The children's
literature book, Diamond Willow, is set in a fictional town on a river in
interior Alaska. There are no paved
roads in and out of town; people travel by airplane, boat, snowmachine, and
DOGSLED.
Willow, the main
character, is part Athabascan. Through
her mother, she is descended from people who have lived in Alaska for many
centuries.
Most of the story is
told in diamond-shaped poems, with a hidden message printed in darker ink at
the center of each one. I got this idea from diamond willow.
Diamond willow grows
in northern climates. It has rough gray
bark, often crusted with gray-green lichen.
Removing the bark and sanding and polishing the stick reveals reddish brown
diamonds, each with a small dark center.
Some people think that
diamond willow is a specific type of willow but it is not. The diamonds form on several different kinds
of shrub willows when a branch is injured and falls away. The dark center of each diamond is the scar
of the missing branch.
The scars, and the diamonds that form around them, give diamond willow its beauty, and gave me the idea for my story.
The scars, and the diamonds that form around them, give diamond willow its beauty, and gave me the idea for my story.
-Excerpted from author's note (Helen Frost)
Roxy went into labor right around the time we expected she would (the early evening of Saturday April 30th). It was a long, exhausting night as Roxy labored. As we watched, we continually called on the experience and support of several fantastic breeding mentors who were on skype with us off and on all through the night. By the time Sunday morning arrived, Roxy still hadn't entered the second stage of labor yet - it can take a long time, but we were on pins and needles about it a bit as it was a Sunday, and an emergency likely meant going to the emergency clinic rather than to our reproductive vet. Late morning, we saw some signs of trouble, and our vet wanted us to bring Roxy in...unfortunately, the anesthesiologist (in case we should end up needing a c-section) was a few hours away that day (given that it was a weekend), so we were directed to go to the emergency vet instead. An ultrasound showed that the pups were in distress, so we moved forward with a c-section. Our experience at the emergency vet was mostly horrible, but the surgeon himself was great with us and with Roxy. At our request, he allowed us to help resuscitate the pups with his vet tech while he was operating on Roxy in the next room (a good thing, as more hands seemed to be better for working on 5 pups). Even pups born naturally need some help (hopefully from mama dog licking them) to get them going, but c-section puppies take a lot more work. They have not gone through the birth canal. They are more full of mucous because they haven't been squeezed. They haven't been stimulated. And they feel the effects of the general anesthesia on mama. Sadly, though we worked on the pups for a long time, we were only ever able to get 3 of them to breathe.
The pup who had separated from its placenta had done so 16-18 hours earlier according to the surgeon's estimate, and she was not a viable puppy. The two we lost were both girls.
We are thinking of them as the scars from this hard experience that left us with the diamonds that form around those scars - the 3 beautiful puppies we came home with. And for at least a short time, the sisters at home carry a reminder of their sisters with heart blazes on their chests.Pulling character names from the book to christen the pups, we couldn't be happier to introduce you to the reddish brown diamonds of Bashaba Chinooks' Diamond Willow Litter!
Samson
Because we didn't know the Athabascan word for Head as Big as Mt. Denali, we chose Samson, the name of Willow's sled dog considered to be the fastest of the pack. Our Samson proved his strength immediately as the first to be revived after the surgery to deliver the pups. The vet techs were amazed how human-like his cries were. As we worked to revive the others, Samson demonstrated his trademark speed as he hauled himself all over the warming box and nearly up and over the side. In the first few days at home, he has already explored every corner of the whelping box. Unfortunately for his sisters, this sometimes tires him right as he is climbing over them, and he sacks out hard for a good nap right there. He generally seems pretty chill and relaxed (first nail trim corroborates this),so that we are thinking this hunk may turn out to remind us of his gentle giant sire. Birth weight: 14.0 ounces
Zanna
In the story, Zanna is Diamond Willow's younger sister who yearns to be her friend as well as her sister. Our Zanna is a good friend to both of her siblings, allowing them to crawl all over her. She particularly seems to enjoy climbing and can often be found perched in various places (a favorite for her is to try to scale the sides of the plastic storage container which the pups call home if they aren't in with mom...she gets herself up and sleeps on an incline in order to get her head up over the edge or sometimes gets herself halfway out...where there is always a human hand ready to support her chin and allow her to sleep half in and half out of the box). Perhaps she will someday like to perch atop the backs of couches and on porch tables like our Juneau does? Birth weight: 14.0 ounces
Chickadee
In the book, Chickadee carries the voice of the great grandmother of Diamond Willow's best friend and watches over the family in the woods. Our little chickadee is small (for now) but mighty and quite feisty. Born considerably smaller than her siblings, she doesn't let them push her around. She's a total darling and loves to snuggle up to her mama any chance she gets. She loves to tunnel and has found all the warmest spots in and around Roxy, with her favorite spot being between Roxy's hind legs with her beautiful head sticking out from under Roxy's tail. She has stunning markings with white mittens on her forepaws. Go into the whelping box at your own peril because you will very likely end up paralyzed by an overwhelmingly cute furry dumpling curled up on your legs.
Birth weight: 8.7 ounces
