"Psycho Mom"

You may be aware that our miniature dachshund Ruby gave birth to her third set of puppies at the beginning of December. She is a good mother and for the first few weeks is very dutiful about latrine duty, keeping each puppy’s #1 and #2 from getting on the towels in the litter box. (Do I have to paint a picture?) That’s no small chore with five puppies. After those first few weeks she tends to focus on feeding the puppies and ignores the other.

Well, we have a female from Ruby’s first litter named “Lucy.” When Ruby began to neglect the cleanliness chores, Lucy began to step up to the plate…with a vengeance. She cleaned them front and back during live action, if you get my drift.

Now that they are a little bigger and using the puppy pads for #1, this is how it goes. We get the puppies up to go #1 on the pads. They are usually very prompt. Lucy then chases them around the floor until she catches them in the act of #2. She licks it clean so that not a milligram hits the floor and if it does she cleans that, too. She won’t stop until they are all done and if she misses one, she fixes that too. It is quite a site seeing her franticly run from puppy to puppy until the job is done. Then she is ready to go out and take care of her own business.

Due to her devotion to duty we affectionately call her “Psycho Mom.” She is practically perfect except when she barks when someone comes to the door. Do we need a visit from the Dog Whisperer?