48.6

It's been tough at work lately. For the last couple of days I've been dealing with a particularly difficult and mysterious case of puppies dying (not the ones pictured here, by the way.) Puppies should not die. It's just not right. Young animals, like young human beings, have their whole lives stretched ahead of them. It's been extremely difficult to lose, one by one, nearly all of the puppies in a litter... especially when they're fat, healthy two-week old pups who are just starting to open their eyes. Though I'm fairly certain of what's going on with the puppies (viral), and that's there's nothing more we can do that we're not already doing, we've sent one off to OSU for a hopefully definitive diagnosis. In the meantime, as of last night, there was one puppy of eight still surviving. I am not optimistic that he'll make it through the next day, though.

The dam is a pregnant stray dog that is being fostered by a caring family, so it's been very difficult for that family, with three kids, to deal with the loss. And it's been difficult for me as well.

This image is of a different litter - 3-day old Standard Poodle puppies that were brought in to the clinic a few weeks ago to be checked out. They had the cutest swirly (soon to be curly) fur! And I just loved their little toes.