Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
1
The Little Prince of Darkness
Being an only child is a disease in itself.
—G. Stanley Hall,
Of Peculiar and Exceptional Children
, 1896
The German shepherd pup had to be lifted out of the slit in his anesthetized mother's womb.
A heavy lump. A litter of one.
He had a gorgeous head and great strength for a newborn, said Joan, the breeder in Ohio,
in her e-mail to me. His strength wasn't a huge surprise, as his mother's nutrition flowed to
him with no competition. I gazed at the first post-C-section photos of him: nestled comfort-
ably and solidly in Joan's cupped hands in one shot, latched on to one of his young mother's
eight teats in another shot. He had his choice of milk dispensers. He looked squashy and
squint-eyed. His head looked like a mole's, not gorgeous at all, although Joan would know
better. This single pup was her twenty-fifth litter of shepherds. He would be Vita's one and
only.
