Lilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Another Mother Mourns Her Loss

Firstly, thank you all for your supportive comments on my previous post! Your insight helped greatly. I have decided to keep praying that things work out for them, but to let sleeping dogs lie for now. If in the future they come to us and apologize for what's happened, we'll go from there (I don't really see that happening, sadly), but for now, I can be content to try to keep positive people around me. I do have awesome online buddies and a couple of people IRL I can talk to as well. This has been and will continue to be a long, hard journey, but you all make it easier with your caring support.

Onto my thoughts for today. You all may remember me talking about our dog, Melly, in the past. She is the outdoor dog (Isabel is the indoor dog). A couple of months ago, Melly came into her first heat and, as usually happens with these things, she got pregnant (sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't be better off as a dog - they never seem to face things like infertility).

Yesterday, Melly gave birth to her very first litter. She had 7 puppies! They are all manner of cuteness and she is such a great mother to them. Today, The Hubs and I went to check on Melly and the puppies (we didn't get to see them yesterday, as we didn't get home until after dark. We let her out of her fenced area to use the restroom and have a run as we do every evening and noticed she wasn't plump and rounded like she had been that morning. She had a quick run and then went right back to her home. The Hubs put fresh water and food down for her, but couldn't see well enough to see the puppies. So today we went back to do a thorough check).

When we got to her pen, we opened the door and she ran out to do her business and have a run. We went in to check on the puppies. There were 3 black/brown and white puppies, 3 black puppies and a brown puppy. Then we noticed the sad thing. The brown puppy didn't make it. He was lying there with the others, but he wasn't moving as they were and he wasn't breathing. The Hubs bent down to retrieve him so we could bury him and, at that exact moment, Melly came running back in. She saw The Hubs trying to get the puppy and she ran over and licked the puppy several times and nudged him. The whole while she was whining. When The Hubs picked him up, she started crying, giving this sort of howling whine. She jumped and put her paws on The Hubs' chest and licked the puppy again. The Hubs showed her and told her the puppy had gone on, but she continued to cry.

The Hubs took the puppy out and told me he had hoped to get the puppy out before Melly had returned. We hadn't wanted her to see him, thinking she wouldn't remember the puppy if he wasn't there because, after all, she is only a dog. But, I realised something important today. It doesn't matter if you're human or a dog or a cat or whatever animal you may be. When you lose your child, you feel that hurt. You want your baby back. You just want the world to be right and for your child to be in it, living, loving and with you.

I've never suffered the loss of a child that I carried within me, but I did lose a child whom I had in my heart claimed as my own. I could sympathise with Melly. I leaned down and got nose to nose with her. I told her I understood and I was so sorry for her loss. She leaned her head on my shoulder and whined. I think she appreciated the comfort and the understanding, such as it was. She let me pet her other puppies and then she settled down with them and licked them continually for several minutes.

Everytime today that The Hubs and I have walked over to check on her, she has whined. A couple of times she has cried and I know she's missing her lost pup. For anyone who ever said a dog doesn't feel emotions as a human does, I ask them to come spend one day with my dog who, despite having 6 other puppies, still remembers the baby she lost.

12 comments:

Christy and Kevin said...

Dogs (most animals) do love their young. They do feel their loss. How sad for poor Melly.

Christy

Laura said...

omg that is so sad. I feel so bad for your Melly :( I have seen my golden be sad before, but not at a loss of a puppy. It can be easy to forget that they still have feelings and emotions like we do...

ICLW # 24

Serendipity said...

oh that's so sad for your poor dog.

b said...

Lynn - thanks for stopping by my blog and how nice it is to meet you! I've perused your blog a bit waiting for the coffee to brew this morning and you seem like a gal I'd love to know! How wonderful it is to meet new people! Blessings to you and what a wonderful writer you are. Sweet post on your dog. Poor girl. Blessings to you and The Hubs. B.

Mrs. Gamgee said...

Oh how sad...

And I totally believe that dogs feel loss. Many years ago, when my family's oldest dog passed away, the younger one looked for her for more than a week. Finally he started sleeping in her bed.

Give Melly a hug from me.

Anonymous said...

:( What a touching little story. I'm sorry even our pets have to experience loss.

*ICLW*

junebug said...

Oh my gosh! Now I'm crying. The poor sweet momma. I by no means treat my dogs like humans(ok I kinda do) but I do believe they have emotions and they can remember certain things. My heart breaks for her. ((Hugs))

empty whole said...

ICLW

The story about the dog and the puppy is very moving. I think dogs can sense our own emotions so much stronger than we can sometimes.

annie said...

That broke my heart and made me love dogs even more. Give her lots of hugs!!

Alana said...

Lynn---what a sweet, but sad story. Sorry for the loss of the pup. I'm with you and the other commenters, there is no doubt that Melly is missing her pup. Poor sweetie!

Catching up...
I was appalled by the woman in your prior post. As others said, the Bible is full of references of helping others, and reaching out to those in need. Not to mention Joseph was definitely in an "adoptive" type role as he was a father here on Earth for Jesus himself. The woman's allegations were ridiculous!

I think you should stand by your convictions and trust your gut instincts. Obviously you and the Hubs had "un-friended" the couple for a variety of reasons. While you feel badly for them, I think it would be difficult to establish a level of trust if you have them as true friends again. (I LOVE Mrs. Gamgee's advice, btw!) Hugs to you!

Liz said...

That is a sad little story. I feel badly for your doggie and agree that dogs have and feel emotions too. I am a dog lover and Mommy to 3 fur babies (2 of them dogs) and understand how hard it is to see your animals hurt. I feel badly for little Melly and hope she is able to forget about her pup soon. Also, I jealous you have puppies at your house!

Visiting from ICLW #64

Anonymous said...

You totally did the right thing. Psychologists have long recognized that animals share the same kinds of emotions that we have, but biology/society is slow to catch up. Your dog is lucky to have such an empathetic owner.

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