Dog Journal -2-Caring For Newborn Pups,Canine Vengeance and Lantana Remedy

Transferring the newborn puppies from the backyard to a safe, warm place wasn’t easy. My dog loving tenants said the mother dog Kiku could attack me as well as them if we picked up the puppies and that I should approach her slowly. I went back to the kennels, took some of Kiku’s bedding into my bedroom and placed it in a cosy corner near my bed. I laid a fresh sheet over it.

Then I returned to Kiku. I spoke to her softly, telling her that we weren’t going to harm her pups and managed to leash her and lead her away into my bedroom. She was extremely reluctant to leave her newborns and I had to pull at her. After that, each one of us gently picked up the puppies and took them to my bedroom. They did not squeal much at all, neither did Kiku. I think they sensed that we would be careful. They’re comfortable there and although they wake me up in the nights, I don’t mind it.

Last night (December 28^th), Kiku woke me up a couple of times to be let out. She’s very smart. She climbed up on my bed and stuck her cold wet nose into my face the first time and the next time, she scratched at the door. Shamu, sitting leashed to his cosy rug in the living room, growled at her a bit (which is why I had leashed him) as I led her out the door. It was too cold to keep him out in his kennel outside my front door, as the area is more open to wind. He had developed a bad tummy due to the cold as my dog loving friends told me, vomiting for three days in a row.

Shamu would eat the leaves of the wild Lantana on his walks in the mornings and evenings and puke the leaves out almost immediately. I was told to give him half a rantac tablet and avoid giving him food till a little later and it worked. Another remedy for vomiting, I have gleaned from the Internet is Lemongrass tea. I have some in my garden and my other dog, Choco, sometimes eats fresh Lemongrass. The kittens I had some time ago also ate it and even more frequently. All my dogs regularly eat Lantana. I used to eat the black ripe berries as a child. Garden lizards love the stuff.

My adopted female stray Kiku is very smart as I said before. She knows how to open doors and gates and can be vengeful as many dogs are, but you can’t blame them. It’s the only way they know to express themselves. Kiku gets frantic if she hears her puppies whimper and to change the sheet on which they lie, or to adjust it, I need to move the pups. Sometimes I lock her outside the room so I can do that peacefully.

The last time I did that, she heard one of her pups whimper and kept scratching at my bedroom door to be let in. I only opened up after I had arranged the bed for the puppies. She took it out on me. The same day a couple of hours later, I entered my bedroom to see one of my night pyjamas chewed up as well as my mobile phone. The leather case was almost destroyed and the mobile screen was chewed so there was no display screen.

In fact there was something on the screen and I thought it was a piece of art, but it was the damage showing up. Luckily, it’s only the display that needs to be changed. I could not give her a tight whack as she’s still feeding the pups whose eyes are yet to open, but I did show her my disapproval and I hope she’s got the message and so have I. Next time I won’t lock her out.