Probably the hardest part of running a kennel is breeding time. I tell you when Belle Starr comes in season she sets off a cosmic reaction. And that is with all of the other dogs. They all go into this behavior that normally doesn't happen. So we constantly create environment to keep all safe. The only one who doesn't seem affected by this is the Storm Trooper. Cassie was fine with Belle Starr, but would guard off Shadow if he came near her. And she loves Shadow. (She may be just saving him for herself.) So the Storm Trooper and Cassiopeia took turns being with Belle Starr while she was confined to the puppy room, which is a very nice area for a dog. I took her in Monday the 28th and her progesterone level was low. Then took her again on Wednesday and didn't get any results back from the vet. So I quietly in a panic state called to see why I hadn't heard anything and she said she would check into and call me back. Will the call back was to tell me the blood machine at the hospital was broke down. On Thursday machine still down and vet said we should be okay and I made an appointment for Friday morning. Friday morning on my way to the vet, I received a call from the vet and her readings from Wednesday were high and that I needed to call the owner of Hawk the stud dog to collect semen and get it shipped for a Saturday breeding. So we took another blood draw for analysis and set up an appointment for Saturday breeding. In the meantime Friday night our old dog had a bad spell. We got him settled enough for the night and called the vet first thing Sat. morning. So we had a 95 pound dog to take in besides a very hormonal bitch to take in. Since we couldn't lift Drake into my big Chevy truck and that Belle Starr and I couldn't fit into Fred's little truck we took both rigs to Missoula for appointments. Crazy day. They did x-rays of Drake and the puppy pac arrived by Fed Ex for Belle Starr and we did what we had to do. So it turns out that Drake has pneumonia with other complications and we bred Belle Starr. What a bittersweet time. It is now one week later I look back and see that we actually survived. Drake is doing much better and Belle Starr has joined the ranks again as one of the calm pack. About puppies? We won't know until after Christmas. In all of this craziness it comes down to Mother Nature. Picture below is of the potential dad Hawk. One handsome Dude...
