Double Adventure is About to Begin!
by Brother Luke
“Fintas! It's an honorable name—after all, water tanks are sturdy, reliable, and often life giving! I look forward to getting to know him, and Mishka's little female. Every new dog is a new adventure.”
So, it’s Fintas. Finty or Finn for short. I often call my dogs by a variety of names, which is probably contrary to proper protocol. Even so, it’s how it works out for me. So, Shems is often Shemsi and Kahn is Kahn-man or Kahn-ster. Sometimes it’s just Mister Kahn. Well, you get the idea.
And yes, there is another puppy in my near future. One of the females from the Mishka litter. Those pups are three weeks younger than Fintas, but soon that won’t matter. We haven’t decided which female puppy we will keep. There are five to choose from. The litter carried the letter “I” so the name for the girl will begin with an I. And I already have the name in mind: Iris. She will continue the line from Bella, through Raisa and Mishka. Years ago, I raised two pups from the same litter. That was also an "I" litter, and their names were Iris and Iraj. Neither one made the program in the end. I think Iris had a structural issue, and Iraj ended up with too many allergies. He just passed away a few months ago.
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| Four of the five of Mishka's girls |
Taking on two new puppies means that my girls Jaci and Shems will go to others: Jaci to Sister Cecelia, whose dog Panja was retired, and Shems to Brother Thomas, whose girl Bora is being retired (she doesn’t produce sufficient milk). Bora just had a litter of four puppies, but with no milk we had to use another bitch to nurse them. We lost one Bora puppy because we didn't realize her milk was insufficient until too late. We normally weigh the pups on day three, but the puppy died during the night before day three. Jaci was nursing a litter of seven puppies, so in this emergency, we used her to help nurse Bora’s remaining three puppies. Fortunately, Jaci always produces plenty of milk. Raisa was also due to give birth, but as it turned out she had only one puppy, and it died of complications before birth. So, we transferred Bora's puppies to Raisa, who accepted them as her own. We were lucky she did. All those puppies are now doing fine.
In addition to raising the two puppies from the previous “I” litter, I also raised two puppies from two proximate litters: Raisa and Qamar. Qamar did not make the program; Raisa did, but she is now about to be retired. So, taking on new puppies also often means saying good-bye to other dogs. However, my Kahn remains the constant in my canine life. Even so, he is beginning to show his age. He's nine, and he is feeling the arthritis in his joints a bit. Otherwise he is doing OK. Soon he may not think so, however, when these puppies enter into his life. The book on Kahn is that he really doesn’t like puppies. The fact that Fintas is Kahn’s son means nothing to him. And of course, Iris will just be one more troublesome annoyance. Once they grow up a bit and can be playmates, then his attitude will change. As the months unfold I will give updates on how my two new charges are doing. I am already spending some personal time with Fintas and even introduced Kahn to his son. In a couple of weeks, when the boy moves in and the puppy crate appears in my room, the adventure will really begin. If that doesn’t shake up Kahn, three weeks later Iris will! But Iris will also have Fintas to torment so Kahn may see Finty as his friend in this new troika. But we are getting ahead of ourselves….
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| A warning for Kahn? |
