Two "dates" and $250 later, I was pretty sure that Dutchess was expecting. I thought I could only feel one little lump in there, and at the end of July we even had an x-ray done at our vet's to see. Sure enough! Just one puppy, so we had to watch closely for when she went into labor because sometimes when there's just one, they grow a little too big to fit through the birth canal.
On the evening of August 8th, 1995 Dutchess went into labor. I got all my birthing supplies ready and tried to keep her calm. The puppy finally started to emerge, then stopped half-way out! The puppy was being born bum first, which you would call "breech" in humans, but it is just as common as head first for dogs. I gave it some time, but Dutchess was straining and straining and there was no progress. I finally tried grabbing onto the little bum end, but it was too slippery. I used the washcloth I had ready to break open the amniotic sac and then grabbed again. I started pulling out and slightly up, but I was just pulling Dutchess up and across the blanket! I had to hold her down with my left hand while I pulled on the puppy with my right. I had to pull so hard that I was afraid of damaging Dutchie and was just about to give up and call the vet when, POP, Crumpet was born!
Tony was driving truck over the road at the time, so the next morning I called his dispatcher to pass on the message that he was a new dad!
We originally bred Dutchess to sell the puppies, but since she just had one and it was a female, we just had to keep her. Our first Yorkie was actually named Crumpet, but she had tons of problems that she was born with, including a congenital heart problem, and only lived a few months. I loved the name so much that I decided that I would pay homage to our first Yorkie and reuse the name. We now lovingly refer to the other Crumpet as "Crumpet Number One."
I love cutesy, country of origin, food names for pets. My first dog when I was young was a Miniature Schnauzer (a German breed) named Strudel. Yorkies are British and Dutchess' AKC papered name was "Crumpet Dutchess of York" and Crumpet's was "Crumpet's Yorkshire Puddin'."
After Crumpet was born, I slept downstairs on the family room floor for a few nights next to the whelping box. When Tony came home for the weekend, I moved the box upstairs to the side of our bed. Dutchess would nurse baby Crump, but then jump up in our bed to sleep next to us. Crumpet would whine and wail! Finally we couldn't take it anymore and lifted Crumpet into our bed. I would have nightmares of rolling onto her and squishing her to death from that night on, and then for the rest of her life. Right at first, she was about the size of a hamster!
Here are the scrapbook pages from when Crumpet was a tiny baby (remember that I only scrapbooked before I had children!): ~you can click on the picture for a larger view~
and some extra pictures that I found:
Kiss from her big bro
and kisses from mom.
Here is Crumpet's first Christmas:
Crumpet is the only one that I ever got a baby tooth from. I noticed her chewing on something one day (and she was usually chewing things she shouldn't) and I saved that tooth to this day! My animals truly are my babies :)
Through the animal shelter, I met Sparky, a cute little boy Yorkie whose owners had too many dogs. They sold him to me for just $20 and I was able to even track down his AKC paperwork. We gave him to my sister Sarah and her family, and we bred him to both Crumpet and then Dutchess. Crumpet gave birth in 1996 while we were living at my mom & dad's and building our house in Clinton.
Crumpet actually had three little boys, but one had severe cleft lip and palette and had to be put to sleep. We sold her little guys when they got big enough. They were so cute! Here is a picture of Sparky:
Dutchess had her second litter, also at mom & dad's. She had three boys and a girl who we teasingly named things like "refrigerator" and "new couch." Dutchie needed a c-section for that birth (all four puppies tried to come out at once and caused a jam) and we got her spayed at the same time. We were done with the stress of breeding!
We certainly caused a ruckus at my parents' house. We brought our three dogs to live there with us, then had six puppies total. Sorry mom & dad! One funny story about Crumpet when we lived there--one evening we were eating chicken divan. My mom had a floret of broccoli on her fork and, just as she was bringing it to her mouth, Crumpet jumped up, grabbed that broccoli and was down the other side before my mom even knew what was happening! I'm sure Crump-a-dump thought she was getting a forkful of chicken, ha ha on her :) She was always the springiest little thing, she could jump higher than most dogs four times her size!
Crumpet loved to play a keep away game with Smokey and this rubber chicken. This is from 1997:
Here are some scrapbook pages from 1997 in our Clinton house:
She's kind of smiling in this one. Crumpet would always smile on cue! We would say in a sing-songy voice "wet me see your mie-oh" (let me see your smile) and she would bare her teeth. She lost this talent when she lost her hearing, but before that we would love to see her smile!
I went through my picture boxes to find these from 1999:
and 2000:
This was a bit of a sad Christmas. I finally had gotten pregnant after 2 & 1/2 years of trying in June of 2000. Because we called our pets collectively "the Bunnies," we called that baby "Baby Bunny." It devastated me when, after seeing the tiny heartbeat just three weeks before, there was no heartbeat at my 12 week appointment. I waited to miscarry naturally, since it would give me better chances to become pregnant again, but after several weeks I finally had to have a d&c in late September. I relied heavily on my other bunnies to get me through! I think both Crumpet and Dutchess look extra gorgeous in this picture:
Shortly before that picture was taken, I was walking Smokey west of our house, in a terrible depression, when something stopped me dead in my tracks. I just stood, frozen, for about three minutes and had an overwhelming feeling that after several months of being on birth control to regulate my cycles, I would give fertility medication another go and get pregnant on the first try. I've never had inspiration like that before or since, but it was not subtle--it was a huge event in my life. Sure enough, it happened exactly like that, and I had baby Faith on November 1st, 2001! Nearly all the pictures from that time and for the next year were exclusively of her, but here's one of Crumpet amid Sunday newspaper ads on our bed from November 11, 2001:
Faith loved her pets from the start!
Easter 2002:
Crumpet got full of burrs in 2003 and had to have a haircut. Dutchess loved keeping her hair short, but Crumpet was awfully embarrassed.
A cute kiss in 2004:
And a stretch in 2005:
Crumpet always worried about Faith as a baby, but it was even more stressful for her when Christian was born because the other dogs had passed away and she felt the full responsibility for him. She loved the babies!
From 2007 on, there are lots of pictures of Crumpet on the blog, and now in our blog books (post about these coming soon).
Crumpet was always a spoiled rotten little girl. I've heard that only puppies (one puppy in a litter) tend to be bratty and also pups who never get kicked out of the "nest." Well, she had both of those issues. We used to always joke that she would live forever just to spite us, but we adored our little baby, no matter what. In a way, problem children tug most at your heart ❤ We were so lucky to have Crumpet so long and so healthy for nearly her entire life. She was full of spunk and personality!
Even now, our home feels so empty and our hearts hurt. We miss you so much Crumpet! All our love, your forever family.
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