Blogathon 12/20: Pregnant bitches and the mutt’s nuts

Robyn has had her first ‘season’ (bless).

Apart from this being an indicator that our little girl is growing up, it was also a sign that she wasn’t very happy.

She had a tough time of it, and was very uncomfortable for several weeks.

So we discussed her situation (the family – Robyn isn’t much of one for discussions. Cuddles and hugs, yes. Discussions, not so much) and decided to get her ‘done’.

The veterinary surgeon we are registered with does a simple laparoscopic operation, rather than the more drastic ‘cut ’em open, take bits out and stitch ’em up again’ procedure.

We like this school of thought.

So a few weeks ago we trundled off to the vet for a pre-op inspection and guess what? Robyn is having a phantom pregnancy.

She can’t have the operation while her body thinks she’s pregnant, so we set it back a month.

The trouble is that young Chewie’s reproductive urges are starting to wake up.

So there’s a very real chance that Robyn could get actually pregnant, instead of phantomly pregnant. Or pregnant with phantoms. Or whatever.

So we booked Chewie in to get ‘done’ (which actually means ‘castrated’), to stop Robyn getting cheggers preggers.

And then I foolishly started reading up on dog castration. The final straw was an article in/on Psychology Today (Neutering Causes Behaviour Problems in Male Dogs)

To cut a long story short, we have discussed Chewie’s castration and decided that it’s not what we want for young Chewie, even though it would be a desirable contraceptive/preventative measure.

This means that we’re winging it for now, and hoping that Chewie and Robyn stay platonic friends, until we can get Robyn done.

And hopefully that will happen before she has her next season.