Relief - Puppies Arrive

Ruby

Having had 4 litters; 2 with Ruby and then 2 with Amber and thoroughly enjoying the experience, I thought of repeating it with Ruby's great-granddaughter Pearl. So when she came into season at the beginning of August I set about finding a stud. All went well, (sort of but that is another story) and on Tuesday 10th October Pearl had 7 lovely puppies.

This was a huge relief.

Amber

When Pearl had successfully been mated, obviously I told friends and family. Many many people regaled me with stories of litters that had had problems. Some of these tales of woe were horrendous. Several people implied I was lucky to have had 4 trouble-free litters. I have to say this freaked me out. I became anxious about the impending event and worried about my pet Pearl. My imagination worked overtime. Every day it threw up a new catastrophic scenario ranging from deformed puppies to losing Pearl.


I knew this was just a reaction to the stories I had been told. As stated in "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, using my "system 2" and examining the evidence I concluded things probably would not be as calamitous as I envisaged.

Despite my feelings of doom, I decided to replicated the behaviour I adopted with Ruby and Amber, who both had uncomplicated litters. I would not change the routine Pearl and I had.  We would take the same walks, still explore new places and most importantly for me we would continue to go out and about in the motorhome. I would treat her pregnancy in a matter of fact way and try to remain calm and not let Pearl know how anxious I was.

Pearl and her new puppies

This seems to have worked. Pearl is fine as are the puppies.  In fact she seems a little stir crazy. She does like to go out and does not seem too concerned about leaving her puppies.  She had the puppies relatively easily and they are at 8 days old all thriving.

On closer examination of this situation, it is a mirror of my experience of the recent explosion of news. It is wonderful knowing what is going on but most of the news is of difficulties and problems. Also there is little follow up of various stories.These events are rarely put in context of the bigger picture.  Hearing of such problems can cause a person to change their behaviour out of fear of what MAY happen. It is for this reason I am very very selective about what news I listen too.  It has nothing to do with fake news, it is all to do with TOO MUCH news.

I recently saw on the TV two items on programmes nothing to do with news but which I found life enhancing.

The first concerned an old man of about 80 who was evacuated during the war. He was sent to this big posh house with 29 other children. A school was set up and they were all given a plot to grow some food. This encounter changed this man's life. He was most grateful for having had this experience.

The second concerned Prince Charles helping to save a big grand house.  The restoration and end product had to offer work for local businesses, employment to local people and educational experiences for local school children. It was wonderful seeing the children dig up vegetables and make them into a soup. It was heart warming to hear of a couple of people whose lives had been changed after gaining employment because of the new house.

I would like to hear more stories like these to balance the current diet of doom and gloom that seems to pervade usual news. 

Enough of this seriousness.  

I hope you enjoy all the puppy pictures.