I recently saw you ask on a Rescuer Facebook Page other than mine,
"Are you selling those Puppies"?
Selling is such a dirty word.
I automatically disqualified you from EVER owning a dog.
FIRST... you have no concept of what a Rescue does, if you're friends with a rescuers FB page and still asks that question.
Secondly.... Because of the first reason, you're just an Idiot.
When a rescuer gives up 8 to14 weeks of their life to take in an abandoned Mama and her babies, most people, unless they've actually done this, have no clue what it involves.
Spending day in and day out making sure they're healthy and socialized and get the required amount of kisses each day.
The first week or so, the pups have to stay very warm and dry and Mama fed ENORMOUS amounts of food and water, which completely translates into ENORMOUS amounts of piss and shit.
The Absolute LAST thing we ever want to hear is,
"How much for the puppy", or
"Are you selling them"
Not always do all the puppies survive. Often one or more are born dead or die soon afterwards. It's not our fault, but it sure breaks our heart and we usually take responsibility for it. It's most always because the poor mama was so neglected or abused prior to being rescued.
There isn't a soft bed out there that can undo the damage caused by Abuse.
So, Mama arrives, babies are born, and if we're lucky, they're all healthy and live.
Now you say,
"So whats the problem with asking if they're for sale"?
Well for starters... Because you're Still Stupid.
and Two.... the roller coaster of managing life has only just begun.
Day in Day out, late nights laying on the floor keeping that terrified mama calm and building trust.
Showing her she'll still be loved the next day and the one after that, and that there'll always be food and water, so she doesn't have to scarf it down or growl while she eats it. Rubbing her ears while she fitfully slumbers and wondering how she got all those scars..... Probably from protecting any of the many litters of pups she had before this one..... before she had YOU to do it for her.
Looking over at her babies, the pain in your chest grows so big you realize your sobbing before you even feel the tears.
How can I protect this litter? How can I make SURE that each one of them is more than just what someones wallet could afford? What if they're not ready for the world by 8 weeks? What if I fail them? Will they be socialized enough? Will the new owners take the time to continue socializing them? Will they Love them and hold them and protect them like the child they are?
"Am I Selling Them", you so ignorantly ask......
There isn't an amount of money that could calm the fear we have, that they won't be loved as much as we know they need to be. No amount of money can remove the knowledge we gain when we hear someone flippantly ask, "How Much Da Dog"?
Show some fucking respect. If not for us, for this dog that you allowed to fall between the cracks..... to be forgotten.
While you were wondering what that Dumbass Kanye was going to do last week, a few thousand dogs were Killed in Shelters in the US alone. Not your fault, you say... BULLSHIT, I say.
It's everyones fault. Because of your ignorance and your uneducated request, we know for FACT, it's your fault. Ignorance breeds ignorance.
You apply for the puppy. We investigate you. It's easy you know... Facebook did that for us.
Oh, I see you have 3 pitbulls that aren't neutered according to your photo album, and when I question you about that you actually tell me the truth.
Oh How you cried when they put them all to sleep for killing your neighbors yappy dog. I want to feel bad for you, but I have a Greater Urge to put a Stake through your skull.
Now you want to start over again, and you want to take one of MY babies to do that.
"Am I Selling Them"? , You're fucking Nuts!
Oh, those pups.... their eyes opened around 12 days old. I was there that day. I couldn't leave them. I know they couldn't really see me yet, because it takes about 4 days for their vision to clear up, but I wanted them to not be afraid of this new thing, so we played on the floor all day.
I held them and cooed in the ears, which by the way... at this age they're still deaf. I know you didn't know that, because you're stupid. I've now spent about two weeks doing load after load of laundry in order to make sure these pups are dry and warm and my home doesn't smell like shit. Scraping shit out of blankets and bleaching and mopping the floor where Mama lives when she's not nursing.
See Mama is still bleeding, because she's most likely been bred MANY MANY times before, and this just happens when the uterus is so abused. So I clean the floor and I wash the blood from her legs and I tell her it's all ok and I hug her neck and I laugh at the funny way she insists on licking behind my ears as if I'm one of her pups. Its been just two weeks... Can I love this dog and her pups any more than I already do? Probably not. I'm starting to get hopeful. The puppies appear to be doing well and now I look forward to meeting the new starry eyed potential adoptive families that will inevitably be emailing and messaging me daily. All of them with questions about potty training and vaccinating and crate training and which collars to use and most importantly it seems, what to feed them.
Funny though, Most of these wonderful people, even though they'll Never get a puppy from me, because, let's face it... there are only 7 pups, they all will have one thing in common and that's Intelligence. The one category where you have Failed.
It really boils down to a bad choice of words, but then, your entire existence is most likely a train wreck of bad choices..... according to your FB page.
"Am I Selling Those Puppies"?
4 weeks of age... the puppies can hear!!! Now the fun begins. They actually growl at me when I enter the room. they're starting to bark too. It's so cute, I've probably clogged You Tube with videos of them already. See this stage lasts only a few days. Shortly their growls and barks AT me will turn into Happy whining and barking FOR my attention. Escaping their crate while I'm trying to sort laundry and chewing on my slippers. Getting under my feet and falling asleep in the strangest places, which I quickly discover are the hardest to find when you think a puppy is missing. I remember all of these things. Who escaped the pen first, Who opened their eyes first, Who ate from the food bowl first, Who was the first to finger paint on the laundry room door.
You say you could love these things too if you had the chance like I have.
I know you don't have the fortitude to handle this and based on your disregard for what we go through, you don't have the right.
It's been one month... seems like no time at all, but you're not counting in seconds and that's how it's done. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week, Mama and these babies are in your thoughts.
In your dreams, your waking thoughts, all day long, right before bed. They never leave your mind.
"Puppies For Sale" Heartless and Impossible
The next 4 weeks Fly by.... LMAO. As if time were going backwards and puppies were getting fatter and more mischievous. I'll admit, there are times during this 2nd month when I contemplate having an outside kennel. Sometimes the smell is SO Strong. Usually this happens just before company arrives and the AC fan sucks the aroma in and disperses it through the ENTIRE house. Even the smell of a roast, slow cooking all day, can't overpower the vomit inducing powers of Seven Puppies shitting all at the same time.
See, at this age, they sleep, they wake, they Piss, they Shit, they eat, they play, they eat, they shit, they Piss, they play, they Sleep and Repeat.
It's our job to keep them clean, and supply enough water and food to help them grow while continuing the whole maddening piss and poop cycle.
Lets not forget, their faces. Now they're old enough for us to say without a doubt that there was most likely more than one father to this litter. Either that, or Daddy was a Serious Heinz 57.
We love them all for their own unique personality and appearance, but you won't.
You know what you want, and it's the rare one with the Red Nose. MORON.
There is NO breed standard with this breed, so try again. Think of another reason why you just HAVE to have That one.
What was that? Do we HAVE to spay them? I'm sorry...I just had a little stroke there.
Could you repeat the question? I'm having difficulty unstrapping my pistol.
You want to Breed her?
This is when I start to question my existence on this planet. Is it to calmly educate them one at a time or does this world really need one more mercenary?
My brain freezes for a moment and suddenly every dog that's ever laid in my arms while it passed to the bridge, every puppy that never got the chance to live, because it's mama was too malnourished to grow them healthy, every beaten and terrified soul that learned to no longer cower from my touch, came crashing back into view.
I start to cry and realize I could never be a mercenary, but I can't remain calm either. I am not an educator. I don't have the patience for this amount of Dumb.
"No, we're NOT Selling these Puppies"!
My Babies and their Mama are part of an elaborate Lottery where people enter by filling out applications. We review those applications and make our choices based on many requirements, and of course expect a generous donation which never ever covers the costs, just so we can do this all over again.
Some of those application requirements are secret, so that you can't just pad yours.
I will share this one with you though..... You can't appear to be an ignorant swamp dwelling 'tard and expect to be awarded one of my Babies. If you expect to take a piece of my heart, my sweat, my tears and make it your own, you'll have to willing to trade a living Unicorn for it.
Now, as for You, Go Away.
Go Away before you Really Piss me off.
Go to a shelter, where they'll Gladly hand you a puppy in exchange for your rubber check.
Go to a shelter where you KNOW they're "selling Puppies" and you can complain about the fee while you flap your face on that blinged out I-Phone, that broke one of your 2 inch nails when you pulled it from your Gucci rip off purse.
Hurry, before me or another Rescuer can find them and whisk them off to safety.
Hurry, before we can save them from someone like you, who just wants to
"Buy a Puppy"
Meanwhile, during that adoption event, where you try one more time to acquire a puppy and get told, NO, the one person, or sometimes group of people, who were there for this little family for the last two months, are quietly dying inside.
A mixture of happiness and blinding sadness. Emotionally Raped, from watching little pieces of ourselves being lifted by new arms and covered with strangers kisses.
How can we make sure that Mama knows her babies are safe and she'll never go through this again? If I'm lucky, some other Rescuer has taken Mama home by now, so the puppies could be weaned. At least today when it's all over I won't have to go back home to her sad face. I'll have bursts of tears all the way home, and when I get there I'll be quiet and do that last load of laundry.
I might clean the crate, mop the floor. I'll do this despite the sadness and the tears and the bittersweet joy, because tomorrow, I might just get that emergency phone call asking me to take another.
I have to be ready. I tend to my heart, I look at pictures. I can still smell puppy breath. I touch my neck and imagine Mama giving me one of her special hugs.
Days pass, puppy pics start to arrive and I see happy families loving and spoiling my babies..... No, Their babies. I get a call and hear Mama has a Wonderful Application. She'll get to go live with a family at the Beach... How Awesome!!!! She deserves a Lifetime of Beach Vacations!
The Phone rings again and I'm out the door. This time it won't be so easy. This time, Mama is sick with heartworm and nursing newborns. She's terrified and lived her whole life outside.
I go to her, I give her my heart, I love her as my own. I post her story. I post her pups.
I'll NOT be Selling these Either, so Don't ask.
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