Why Spaying Your Dog is a Good Idea

By, Angela Kaye Mason

“Bully and Jorja”

Several years ago, I had a room-mate who owned an American Standard Pitbull, which was given to him as a Father's Day gift. The 6 week old puppy was a gorgeous male who loved attention and was eager to please. I fell in love with him rather quickly. The only issue with him...besides the fact that my room-mate named him “Bully,” which I hated because he wasn't one...was that he was lonely; that, and the fact that I was becoming too attached to him knowing that he was not my dog. This was brought on in part because of the fact that my room-mate had surgery soon after the puppy was brought to him, and I became responsible for Bully's training.

When Bully was just over a year old, I decided to solve two issues at once, his loneliness for someone to play with when we weren't home, and my attachment to him. I decided to get a female companion. She needed to be already trained and spayed, of course...a puppy just wouldn't do. So I looked at ads and animal shelters for a while, and finally decided on Jorja, a female Cane Corsa mastiff who was sweet, eager to please, and spayed. The only problem was...that last part turned out to be a lie. You see, although she had a small scar on her belly, it was not from being spayed, and within a year, Jorja and Bully had 11 babies.

 

  11 Puppy Nightmare!

As I am sure you can imagine, finding homes for all of these beautiful babies was quite a difficult task. Jorja was not at all impressed with her new duties and refused to feed the puppies at all after 4 weeks. One of the males, which I named “Baloo,” she refused to care for at all from the moment of his birth. Jorja had Baloo first, and then went to the other side of the room to have 10 more puppies. Baloo was not even breathing when she had him and I had to breathe into his mouth to save his life. I became Baloo's Mama, and he and Jorja wanted nothing to do with each other. I had to care for Baloo from birth, feed 10 other puppies while working and taking care of a sick room-mate, and still care for Bully and Jorja. It was not fun at all, and the costs of caring for all of these puppies was tremendous! I still fail to see why anyone would choose dog-breeding as an occupation.

Jorja is NOT Impressed With These Babies!

 Jorja soon fell in love with a girl in college who took her in and got her spayed (for real this time!) They were such a perfect match that I let Jorja stay with her. I moved away from the place I shared with the room-mate, and took Baloo with me. Baloo has since become my best friend and I would not take a million dollars for him, but I never wish to repeat that mistake again. I did, however, learn a valuable lesson during the whole process; not all rescues which are said to have been spayed or neutered really have been. Many people know that it is harder to find a home for a dog that has not been spayed or neutered, and so they lie. If you rescue a dog from anyone besides an animal shelter, you need to specifically ask the vet to check and see if they have been spayed or neutered and if not, get it done. Otherwise, you just might find yourself in the 11 puppy nightmare! 

My Boy “Baloo Bear”