Virtual Breeding 2

To: Sue Samuels From: Gretel Cosby Subject: fading puppy Date: 27 December	Hello Sue, it was so wonderful for you to come over on Christmas day with that lovely surprise! I wasn't expecting you, or anybody else - just using it as time to recover from all I've been through, especially the loss of Pinky. It left me with such a special feeling when you left, and I'm so lucky to have you as a friend and a mentor. It really did help lift my spirits. All that being said, I have some more bad news. You know the little boof head boy (the one with the blue ribbon), well he died this morning. I've just come back from the vet. She said it was fading puppy syndrome. She said there was nothing I could have done to save him. He was absolutely fine last night when I went to bed, but when I woke up this morning he was limp. Within an hour he was very sick, and he actually died at the vet's. Let's hope the new year improves for me and the clan here. Gretel
To: Gretel Cosby From: Sue Samuels Subject: Happy New Year Date: 3 January	Hello Gretel, best wishes for the new year! I hope all has been better for you over the next few days. You should be starting to talk to the puppy people about now. I'll email you over their names and phone numbers. Amy, Camilla's aunty, has been limping these last couple of weeks. I thought she'd just injured herself when playing with the other's but the limping has not improved. It's gotten worse. So I've had her down at the vet's today. He took some x-rays and is going to give me a call this afternoon. Will let you know if it's anything interesting! She'll just probably have something ridiculously simple wrong with her. She is such a drama queen! LOL Chins up! Sue
To: Gretel Cosby From: Sue Samuels Subject: Amy Date: 6 January	Oh Gretel, I didn't want to have to email you this, but given the importance of the issue, I thought I'd better tell you asap. Remember how I said that Amy was limping, and that I joked that she was just a drama queen? Well it turns out that she has bone cancer in her left upper leg. I've had her back in for tests at the specialist. There is very little that can be done for her. The vet said we have three options. The first is that we amputate her leg, and treat the cancer aggressively with chemo. This won't save her life, but it may give her a few more weeks - perhaps up to three months. The second option is that we put her to sleep now. The third option is that we make her as comfortable as possible over the next few days. We're going to take the third option. This will give us a few weeks with her, and when the situation gets too bad, we will make the decision together to let her go. Amy is such a lovely girl. Here's a picture of her taken last month in the pre-Christmas celebrations. That's her on the left with her brother Albert. As you know, I was just about to place her in her new home where she would be the sole dog and the absolute most spoilt dog in the world. I've spoken to the people that were going to take her - they had fallen in love with her too - and we have all shared some tears over this. They want to know if they can talk to you about perhaps getting a puppy from you. I would highly recommend them as puppy people. Right now, I think you need to make a decision about whether or not you are going to call and tell the people on your puppy waiting list about the bone cancer that Amy has. Personally I feel I need to let my puppy people know about it, just so they can be aware that it is an issue in our lines (heck, it's a issue with all rotties). Sue

Decision Point

So, there's another decision that needs to be made. Should Gretel tell her prospective puppy people about this problem with a relative of Cammy's, or should Gretel just keep it to herself - after all - cancer is the biggest killer of rotties anyway.

If you think that Gretel should tell all the puppy buyers, click here to start the process of making the calls.

or,

Click here to just let sleeping dogs lie. After all, every dog is going to die of something at some time.