Our New Year story
Right after we attended our last party for the holidays and were starting to unwind from the busyness of the season, my very pregnant pet Maltese’s water bag broke. Because it was our first time to have an expectant dog, we didn’t exactly know what to do.
The children panicked while my husband and I took turns calling people to ask for advice and assistance. Most of the vets in our area were gone partying and couldn’t accept our precious Katri as their emergency patient. One doctor even told me she was done for her day’s work of doing emergencies so she advised me to wait till the next day. She was so sure my dog would not need to deliver her babies that night. She insisted even when I told her that Katri’s bag had broken. What was sad was I sensed she was just not willing to take in another patient so she assured me that there wouldn’t be any puppies that would need to be born that night.
Another doctor I called reminded me he needed to rest. Sigh.
Our adventure reminded me of the Christmas story. It’s sort of like Mary and Joseph being rejected by the innkeepers when Mary was about to give birth! It is so apt to the theme of the season.
While my family drove around the city hoping to chance upon a vet clinic that was open, I stayed home and kept searching for different options on the Internet.
It’s a good thing we found a 24-hour vet clinic in Mandaluyong who took our poor Katri in. The doctors were honest enough to admit that they had been celebrating (as it was New Year’s Day), which made them tipsy and although they didn’t see themselves fit to perform a Caesarian surgery, they were kind enough to go out of their way to find another doctor even if it was already 12 midnight.
Mommy Katri delivered her three female puppies successfully but one passed away. The doctor said that all the pups were alive when they were born, but the one that didn’t make it was probably too stressed from having had her baby sac broken for too long that she ran out of enough oxygen to survive. That baby pup could’ve been my daughter Hannah’s pet so we grieved over the puppy not making it and made sure we gave her a proper burial.
It’s been very hectic for our beloved Katri. I’ve seen her want to play with me and my children, and be drawn in wanting to attend to her babies. Upon her delivery, she was very clingy to us and seemed not to mind her puppies. As the days passed, I saw how her role as a new mother allowed her by instinct to naturally care for her puppies. They would not let her (breasts) go. All day and night long, they’d suck at her breasts for milk. I saw Katri turn from a gorgeous Maltese to one that’s harassed and unglamorous without her fussing about it one tiny bit. The other day, after being gone for six hours, I noticed that Katri had not even touched her food. She was in the same position that I left her. Her pups were anxiously sucking while Katri’s limbs were wrapped around them. To check whether she was hungry (as I would be after nursing my babies), I put her water bottle on her mouth. She must have drank about half a gallon of water so fast that she choked in between gulps! Oh, the stuff we put up with for our babies!
I am constantly amazed each time I observe how wonderfully Katri nurtures her new puppies. It’s sometimes hard to believe that everything she knows comes solely from her instinct as a mother. Her ability to clean, feed, care for her puppies is a perfect illustration to me of how we are all astonishingly made by our creator. The way we have been naturally wired allows us to do things that give life!
I have seen how my own children are awed and thankful to see a vivid example of what it takes for a mother to nourish her babies well. Somehow, when they see how Katri cares for her puppies, they are reminded of what I, their mother also had to go through to see to it that they were cared for. If only I was half as good a mother as Katri!
The beauty of it all is that we are all works in progress, who can learn from one another. Isn’t that a great way to start a very happy new year?
