Our grocery receipts when we were feeding five college students and our current dog food bills match.
We do an average of ten loads of dog and puppy bedding laundry every single day.
Our water bill has doubled and our electricity has tripled.
It is we, a Breeder, who when our refrigerator quit we saved the dog vaccinations and let the food go bad.
Our feet find the way to the nursery and kennel long before we have even grabbed a cup of coffee or hot chocolate in the morning, and that same nursery and kennel is the last stop we make before going to bed every night.
While our friends are on a cruise to the Bahamas or vacationing in Florida and our family meets for Christmas, we are at home delivering a new litter of puppies or caring for the one that just needs some extra loving care!
We have not taken a vacation since we decided we wanted to raise some great puppies and we do not regret what we stepped into which requires our full attention, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. WE LOVE WHAT WE DO! And are not ashamed that we are dog breeders!
Every plan that we make in our lives revolves around our four legged friends.
Our clothes are most often stained with puppy poop and urine, afterbirth, muddy footprints from playing with our dogs and bleach from washing kennels and doing laundry. But you know what? We would not change this way of living for anything!
We have slept on the floor of the whelping room or cuddled a whelping box in our bed beside a momma while she is giving birth or beside the new litter until the crucial period has passed.
We have bottle fed, learned to tube feed and make the temperature just right on formula doing it every three hours which includes even setting alarm clocks to get up through the night for weeks just to help a baby make it through.
We have learned to be proficient at what we do from micro-chipping, vaccinations, de-worming, sub-q fluids, bottle feeding, tube feeding, docking tails and removing dew claws.
Our vets and their staff know us by first name and make referrals to us. They’ve stood by us through the thick and thin. We can tease them that that new x-ray machine was purchased by us.
I am a Breeder!!
It is to us that 63 days takes on a new meaning still excited by each and every new life that our canine mamas deliver.
It is we who deliver all of our puppies, towels in hand, heating pads plugged in and ready for the miracle of each birth.
Frequently happiness and sadness are sometimes intermingled.
Even though it increases our work load, we look forward to the three week mark when puppies open their eyes and ears and we can welcome them to a whole new world for them and they begin to emerge from the helplessness of newborns.
We are not uneducated, unemployed, illiterate or lazy as some animal rights folks would imply of breeders. We are conscientious lovers of animals and have found our niche in this world. We are dog breeders!
We tell our children to be proud that we breed dogs that many families are blessed with on a daily basis that all started out with our two hands.
I am a breeder and we are not dumb, cruel, uncaring or criminal.
We are not raking in the money while sitting on our rear ends. Every penny that we raise is earned through our blood, sweat and tears.
Our greatest joy in this business is a healthy puppy being placed into a forever home that will love and cherish it and to receive pictures and stories in the months and years that pass about those babies.
The stories and cards of thanks and pictures that we receive are fringe benefits of our efforts.
We are animal lovers, nurses to the sick, heavy laborers, customer service representatives, and marketers to some of the best puppies in the south.
We truly believe this statement! We are a breeder!
