dog adoption, dog ownership, fostering dogs, nutrition, observations, pups

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