Topbrass Mattie Tutty
In March of 2002, Star & Beanie presented us with a litter of nine puppies. You can see some photos of the little guys on this web-site. One of these pups was Mattie. This little guy scared us all to death and certainly has to qualify as a miracle puppy. This is Mattie’s story.
It all started with Star going into labor one evening in March with Dyxie and I staying by her side until early the next day. When it was over she had whelped nine strong and healthy puppies. We raised them, following Jackie Merten’s methods all the way, (individual stimulation exercises begin at day three!) and we must say she really knows all there is to know about raising top quality working dogs. When the pups reached seven weeks old, it was time to send them to their new homes. Each pup had been wormed, vaccinated and started on a love of learning that we hoped would never end.
The flights were arranged for all the little guys (as they were being flown all over the US). The new owners were all contacted and everyone was anxiously awaiting their new pup’s arrival. The puppies had been sorted and we had attempted to match the puppy’s personality with what the owners desired in a dog. Of course we loved them all, but it was impossible to not have a couple of favorites. One of these favorites was going to Mr. Chuck Tutty in New York State.
If you can imagine arranging flights and coordinating everything with nine new owners and nine puppies and making sure all schedules matched; well it was a challenge. But everything went smoother than I might have thought.
We got all the little guys on their flights OK and on the way home felt the pangs of loss at their absence but also enjoyed the luxury of free time that opened up when the last pup was gone. Over the next few days we had numerous phone calls and emails telling us how much the new owners enjoyed their new puppies and letting us know that everything was all right.
A few days later Mr. Tutty called back, not, this time, with good news. He informed me that Mattie had started having seizures and was no longer conscious. Things looked very bad for Mattie, we were shocked! I had no idea what to do or what to tell him. Thank goodness for our association with Jackie, as we were able to call her and take advantage of a wealth of experience. She was able to tell us that seizures were most unusual in puppies of this age and to not be in a hurry to pull the plug on Mattie.
I talked to Chuck and he agreed Mattie deserved a fighting chance. A lot of people at this point would be saying it is time to euthanise the dog. As fate would have it, Mr. Tutty lives very close to Cornell University where they have a state of the art Vet school and research center. The people at Cornell were very interested in this pup and what went wrong.
Chuck wrote me
"All the vets paid a lot of attention to this pup, but especially this one young lady who was about to graduate from Cornell. She did her thesis on Mattie. She was the one that kept me advised on Matties progress and helped me to decide to give Mattie one more chance to wean him off this really new drug, which was what was keeping Mattie from going into seizures. That next morning was really the first miracle for Mattie because I believe it was the third try at weaning him off this stuff and he never went back to seizures again."
Mattie came out of the seizures and Chuck carried him home. This would be a happy ending except Mattie was still unable to see and the Doctors had no idea whether this would be permanent or not!
Chuck writes about Mattie’s second miracle "Within a few days (of taking Mattie home) I had him out early one morning in May, I noticed that a gust of wind had gotten some leaves moving above Mattie's head and this guy started jumping up and actually caught one. Boy I'll tell you I was so happy for Mattie, it sent me running inside to tell the wife that I think Mattie might be getting his sight back! (He called me too!) The vet at the time couldn’t say for sure if all his sight would be regained. A week went by and we took Mattie back for a check up, at this point he really did become a miracle puppy."
And while Mattie had a very rare reaction to the distemper vaccine he continues to do great. Chuck takes Mattie hunting and I believe they are constant companions. Dyxie and I are very satisfied that we matched up the right pup with the right man, here are some pictures of Mattie now at 9 months.
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