The Wonder Puppies

BLACK TIE KENNELS
Where breeding, training, and handling
is a formal affair

THE WONDER PUPS

          In the fall of 2003 a very, very special littler of puppies was born.

                         THE WONDER PUPPIES!

Raven came into heat and was bred in the late summer of 2003 to Ambriers Boda
Shang of Tsand. Everything seemed to go well until about a week after Raven
returned home from her date with Shang. Raven seemed ill one morning. She could
keep no food or water down, she was listless, and her body temperature was falling.
Raven was rushed to the vet where she was diagnosed with H.G.E. The vet grimly
informed us that Raven may not make it through the night but if she did she would
probably be OK. She went on to inform us we would never know if Raven had
conceived or if her body had aborted the litter, puppies were said not to be possible.
However,Raven survived the night and we were able to bring her home from the clinic
the next evening. We continued to treat her as if she were pregnant on the off chance
that the vet could have been wrong and the litter had somehow been able to survive
the illness Raven had suffered. Much to our surprise Raven began to gain weight and
eat everything in site about 30 days after her ordeal. She was indeed still caring her
litter! The excitement in the air around the kennel grew as the 55 day mark, the date of
Raven's pre-whelping X-ray approached. The vet was shocked to count three babies
on the X-ray and sent us home with his assurances that Raven should encounter no
problems with delivery as a result of her illness.

Finally the day arrived and in the wee hours of September the 26th Raven went into
labor. Raven's labor,however, was terribly difficult.
As the first puppy presented himself it was clear that hard times were ahead. Puppy
#1 was breach. Eventually he was delivered and we waited an hour for puppy # 2
hoping that the rest of the puppies would present normally. Puppy #2 was head first
but he was dry and very, very large. Weighing in at a whopping 8 ounces we were
hard pressed to get him out. After the second puppy was born Raven's labor seemed
to stop. Her contractions were now very weak and she herself was tired. This is
known as uterine inertia. Puppy # 3 was tiny, breach, and dry and was stuck. Raven
simply could not push her out in spite of her small size. It was a real ordeal trying to
safely assist Raven to deliver the tiny girl puppy. It finally ended only when it became
obvious that the puppy we were tryng to deliver was dead and we were able to geat
hold of one leg and just pulled it out with one of Raven's very weak contractions since
there were no worries in injuring a dead puppy. Once the puppy was out we saw
indeed she was not breathing and had no heartbeat but felt we should try and revive
her. Amazingly we were successful.

All three of the Wonder Puppies beat the odds and survived their difficult starts to life,
They all have wonderful homes. Puppy #1 who was named Bamboo by his family is a
loving house pet with his own kitten. Puppy #2 "Armani" is living here in Florida and
finished his championship almost undefeated, only his amazing sister was able to
best him in the ring for best of breed. As for puppy #3, appropriately named "Wonder"
she began her show career at our home kennel club's annual show and followed in
her granmother's paw prints netting her first major win and best of breed her very first
trip into the ring, beating out her older brother for the ribbon. Wonder finished her
championship also nearly undefeated in November of 2007 the weekend after she
was on hand to walk her breeder down the isle at her wedding. Truely an amazing
litter of puppies!!

Day 1
Setpember 26, 2003

DAY 5

Week 4

WEEK 8

Wonder and big brother Armani The Wonder Puppy Armani and little brother Bamboo

Armani Bamboo Wonder