Now that I have your attention, I'm about to deliver your weird story of the day.
Yesterday--in which I wrote 6,000 words, walked on the treadmill for an hour, AND baked a banana custard cream pie from scratch--I also did a lot of research on dogs and pregnancy and canine births. Yes, there are puppies in the work in progress.
I learned about water puppies, and this was new to me. The technical name is anasarca, or "walrus" puppies, and it's most common among those breeds with pushed-in noses (pugs, bulldogs, etc.)
Apparently (and this is rare, but it happens), one or two puppies can become filled with water so that they bloat in the womb and can barely fit through the birth canal. Once the umbilical cord is clipped, these puppies must be "drained" of all that water or they will literally drown. Though some of them die at birth, other water puppies have been saved by careful and attentive midwives.
The photo is real, and it's not a human child--it's a water puppy in an otherwise normal litter. (Notice that it has a tail!) It was born in South Africa, and the paper really did proclaim that a dog had given birth to a human child. (Shaking head here).
If you don't find this fascinating, well, now you've learned something new today. If you want to know more, check out this website, written by an experienced canine midwife.
~~Angie
5 comments:
I am so glad you attached the story to photo. Once you have a good look at it you can tell it is a puppy, but the water bloating does give it an eeriely human look doesn't it? What a good way to catch one's attention with a headline and photo like that, I almost poo-poohed it but then decided to see what it was all about, glad I did.
Elaine
That is too bizarre. Thank you for the tidbit of trivia.
Have a blessed day.
I live in South Africa and have never seen this before. The media do have a way of turning everything into something don't they? Now the excuse will be used for evolution again. Oh well....
What an interesting tid-bit of info on "water babies". You are very fun to read, both your blog and your books. Keep up the good work!
I was looking up anasarca for work and HAD to look at the photos....Thanks for the explanation to go along with that "human baby" headline.
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