All "fixed" (but a little confused!)

We took Dharma in to the vet on June 3 for her ovariohysterectomy surgery (more commonly known as "getting her fixed"). There are several reasons for getting Dharma fixed. (1) As cute as she is, one is certainly enough and we don't need any more little Dharmas running around the house and keeping us up at night (Dharma does that just fine, thank you!). (2) Dharma's breeder requires it, which is a pretty common practice with purebred puppies. (3) But perhaps most importantly, getting your puppy fixed greatly reduces their chances of getting reproductive system related cancers (i.e. ovarian, uterine, and breast cancer -- or testicular cancer, if you have a boy dog). In fact, if you have your dog fixed before her first heat cycle (unfortunately, as many of you will recall, Dharma beat us to the punch), it reduces their chance of developing these types of cancer to virtually zero.

The surgery was done on Tuesday, and Dharma had to stay the night at the vet's office for observation and to make sure she was doing okay. Emilie was able to pick Dharma up on Wednesday afternoon and bring her home. She only had two stitches, and they were right next to her bellybutton, so the scar will hardly be noticeable when she is wearing a bikini. Dharma was on some pain medication and was supposed to be taking things easy for a while (you know, no running, no jumping on the couch, etc., all of which is simply impossible for a dachshund to avoid!). Emilie then took Dharma back to the vet today (a week later) to have her stitches removed. Dharma now has a clean bill of health and is free to do whatever she wants.

Unfortunately, in the meantime between having her surgery and getting her stitches removed, Dharma developed a "very delicate condition." More specifically, she thought she was pregnant! Her mammary glands were all swollen, she had morning sickness, and she started lactating. We called the vet, who assured us that this was not an uncommon occurrence after getting a puppy fixed (and I use my highly trained skills of lawyer-speak here to parse his language to indicate that while this is not "uncommon," it is also not "common"). Then, about a day later, she got very confused and assumed that all of her toys were little babies! She took her toys and placed them very carefully in a nest (also known as the pile of dirty clothes in the closet).

Note "buckwheat" (the red thing at the top of the picture) and her new lambskin teddy bear (at the left side of the picture) carefully placed in our pile of dirty clothes while Dharma watches over them. We are still missing one of her toys and assume it is buried in there somewhere.

Dharma would guard her "babies" day and night, mostly refusing to eat or go outside to potty for fear of letting her babies get out of her sight. She would even try to help her babies nurse by placing them against her stomach. After about a day, apparently the babies were a little more developed, because she would carefully move them out to the couch during the day. Oddly, she eventually got to the point where she apparently figured the babies would want to play, so she would bring them out and drop them at our feet. We would throw her "babies" across the room and she would chase after them and bring them back for us to do it again. So, now we're not sure if she was having moments of lucidity and knew these things were toys, or perhaps she just wouldn't have been a very good mother and enjoyed watching her babies be thrown across the room.

But as if that weren't enough, we had friends over to hang out and have snacks on Saturday evening. And the Bloomingtonauts brought Dharma some treats. They gave her some tasty little green chewy bones that are all healthy because they came from Bloomingfoods, the local organic cooperative. But they also brought Dharma a nice toy bone that squeaks. Dharma loves her new toy so much it has become her favorite.

Dharma showing off her new toy.

In fact, she loved her new bone so much she actually adopted it (i.e. she added it to her litter, placed it in the dirty clothes with the other toys, and started taking care of it like it was her own baby).

Dharma in her nest with her babies -- pink ball up at the top of the picture (which Dharma is confused by since it is obviously bald), her lambskin teddy on the left, and her recent adoption (which we have nicknamed "little red")

Dharma still will hardly let her new toy out of her sight. Here she is actually using it as a pillow so she can keep it close.

Thanks soooo much Bloomingtonauts for giving Dharma one more mouth to feed!

(Incidentally, the Bloomingtonauts kick off our summer parade of visitors and guests at our house. Next week Naplover arrives to stay for a few days, along with Bean. Later in the summer we are expecting a return visit from one of the Bloomingtonauts, as well as visits from both our parents.)