A lot of people left after the poodles were auctioned. Dachshunds started coming out of the kennel. One had a litter of babies with her and Bob said that there's a new AKC rule that if a puppies passes the auction block before 8 weeks old it is ineligible for AKC papers. He asked if anyone had problems with that and someone raised their hand. The dog was sent back to the kennel to have a personal offer negotiated after the auction. The other female with a litter of puppies sold for $1125. She had five babies with her born 8/16/04. One dachshund went for just $75. He had "puppy papers" and a kink in his tail. His birthday was 11/17/03. One sold for $100 and two for $150 each. The rest were higher.
I don't recall the order they went in after that. Pomeranians went for $100-$275. Two maltese that looked more like bichons went for $435 each. Papillons were whisked off the table to a tune of $1100 each. The Bernese mountain dog puppies went for $130 to $200... quite a bit cheaper than I expected and Bob seemed a little disappointed they didn't go higher. A female silky went for $330, while the male (born 4/6/1995 went for just $25. Maltese went for $320-$600. Yorkies got bids up to $2750. I can't read my own writing on the male if his price was $300 or $3000. Jack Russell Terriers went for as much as $225 and as low as $10. The $10 JRT was born 5/23/96 and was missing teeth. Five Australian shepherds went for $35 each. The Australian shepherd/Catahoula leopard dog went for just $10. They said she'd work cattle, but I doubt it the way they had to haul her in to the bidding area. She was far too scared to be a good cattle dog. Bichons went for anywhere from $200 up to $2600 (female with five 4-day-old puppies). I'm told that Small Paws (rescue) was able to get a few of them from this auction.
At some point they auctioned off more lix-it bottles, food dishes, and several blue barrel dog houses ($2 each). I was tempted to get one for my brother's dog, but I wasn't sure if the hole was big enough and we wouldn't have room in the car if I was going to be bringing home more than one dog. The second cage I had brought is collapsible.
The temperature climbed pretty high that day too. By noon people were using their sales catalogs to fan themselves. By 2:00 I was sweating. Bob joked that they were getting August weather in September and September weather in August. Said he hopes things would warm up like this for their spring sales too.
Finally the Italian greyhounds came up for bid. I was very excited. They put three "bred" females on the table and started the bidding. I didn't even get to bid on that first one. Prices climbed too high too fast. $550 got choice pick of the pregnant females. They took #267; a "blue and white" dog. Then they started bidding again, my hand went up, and so did the other bidders'; $475, still too high. They took the other pregnant female, number 265. They put up the broken tail female with the "possibly bred" female and asked if I wanted pick for my $375 bid.
Now I had to make a snap decision. Did I want the possibly bred female (who was just as skinny as the one beside her)? Or did I want the female with the broken tail that had just weaned her four puppies? Now I know that most rescuers would have jumped at the chance to get a pregnant dog out... but something in my head told me that she was not pregnant at all. She was far too thin to be carrying puppies. The broken tail female looked sick too. Her backbone and her hips showed visibly. I felt bad for her. The world stood still for a moment. Without a second thought I hollered, "I'll take #268." They took the broken tail female off the table. After taking a moment to collect my thoughts, "Dear God, I know I just condemned that other dog to a life in a cage, and I am so very sorry. Please please forgive me." I left the auction to pay for my purchase.
I don't know how much the other Italian greyhounds went for. I waited at the red trailer for what seemed like forever. They were busy hauling dogs back and forth from the auction table. Most of the Pekingese were missing an eye or had something else wrong with them. There were so many and they were all cream or white. One pekingese puppy had been accidentally auctioned earlier (they usually go by breeds) and he was brown with a black mask. Cute little guy, but I didn't get what he sold for. The cavalier King Charles spaniels went up next. Again, I didn't hear the bidding, but as the guy was walking back with them he was complaining about prices being too low, "Sold a heavy bred female for $250 and a good bitch for $175." He was visibly upset. Not quite angry, but disappointed doesn't put enough emphasis on the anger emotion either. They were hauling the beagles out of the cage in the trailer when the woman finally came to give me the paperwork and get the Italian greyhound out for me. I had to leave. I love beagles and to see them treated so harshly made me want to use my emergency money to offer them an off-auction sale. I doubt $25 would have done it, but I was so very tempted.
