Updates

It's been a little over a week since I posted, and a lot has happened since then! Those of you who follow me on Facebook know that I was taking a little time to regroup... I lost Mary Jane to pneumonia this past weekend. 

It was actually one week ago today that I noticed that she seemed very low energy. As the day progressed, it seemed like her breathing was very rapid. By late afternoon, I was concerned enough that I called my vet. She had me check Mary Jane's temperature. It was normal, so we decided that I would just keep a close eye on her. 

However, late that night, she seemed a lot worse, and didn't even want to nurse. I called the local vet, as they have emergency facilities, but they said that it sounded serious enough that I ought to take Mary Jane to the nearest 24/7 facility, which was about 1.5 hours away. My amazing older sister drove so that I could hold Mary Jane, which ended up being providential, because the puppy almost went into respiratory arrest three times during the drive. While there wasn't much I could do to help, I'm so glad that I wasn't all alone during that time.

We arrived at the vet's at midnight, and Mary Jane was whisked away to be put on oxygen and get chest x-rays. The x-rays confirmed that she had a severe case of pneumonia, possibly from aspirating some food or milk.

The next two days had a lot of emotional ups and downs... sometimes it sounded like she was starting to improve, and other times she was clearly not doing great. On Monday, she definitely was going downhill. She hadn't been able to catch her breath enough to eat much of anything the whole time she had been there, or even to get any truly restful sleep. 

I consulted with the vet several times on Monday, and when there was still no improvement by evening, we agreed that it was kindest to have her put to sleep peacefully rather than making her keep fighting until her little body gave out. 

I'm grateful for the time I got to spend with her, and I definitely take a lot of joy in watching the other puppies grow and play - you can't help but smile when you're watching them. 

I'm also incredibly grateful that God provided the finances for me to give Mary Jane a chance.

Anyway... I'm sorry that this is a gloomy post, but I know that all of you wonderful people who are following this journey of my first litter would want to know about Mary Jane. ♥️

To cheer you back up, here is a collage I made of the puppies today...look how much they've grown!! I think that sometimes they're probably bigger at the end of the day than they were in the morning!

And here is the same thing, but with the names: 

A lot of work went into this... JuJu alone took three tries and probably 20 pictures before I finally got a decent shot... they're just so wiggly and playful now!

Anyway... I hope everyone had a good week. ♥️