# This one may be controversial, let's talk about Ramona



## selzer (May 7, 2005)

We've all seen the meme on Facebook, if someone offered you a million dollars would you sell your pet. And the thousands of replies that say how much folks love their pets, and they would never. I usually answer such posts with something about catching the spiders up in my shower, Charlotte, Shelob, and Aragog, and letting them go for that, because I know they will go to a good home. 

But as breeders, we have more dogs than those who keep dogs generally as pets. We have our breeding bitches, we have returns if we choose not to rehome them. We may have a dog or two with a physical problem that we do not want to pass on to someone else. We have retired dogs and bitches. We have up and coming youngsters, because if you aren't breeding for the future... Well, it is the lines that we create that make us the breeders who we are. So, we can easily go, in the course of a few decades from a dog and a bitch, to 10, 20 or more dogs. 

There is no way to give 20+ dogs the life of a pet. At some point we have to make hard decisions. We have to choose to let a dog or bitch that we have whelped and raised and had hopes for go to someone else. It's not about money. It's about giving a critter a better life, a chance of having that pet-owned lifestyle, that they cannot have with us. It is also about having fewer dogs to take care of so that the ones we do keep have more space and more time with their person. 

Let's talk about Ramona. Ramona was out of Karma and Mufasa. I did not keep a pup out of the P-litter (Karma and Mufasa), but I decided to keep one out of the Q-litter (Bear Mufasa) and the R-litter. I had no idea that I would lose Mufasa so young. He bloated. He sired four litters for me. P, Q, R, and S. I did not keep a pup out of the S-litter. So I had just the one out of Bear, Quinnie, who died of oral cancer and nearly took me with her. And Ramona out of Karma. Karma was out of Jenna and Gispo. Jenna was special more of an agility dog where her sister Babs was more of an obedience dog. Jenna who was out of Arwen and Dubya's first litter, was the greatest brood bitch that ever lived, though I may be biased. She gave me five litters with 39 puppies and never lost one, laid on one, had one born dead. She loved her babies. I could keep her in with her bitch puppies for 3 years and did, that last litter. She got a little depressed when I rehomed Nikki and Nina, but I told her I would bring her a boy, and when I got Kojak, I let her come to the airport to get him with me, and I put him in with her, and she raised him like one of her own. Gispo wasn't my dog. He was an import and his sire was a double world sieger, Vegas, and his mother a siegerin, Xara vom Agilolfinger (sp?). I knew his owner and worked with her on breeding, so I had access to some great stud dogs. Mufasa was out of Odessa, the Vegas daughter I imported from Germany, and Herko who was also an import and went back to Pakros and Karma vom Oschentor. I believe Mufasa was 3-3 on Pakros, where Ramona was 3-3 on Vegas. I had really high hopes for Ramona. I brought Kojak in which would have added Zamp in there, and Quenn and some other really good WGSL dogs. Her conformation was awesome, temperament stellar, and I don't know if she has been sick a day of her life. 

But she has seemed to fill up with pups, and then just goes down. No puppies. She would have been just six when this last litter would have been born, if she was pregnant. I set her and Kojak up for rabies shots. She had gained weight, but I had no real hope about it, but had them x-ray her just in case before giving her the shots, and she had one in there. I brought her into the puppy pen and got the box ready and fed her good stuff. But it just didn't happen. 3 weeks later, I had her x-rayed again, and it was gone. 

Now let's go back about 5 years, the S-litter had a fiesty little bitch that was giving her mother and sister the business at 10 months old. But she had a heart condition. It was inoperable. She was not supposed to live beyond a year or maybe 2. My friend's dog trainer offered to take her and just give her more attention than I could and I had let her go. I gave him a male pup out of an excellent litter for taking Sherry on, even know she was not going to live long. But life happened, and my friend ended up rehoming Sherry with another couple, who loved her so much. They took excellent care of her. They took her back to the vet to see if they might be wrong on the diagnosis, but the vet rechecked and said they had no idea how she was still alive. She was a few months shy of six years when they had to say good bye. They had a younger male out of a related litter, but the loss of Sherry was hard. 

I made the decision to offer them Ramona. Ramona has lived in my back yard, and she is the only one I can house with Kojak, because he is related to my younger females, and my older ones are 9, 10 and 12. So keeping Ramona was not a problem in any way. In fact maybe it is a little easier to have him kenneled with her. But that is basically all she ever knew. She has had a week or two over my friend's house where she could run in the woods and down to the barn, and through the streams, etc. But mostly she just stayed with me. I may have taken her to a class once or twice. I know I did one time, an advanced obedience class because the one I had in the class went into heat. I had never taught her to sit and was running her through a rally course, and the second run through she was doing everything. What a great girl. But I spent most of my time with Quinn and got her titled, and then I lost my mind when I put Quinnie down, and with the Covid, there have been no classes and no shows. So Ramona hasn't been through classes, really hasn't been anywhere, just to my friends' house when she took Kojak and her for a week once or twice. 

I took her to my friend's house last Saturday and her friends came yesterday to pick her up, and they took her camping. She is doing awesome. They sent pictures of her at the campfire, her getting cheese with Luger, their boy. They were ecstatic when the offer was made. It was a good thing to do. It was good for the dog, good for the new people, and good for me in some ways. But I will miss her. I do have a puppy out of one of her older sister's that I do not own. Kaiah, which continues the Mufasa - Odessa line, if she can give me puppies. I am kind of surprised they would take Ramona immediately out camping, the day they got her. But that is just putting her right into their lives. It looks like it is going good. 

I have heard of folks keeping their breeding females until age six and then rehoming them. I like to keep the dams because I like to see how they mature. But it isn't a bad idea to let them go to new people at that age. They get a great dog out of the puppy stage that still has a number of good years left, God willing, and the breeder has more time to spend on the up and coming dogs, and do not have the elderly dogs. I cannot imagine not having Bear and Karma though, or giving them up.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Engaging with the new owner in a new place:









Resting on her own dog bed by a fire, she has never seen a fire:


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Meeting other folks in the campground:









And, if she didn't get along with Luger, my friend was going to keep her, guess that's not happening:


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## Zeppy (Aug 1, 2021)

She looks like she did well! So relaxed in that photo laying with the new owner and the kids.


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

You did a very selfless and generous thing.


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