Chapter 8: Abandoned

  The next day, before the reveille was blown, Squad Leader Sun from the breeding squad came to call me, saying that a female dog was about to give birth. He asked me to go and help. I was still drowsy, but as soon as I heard this news, I immediately became spirited, put on my clothes and arrived at the kennel.

  The mother dog is a two-year-old German Shepherd "Kana" who was just brought over from Germany last year and is producing for the first time. Sun, the squad leader, is a volunteer soldier and an experienced dog breeder. He takes out a thermometer to measure Kana's temperature, "36 degrees already, it should be soon, smaller than that, you go get a bottle of disinfectant water."

  I ran all the way to the infirmary, knocking on the door of the military doctor's room, grabbed some disinfectant and rushed back. By this time, "Kana" had already given birth to two puppies, and Captain Sun was holding a small pair of scissors to cut the umbilical cord of one of the puppies.

  Newborn puppies are wrapped in a fetal membrane, first clean the fetal membrane, then clean the mouth and nasal cavity, so that the puppy can breathe normally, then deal with the umbilical cord, cut off and tie with cotton rope, apply some disinfectant at the cut position, basically done.

  I helped Sun the class monitor deal with two newborn puppies, "Kana" watched me vigilantly until she felt I had no intention of harming her cubs, then retracted her wary gaze and panted heavily.

  "Kana" gave birth to four cubs, roughly the same size, with black and yellow fur, their eyes closed, snuggling in "Kana"'s womb.

  After waiting for more than an hour, no puppies were born, and we judged that the production was over. I ran back to the office to fetch a balance and a ruler, measured and recorded the weight and length of the puppies, and made a record.

  Just as I was about to wash my hands and have breakfast, "Kana" stood up again, made a defecation movement, retreated with her back arched, and obviously exerted force.

  Two people stood outside the kennel, observing through the glass. "Kana" was having a very difficult time this time around, her whole body shaking non-stop and occasionally letting out low growls. After waiting for over half an hour, she still couldn't give birth smoothly. Sergeant Sun rushed over to help massage her abdomen. "Kana" licked Sergeant Sun's hand, her eyes filled with gratitude and trust. This was the first time I had ever seen human emotions in a dog's eyes. Later on, it still didn't work out. Sergeant Sun put on a rubber glove on his left hand, stroking "Kana"'s neck with his right hand, while his left hand reached into "Kana"'s birth canal. At this point, I noticed that "Kana" bared her teeth, but fortunately, she didn't have any extreme reactions.

  "Here it comes," said Sun, slowly pulling out his hand and pinching out a puppy with three fingers. He skillfully tore open the membrane, but found that the puppy had no reaction at all. Sun put on his stethoscope and listened for a while, "It's dead, which is good, saves us from getting injections."

  "What needle? What kind of needle?" I asked in confusion.

  "Take a closer look at this dog," said Sun Ban Zhang as he handed over the puppy.

  I took it over and found that the dog's neck above was actually white, which is a serious variation phenomenon. Such dogs cannot be trained normally and must be euthanized according to management regulations.

  I am very disgusted with this euthanasia. If the person in question is tortured by illness and does not want to live, that one needle is called euthanasia. But if someone originally wanted to live, and you still gave them a shot, what's the difference between that and murder?

  Sun took the camera and took a photo of the dead puppy. Then, he held the dead puppy in front of the surveillance camera on the wall of the delivery room and shook it back and forth. He handed me the puppy and said, "Xiao Yu, take it out and bury it, bury it far away."

  "Oh" I took over the dead dog and carried it out of the camp with a shovel.

  I carried the dead dog upside down for two miles, found a clean place and dug a small pit. I couldn't bear to put it directly into the hole, so I found some leaves to pad it first. Then I reached out to grab the dead dog. As soon as I did, I was startled - the little thing was twitching!

  I came to my senses, picked it up and found that it had been vomiting all along. I grabbed it, pried open its mouth and found a lump of sticky stuff in the throat area. With great difficulty, I used my left index finger and middle finger to dig out the filthy thing from its throat.

  As I watched the little thing's face, which had turned purple from being stifled, slowly return to normal, I finally felt at ease. However, a worrying problem soon arose - Captain Sun took photos and showed it in front of the camera to prove that it was already dead. Moreover, this little guy didn't look very good either, with a white head. If I were to take it back, I estimate it would have to be "put down" immediately.

  Although it's summer, there is still a big temperature difference between morning and evening. I saw the little thing frozen and trembling, so I reached out to grab it and put it in my arms.

  I want to take it back, once it's gone, it's dead. If I don't return it and people find out that I stole a military dog, I'll be expelled from the army. Besides, if I don't return it, how can I deal with it? It's worrying me to death.

  The little thing was just born, but its paws were already there, and it was rubbing against me in my arms, making me get goosebumps all over.

  "Oh no, I'm not your mom." The little thing in my arms seemed to have found something similar to its target and didn't hesitate to take a bite.

  It's settled then, I steeled myself and made up my mind, hugging it tightly as I ran towards the camp.

  I ran towards the camp, but I didn't return to my unit. Instead, I went around to the east side of the unit's electrified isolation wall. After looking left and right to make sure no one was around, I broke off a Y-shaped branch from a small tree and used it to lift up the electrified netting on top of the wall. Then I climbed over the wall and escaped.

  I was bare-shouldered, carrying a puppy in my clothes, and quickly ran to the nearest village. As soon as I entered the village, I asked around everywhere, whose dog had just given birth. With effort, I soon found a family, an old couple, whose dog had just given birth to a litter of puppies. I knocked on their door without hesitation, saying that I was there to work, and that my dog at home had given birth, but the big dog died, and the puppy didn't have milk to drink and was about to starve to death.

  Although I felt guilty for deceiving the old man, he was still moved to tears by my words. He readily agreed, "Alright, but I don't know if it will allow it or not."

  "It's okay, I have a way," but to be honest, I wasn't confident either. The so-called "way" was just something I heard from the head of those reproduction classes.

  The old man took me to the side of his doghouse, and I was stunned when I saw that it was just a pug. Well, as long as there's milk, it's a mother. But to be honest, this wet nurse is really too small. I had already wasted a lot of time, so I quickly got down to business. I quickly took out the puppy wrapped in clothes and grabbed a handful of feces from the pug and its cub, without distinguishing whether it was shit or urine, and smeared it on the little guy's body. The little guy struggled quite a bit.

  Grass, save your life, resist fart. If you don't have the smell of someone's body, who can let you drink milk. After finishing these, I asked the old lady to call away the big dog and put the puppy and a few yellow-white Haba dogs together. Those little things had already opened their eyes and looked at this guy who sneaked in to eat and drink without any hostility.

  The big dog came back and sniffed everywhere. Oh my god, the critical moment has finally arrived, if this doesn't work, where else can I find a wet nurse for you? "God bless, Buddha bless......" This time my prayer worked, the puppy crawled and arched its back and finally found it, took one bite and bit down, the mother dog sniffed it and closed her eyes to pretend to sleep. The big stone in my heart has finally landed.

  As I was leaving, I glanced at that little thing's private parts and couldn't help but think of Jin Gang Pao's words "It's a female!"

  Quickly thanked the old man and old lady, flew back to the outside wall of the troops, turned over the wall as before, took the iron shovel and ran back to the troops. "Squad leader Sun, I'm back." I rushed to sell fake goods to the impatient Squad Leader Sun.

  "How come it's taking so long?" Sun Ban Zhang's face didn't look good, by now they had already passed the time for breakfast.

  "Didn't you tell me to bury it far away? I ran out five or six miles." I started lying.

  "I told you to bury it further away, no need to run so far. Go eat quickly, the cook has left some for us." Sun class leader saw me execute the order so decisively, suddenly turned from anger to joy.

  The two of them came to the kitchen, washed their hands and started eating.

  "What are you smiling at?" Sun Class Monitor asked, seeing me constantly suppressing a smile.

  "Who wrote those few words?" I pointed at the white paper on the oil barrel with four big characters "Private use is prohibited".