And something that falls under the heading of "what was I thinking?", we got 2 puppies.
mjbett , I hope you're enjoying your puppies! What kind are they? We adopted a husky/german shepherd mix in March (we fostered her and never gave her back) and oh my gosh, is she harder to train than our typical herding dogs! She just doesn't care if we're happy or not. She's not unfriendly, she just doesn't really care if we want her to do this versus that. Sigh. But same for us, she's part of the family and will have a home with us regardless.
((Sorry, didn't see this right away and then we had a hectic few days.))
The mother is a lab/spaniel mix. The vet also thinks some setter and prob a bit of a couple other breeds. She was a rescue from a pretty horrific animal breeding/hoarding situation. The father is a toss up. We actually think it might have been both dogs. We knew that was hypothetically possible but didn't truly consider it. My aunt let her dog out in the fenced backyard and went to do some laundry in the basement, heard a bit of a ruckus outside and went to investigate and found the neighbor's dogs in her yard. They broke the gate and knocked over a couple of planters and here we are. This isn't a rickety, old fence in need of repair. It's a six foot, wooden privacy fence with just a standard slide bolt to close. They ripped the latch right out of the panel. They're not aggressive dogs but they're large, excitable, and seem to have no training. There have been 6 or 7 other escape incidents...knocked over trash, chased cars, digging, and jumping on a few people. Again, not in an aggressive manner but just excited, attention seeking. They belong to the homeowner's granddaughter (and possibly her boyfriend) who have been living with the neighbor for most of the pandemic. My aunt isn't quite sure of the situation. She lives several houses down the street and was more of an acquaintance and social distancing put a damper on any recent contact. Anyway, the breeding window was less than 5 min. She got enough of a glimpse to suspect something had happened but by the time she got off the deck it was over. She wasn't even sure it had "taken" until she was quite far along.
1 father is a labradoodle/Newfoundland mix. The other is half Bernese and half German Shepherd mix. Not sure what was mixed with the shepherd parent but he mainly looks like a smallish Bernese.
Maybe we are seeing something that isn't there but there are puppies that look like they came from 1 and some that look like they came from the other. So possibly a litter of half siblings. Or maybe the fact that even if it is just 1 father that we're looking at a genetic mix of at least 5 main breeds and smaller concentrations of a few others. Who knows? We're not paying for one of those doggie DNA tests just to satisfy our curiosity
And 1 of the puppies came back to my aunt. The guy that took her thought he was going to be able to work primarily from home but the parameters of his job changed and he'll have to be in the office a lot more. He didn't think it was healthy or fair to the puppy to have an owner who would be working so much so he offered her back to my aunt. He was really disappointed but everyone felt it was a good decision.
My aunt is glad too. The mother had a fairly difficult labor and originally didn't want anything to do with the puppies. Every time they needed to feed, my aunt had to encourage the mother to lay down (treats and constant petting) and latch the puppies herself. That first 10 days or so was exhausting. Then, after about 10 days, the mother would lay down by herself and at least let the puppies feed but would immediately jump up when they were done. No snuggling or anything. After about 3 and half weeks she would not let them near her at all but the vet said they could be transitioned to milk replacer and soft foods at that point. Still exhausting for my aunt who had to make sure every puppy got enough food. Once the puppies were like little dogs who jumped and moved around, the mother did like to play with them. So she had found homes for the puppies soon after they were born but kinda regretted not keeping one. The mother didn't have much of a puppy life herself and she was really enjoying tumbling around with them. So it ended up being good one came back.
And sorry...that's prob way more information than you ever wanted to know
mjbett , I hope you're enjoying your puppies! What kind are they? We adopted a husky/german shepherd mix in March (we fostered her and never gave her back) and oh my gosh, is she harder to train than our typical herding dogs! She just doesn't care if we're happy or not. She's not unfriendly, she just doesn't really care if we want her to do this versus that. Sigh. But same for us, she's part of the family and will have a home with us regardless.
((Sorry, didn't see this right away and then we had a hectic few days.))
The mother is a lab/spaniel mix. The vet also thinks some setter and prob a bit of a couple other breeds. She was a rescue from a pretty horrific animal breeding/hoarding situation. The father is a toss up. We actually think it might have been both dogs. We knew that was hypothetically possible but didn't truly consider it. My aunt let her dog out in the fenced backyard and went to do some laundry in the basement, heard a bit of a ruckus outside and went to investigate and found the neighbor's dogs in her yard. They broke the gate and knocked over a couple of planters and here we are. This isn't a rickety, old fence in need of repair. It's a six foot, wooden privacy fence with just a standard slide bolt to close. They ripped the latch right out of the panel. They're not aggressive dogs but they're large, excitable, and seem to have no training. There have been 6 or 7 other escape incidents...knocked over trash, chased cars, digging, and jumping on a few people. Again, not in an aggressive manner but just excited, attention seeking. They belong to the homeowner's granddaughter (and possibly her boyfriend) who have been living with the neighbor for most of the pandemic. My aunt isn't quite sure of the situation. She lives several houses down the street and was more of an acquaintance and social distancing put a damper on any recent contact. Anyway, the breeding window was less than 5 min. She got enough of a glimpse to suspect something had happened but by the time she got off the deck it was over. She wasn't even sure it had "taken" until she was quite far along.
1 father is a labradoodle/Newfoundland mix. The other is half Bernese and half German Shepherd mix. Not sure what was mixed with the shepherd parent but he mainly looks like a smallish Bernese.
Maybe we are seeing something that isn't there but there are puppies that look like they came from 1 and some that look like they came from the other. So possibly a litter of half siblings. Or maybe the fact that even if it is just 1 father that we're looking at a genetic mix of at least 5 main breeds and smaller concentrations of a few others. Who knows? We're not paying for one of those doggie DNA tests just to satisfy our curiosity
And 1 of the puppies came back to my aunt. The guy that took her thought he was going to be able to work primarily from home but the parameters of his job changed and he'll have to be in the office a lot more. He didn't think it was healthy or fair to the puppy to have an owner who would be working so much so he offered her back to my aunt. He was really disappointed but everyone felt it was a good decision.
My aunt is glad too. The mother had a fairly difficult labor and originally didn't want anything to do with the puppies. Every time they needed to feed, my aunt had to encourage the mother to lay down (treats and constant petting) and latch the puppies herself. That first 10 days or so was exhausting. Then, after about 10 days, the mother would lay down by herself and at least let the puppies feed but would immediately jump up when they were done. No snuggling or anything. After about 3 and half weeks she would not let them near her at all but the vet said they could be transitioned to milk replacer and soft foods at that point. Still exhausting for my aunt who had to make sure every puppy got enough food. Once the puppies were like little dogs who jumped and moved around, the mother did like to play with them. So she had found homes for the puppies soon after they were born but kinda regretted not keeping one. The mother didn't have much of a puppy life herself and she was really enjoying tumbling around with them. So it ended up being good one came back.
And sorry...that's prob way more information than you ever wanted to know
mjbett , sorry, it's been a while since I've been on here and I'm just seeing this. I'm so happy you got a new puppy and hope yours settles down soon. I think ours finally is -- she finally figured out to come get us when she needs to go outside and we haven't had any accidents in eight days -- count them -- eight!!
We're having her spayed this Friday. Some vets recommend letting them go through one heat cycle, others say to spay them before they have their first heat, especially the larger breeds. Since it's easier for me, I took the "do it before" advice. I hate the idea of her having surgery but know that it should be done.
On to reading all the posts I've missed. :-)
ETA: Puppies! I should have said puppies as you've adopted two. :-)
Heads up: In the last couple of days, I saw posts on GR that it was discovered Romily King plagiarized books. At least 2 so far have been proven to be stolen from fanfics on AO3. (The fanfic author confirmed they are not King.) Amazon has removed Paid to Kneel from sale, but for now Handled is still up. Readers familiar with the fanfics are going through the rest of the books from Romily King to see what else has been lifted. Here is the link to author's list on Ammy if you want to check titles: Romily King
Heads up: In the last couple of days, I saw posts on GR that it was discovered Romily King plagiarized books. At least 2 so far have been proven to be stolen from fanfics on AO3. (The fanfic author confirmed they are not King.) Amazon has removed Paid to Kneel from sale, but for now Handled is still up. Readers familiar with the fanfics are going through the rest of the books from Romily King to see what else has been lifted. Here is the link to author's list on Ammy if you want to check titles: Romily King
Good to know. Sadly, they'll prob just regroup and publish under a new name.
Jordan Castillo Price’s PsyCop Series will be in KU through October. They’re not in the link but the short story bundles are included too. I really like this series. Needs to be read in order. There are no big cliffhangers but there are unfinished plot lines running throughout. I’m not sure how many more books are planned but she’s not a very prolific writer.
Taylor Fitzpatrick is offering some limited time extras. It’s $40 if you buy everything, which I did. Pricey on the surface but I really enjoy her work and I’ve reread quite a bit and I foresee doing more. So, for me, it was worth it. These will be available through the end of the year so there’s still time to read her free stuff on AO3 and decide if it’s worth the price to you. I think she has a real knack for exploring the small moments with her characters. Very emotionally evocative.
****I do NOT know the author or follow her on social media. I did start checking her Tumblr page (I don’t have the app, just the online version) but only because she’ll post character snippets and updates about what she’s working on. I have absolutely no personal connection to her. Just a fan and customer.
I have not subscribed to her Patreon (I think I will at some point) but I’ve read everything else she’s written. I also have a fairly lengthy post about her in the What Are You Reading thread. So if anyone has any questions I can prob answer.
Re Taylor Fitzpatrick That $40 includes all her retail stuff. So the 2 books and her trilogy, of which 2 are available now. You’ll get the third when it’s released. That means the extras are really only about $16. About 175,000 words but might average out more depending on what she ends up writing for the extras for the final trilogy book. Like I said, I thought the value was there for me but you’ll have to try her to see if she clicks for you
**And I truly do not know the author. She’s just one of the best new-to-me authors I’ve discovered in the last few years. To be fair, most of my fiction reading has been rereads so I haven’t tried as many new authors as usual, but still…
Anyway, it’ll prob be awhile before these are offered again (couple years, at least) so now’s the time if you’re interested.