CyncySpyder
Teddys favorite human
Teddy's Tail Part V
So I started my search, trying the pound, the net, Craigslist and the papers for a Pomeranian puppy. The pound had plenty of pups, but none were Poms and the Poms that they did have at that time were all older adults and I knew I wanted a pup so I could properly train "spoil" him, so I kept looking til one day, I came across an ad in the local paper for a private breeder with pure bred Pom pups for $250, which wasn't a bad price. So I called, and the lady breeder was about 60 miles away in Ohio and she only had two pups left, a cream and a black. As soon as she told me that she had a cream Pom, my memories instantly went back to Romeo, and that heartfelt fealing was once again in my chest. I told her right then that I was interested in the cream and that I would be leaving right away and should be there within an hour or so if she would kindly hold the cream one til I got there, which she agreed. So, I stopped by the ATM and took out $300 to make sure I had enough funds (a little extra, just in case) cause I was intent on coming home with that cream colored Pomeranian puppy. The entire drive there was a fond trip down memory lane for me, of all the wonderful times and shared experiences that I enjoyed with Romeo and I was so looking forward to making new memories with a new "Best Friend" that I would once again fall in love with.
Sure enough, about 75 minutes later, I'm pulling onto a gravel driveway leading to a little old country house with a couple of small out-buildings out in the middle of nowhere I had ever been before. As soon as I opened the car door, I could hear the yap yap yap of mutiple little ankle biters, but none were in sight. So I walked up to the front door of the house and pensively knocked, not knowing exactly what to expect. A kind faced middle aged woman came to the door and instructed me to go around the side of the house to the back yard where the kennels were and that she would shortly bring the two Pom pups up to the empty kiddy pool for me to look at and play with. Never thought about it before, but an empty kiddy pool does work very well for corralling and showing little pups, so I could tell this lady had done this before and she seemed that she knew what she was doing, which is always a good sign when looking into potentially buying from a private breeder. Her kennels were neat, orderly and clean, and the dogs had plenty of room to move about, so that further reasured me that she was in fact a "good" breeder and not one of the "puppy-mill" type of breeders.
Within a couple of minutes, she brought out the two pups that she had mentioned, tho I wasn't sure why she even brought out the black one, as I wasn't interested in him, and told her that I was only interested in the cream colored one when we talked on the phone, but whatever. As soon as she put them down together, side by side, I was perplexed at what I was seeing. The cream colored pup was twice the size of the black one, so I asked her
"What, are these from two different litters?"
"No" she stated, "their brothers from the same litter, just the black one is the 'runt' of the litter"
"Oh WoW, such a big difference in size, I'm amazed. And what gives with the black ones tail, or lack thereof, did you actually dok it?" I asked, with a little disgusted inflection in my voice.
(side note: The Breed Standard for Poms is that they all should have fluffy, curly Q tails that drape over the middle of their backs, and the cream coloreds' tail looked perfect, but the black pup only had a straight little stub about an inch long, with no curl at all, making me wonder if she actually doc'd it)
"Oh NO!" she quickly replied "I would never think of doing something like that, that's just wrong."
"I agree, so what gives?" I asked again.
"I was hoping you wouldn't notice," she said with a chuckle. "Since the black one is the runt out of a litter of 6, when the mom wasn't around and the pups were hungry, they'd all take turns sucking on the little black ones tail just like it was their moms teet, and I didn't think much of it, thought it was actually kinda cute to be honest with ya. But I'm guessing since the black one was so little, that he really couldn't defend himself and stop his sibblings from doing it, and after about 3 weeks of them constantly doing that, well, about half of his tail actually fell off, it was laying right there on the kennel floor one day, just the little black nub of his tail. I was a little worried and checked him out real well, no bleeding or even a scab to be found, but I took him to the vet to be safe and they said he should be fine, just won't be up to breed standard as he only has half a tail now. I tell ya, I had never seen anything like that happen in 15 years of breeding." she confided in me.
"Wow, poor little guy. He's already had life kinda rough and at only 8 weeks old," I was thinking to myself.
The lady continued, "Yeah, I doubt I'll ever find the runt a good home, not being to breed standard, you couldn't show him and being the runt, you wouldn't want to breed him either, cause they tend to be more prone to health issues, ya know? Heck, if I knew someone would just give him a good home, I'd let him go for only a hundred bucks."
"A hundred bucks, Really?" I questioned.
"Well yeah, beats having to have him put down." she said matter of factly.
Her last statement hit me hard, like a ton of bricks to the gut. Having to put him down, just cause he's a runt with a stubby tail? I understood she was a professional breeder and they do it for the love of the animal, to better the breed but also for the financial incentives it can provide. If she couldn't sell him, and didn't have him put down, then she'd have to keep him, couldn't show or breed him, and he would become a financial liability for her, this I understood, but I still didn't like it.
So, with her last statement reverberating around in my head, I drew my attention to the little black runt with the stubby tail instead of the cream colored sibling that I knew for sure would one day get a good home, that I originally had set my heart on.
Funny how knowing circumstances can change not only ones perspective but also their feelings. Damnit, its not right that the under dog 'pun intended' always gets the shaft.
TBC.......... work work work, sorry guys, we're almost there.......
So I started my search, trying the pound, the net, Craigslist and the papers for a Pomeranian puppy. The pound had plenty of pups, but none were Poms and the Poms that they did have at that time were all older adults and I knew I wanted a pup so I could properly train "spoil" him, so I kept looking til one day, I came across an ad in the local paper for a private breeder with pure bred Pom pups for $250, which wasn't a bad price. So I called, and the lady breeder was about 60 miles away in Ohio and she only had two pups left, a cream and a black. As soon as she told me that she had a cream Pom, my memories instantly went back to Romeo, and that heartfelt fealing was once again in my chest. I told her right then that I was interested in the cream and that I would be leaving right away and should be there within an hour or so if she would kindly hold the cream one til I got there, which she agreed. So, I stopped by the ATM and took out $300 to make sure I had enough funds (a little extra, just in case) cause I was intent on coming home with that cream colored Pomeranian puppy. The entire drive there was a fond trip down memory lane for me, of all the wonderful times and shared experiences that I enjoyed with Romeo and I was so looking forward to making new memories with a new "Best Friend" that I would once again fall in love with.
Sure enough, about 75 minutes later, I'm pulling onto a gravel driveway leading to a little old country house with a couple of small out-buildings out in the middle of nowhere I had ever been before. As soon as I opened the car door, I could hear the yap yap yap of mutiple little ankle biters, but none were in sight. So I walked up to the front door of the house and pensively knocked, not knowing exactly what to expect. A kind faced middle aged woman came to the door and instructed me to go around the side of the house to the back yard where the kennels were and that she would shortly bring the two Pom pups up to the empty kiddy pool for me to look at and play with. Never thought about it before, but an empty kiddy pool does work very well for corralling and showing little pups, so I could tell this lady had done this before and she seemed that she knew what she was doing, which is always a good sign when looking into potentially buying from a private breeder. Her kennels were neat, orderly and clean, and the dogs had plenty of room to move about, so that further reasured me that she was in fact a "good" breeder and not one of the "puppy-mill" type of breeders.
Within a couple of minutes, she brought out the two pups that she had mentioned, tho I wasn't sure why she even brought out the black one, as I wasn't interested in him, and told her that I was only interested in the cream colored one when we talked on the phone, but whatever. As soon as she put them down together, side by side, I was perplexed at what I was seeing. The cream colored pup was twice the size of the black one, so I asked her
"What, are these from two different litters?"
"No" she stated, "their brothers from the same litter, just the black one is the 'runt' of the litter"
"Oh WoW, such a big difference in size, I'm amazed. And what gives with the black ones tail, or lack thereof, did you actually dok it?" I asked, with a little disgusted inflection in my voice.
(side note: The Breed Standard for Poms is that they all should have fluffy, curly Q tails that drape over the middle of their backs, and the cream coloreds' tail looked perfect, but the black pup only had a straight little stub about an inch long, with no curl at all, making me wonder if she actually doc'd it)
"Oh NO!" she quickly replied "I would never think of doing something like that, that's just wrong."
"I agree, so what gives?" I asked again.
"I was hoping you wouldn't notice," she said with a chuckle. "Since the black one is the runt out of a litter of 6, when the mom wasn't around and the pups were hungry, they'd all take turns sucking on the little black ones tail just like it was their moms teet, and I didn't think much of it, thought it was actually kinda cute to be honest with ya. But I'm guessing since the black one was so little, that he really couldn't defend himself and stop his sibblings from doing it, and after about 3 weeks of them constantly doing that, well, about half of his tail actually fell off, it was laying right there on the kennel floor one day, just the little black nub of his tail. I was a little worried and checked him out real well, no bleeding or even a scab to be found, but I took him to the vet to be safe and they said he should be fine, just won't be up to breed standard as he only has half a tail now. I tell ya, I had never seen anything like that happen in 15 years of breeding." she confided in me.
"Wow, poor little guy. He's already had life kinda rough and at only 8 weeks old," I was thinking to myself.
The lady continued, "Yeah, I doubt I'll ever find the runt a good home, not being to breed standard, you couldn't show him and being the runt, you wouldn't want to breed him either, cause they tend to be more prone to health issues, ya know? Heck, if I knew someone would just give him a good home, I'd let him go for only a hundred bucks."
"A hundred bucks, Really?" I questioned.
"Well yeah, beats having to have him put down." she said matter of factly.
Her last statement hit me hard, like a ton of bricks to the gut. Having to put him down, just cause he's a runt with a stubby tail? I understood she was a professional breeder and they do it for the love of the animal, to better the breed but also for the financial incentives it can provide. If she couldn't sell him, and didn't have him put down, then she'd have to keep him, couldn't show or breed him, and he would become a financial liability for her, this I understood, but I still didn't like it.
So, with her last statement reverberating around in my head, I drew my attention to the little black runt with the stubby tail instead of the cream colored sibling that I knew for sure would one day get a good home, that I originally had set my heart on.
Funny how knowing circumstances can change not only ones perspective but also their feelings. Damnit, its not right that the under dog 'pun intended' always gets the shaft.
TBC.......... work work work, sorry guys, we're almost there.......
Last edited:
opcorn:
hyea:Can't wait!!
