Advanced Biology

is it really my business?

I had a friend who was her most happy, glowy, beautiful self when she was pregnant. For 9 months and during nearly all of her postpartum she was a gleeful orb of golden light. She loved being pregnant, loved being a mom, loved all of it. She had 4 boys and was a good mom for sure. It was in her very fiber.

I imagine this feral dog Andie also had a drive so strong that she drove everyone off the rails for two weeks with her natural desire to get more puppies. Even with her uterus removed those ovaries kicked in and made the whole macho dog population fight to plant a seed. She was happy to trot right down the middle of Main Street with a pack of loud, limping, bloodied males behind her. Some female dogs fight off the males (that's how I found River and I grabbed her from a huge gang mount and ran with her) and some are clearly in pain during the "tie" when the male is literally stuck inside her for about 20 minutes. Andie seems to enjoy all of it. Look for more. No sleep, no food. 

She was an amazing mother and loved all her babies so touchingly. Still even with Rocky, which is her last remaining pup. Sometimes she'll recognize one trotting by with another group...and whine and chase after them. Remember me? I'm your mama! She's all alone without a human family and I let her come and go as she pleases, she's been on the street a lot longer than I've been around. But maybe she was trying to create her own tribe. 

She full moon shagged herself raw and has a big ruby red cherry backside to prove it. She's now gone into super stealth hideout mode. But even yesterday some daft latecomers were showing up. Short chihuahuas and old Shepherds with bad hips who couldn't mount if they had a ladder. But still. A spark. 

Last July, shortly after her last days of nursing, there I was. Chasing and catching her with the Vet to give her 5 different shots of tranquilizer to lay her down so we could operate. So much adrenaline she had to fight off sleeping meds, to get away from us, and from me! For months I had gained this dog's trust. Food, patience, accepting and feeding her pups that she brought over one by one. And now, I'm removing her uterus because it's not going to work for the rest of the community to have more puppies walking around alone. And I'm on a mission, and this is what we're doing. I'm a RESCUE, okay? 

I sit with that sometimes. Who do I think I am? Or anyone really--- to override nature? Yes, I know, they'll starve and die without care and families but to be fair Andie makes adorable puppies and they are snapped up immediately especially in a town that thinks dogs are teddy bears. But Andie really really likes her womanhood. The sex part, the Jezebel part, the egg part, the pregnancy part, the puppy part. 

And I shut that down for her, because you know it's the right thing to do. 

I'm a person and so I live like a person but I spend more time with these dogs than I ever have with other persons. I see how they build their community and help each other raise younger ones and respect the really old ones. I allow them to be DOGS and do natural dog behavior and I live with them. I set up digging areas, give them things to shred and destroy and hunt and climb. We go to the shore and I let them run like ponies, fish, swim, chase birds, roll in fish guts. 

I know that nature knows best and nature is not in my control, except when I trap a dog to medically have her reproductive parts removed even though it may be her destiny. Some females seem happy to not have the burden. River was a female like that. I was a female like that. 

I feel like I go militant on the Spay patrol here because so few do anything and dogs with inbred traits, aggression, disease etc breed prolifically. But it's really not a one size fits all scenario. It's why I've slowed on the castration...for one, I've not seen it reduce AT ALL, fighting, cruising, pee marking or tail chasing. And two, I only have one sorta not superstar (but very kind) Vet who is operating with limited time and resources on a metal table in my backyard once a month. And money. So I focus on the females. I did 12 males last year. Maybe 24 females. Currently I have Rocky and Frasier still intact. All females are spayed. But the boys? I'm not worrying about it. 

Coyote packs, where they are hunted, actually double down to mate and produce more if they lose part of the pack. Which is why it's not recommended to shoot them despite the eyerolls I got from my rural Georgia neighbors when I shared that story. But if nature wasn't going to balance that out don't you think there'd be Coyote hanging from the rafters or walking through the center of Trader Joe's if there wasn't a balance? Clear cutting their habitat and places to hunt and getting rid of their den to put in a condo or a shopping center makes them show up at your suburban dinner party, not over population. 

It's quiet on the roads now, the Spring Breakers have gone, businesses are restocked, the trash collection has picked up all the beer bottles and food litter, the dogs have gone home to rest and the temperatures are in the mid 70s and birds are chirping. One of the ladies who owns a grocery store here was patting her belly saying that now she's 4 months pregnant this will be her 3rd. I smile awkwardly and think, ugh. Why? I feel like the least happy glowy part of a natural Spring of rebirth, is ME. 

I don't begrudge birds or fish this need to populate. Though I did cringe when my chickens used to mate and ducks in particular will drown a female to hold on for their poorly designed copulation. But in the end, it's really none of my business. 

I'm really leaning BACK to say, how can I help. Like really help not just change stuff for the sake of "making it better" in my eyes. I had a relative who used to say of my love of dogs, "Well just remember who's at the top of the food chain..." and I'm not so sure anymore. 

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