CHAPTER y 



PUPPIES 



To have or not to have — puppies — ^that is the 

 question; and it besets many an owner and still 

 more the prospective owner. The question has its 

 pros and cons, as most questions have. When 

 your bitch comes in season, shall you breed her, 

 or shall you deny her nature's supreme func- 

 tion? If buying a pup from a kennel, shall you 

 get a pup just weaned, or shall you spend more 

 and get one in adolescence and more out of the 

 reach of distemper? If you don't breed the bitch 

 she will have to be guarded with extreme vigilance 

 and care ; if you do breed her she will have to be 

 guarded for several weeks after the mating to pre- 

 vent further alliance with mongrel dogs. And, 

 at the end of the period of gestation, in sixty-three 

 days or less, you will have the manifold cares of 

 being superintendent of a canine maternity hos- 

 pital and foster-father of some six or more wee, 

 furry packages of canine infancy. If you buy a 

 young pup, just weaned, from the kennels, his cost 



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