They Don't All Make It...

We started to casually refer to the lightest colored puppy as "blondie". We had to point him out a lot because he had been struggling from the beginning. He's actually the one who alerted us to the fact that a litter even existed that morning, he was all alone away from mom and the other puppies, crying pitifully. I placed him with everyone else, but he was obviously a little more sluggish.
A few hours later, I was checking all the puppies out and I realized that "blondie's" umbilical cord did not look normal. It was very red and still looked as if it were bleeding. Looking close, I realized he had a hole in his abdomen beside the cord, and that tissue was coming out of it. I bolted to the vet, and he patched up what turned out to be two puncture wounds, probably from mom getting too aggressive with biting off the cord. Everything looked taken care of now.
But I continued to keep a close eye on him, and I was nervous that he still didn't seem to be eating enough. He fought just as hard as the others for a "place at the table" but he made it, he would latch on and fall asleep, while the other continued gulping away. Despite my concerns, we rationalized that I was just extra paranoid about him. Overall, he really was staying just as active as the others...so I refrained from intervening. After expressing concerns over him last night, we figured that I'd probably be just as concerned about the other puppy's eating habits if I were watching as much as him.
Well, this morning it became obvious that I wasn't just overly concerned. The first thing Alena said when she ran to check them out this morning was that "blondie" was still sleeping...not at all what I wanted to hear. Sure enough, he was away from the family, sleeping with labored breathing. I finally decided that feeding him myself would not be a problem if it ended up being 'extra'. He was really cold. I was able to get food in him, and he continued pee and poo, but he was still very slow. After an hour I decided to take him to the vet to see if there was anything else we could do and the prognosis was not good. He was honest with me that it did not look promising, some puppies just dwindle for no reason. He could have an infection from the earlier ordeal, he could have a genetic malfunction, there was no way to tell and he was too small to effectively intervene. All I could do was continue to try and get his temp. up and feed him and see.
When we got home I put him with the rest of the litter and I was shocked at how much smaller he was than the others already. The other three were fat and their frames had grown, but "blondie" looked the same the day he was born. I think that's when I knew he wasn't meant to continue, but I kept trying. I kept him warm and kept dribbling milk in his mouth...but I was slowly watching his breathing become more and more labored. It finally dwindled to where he would stretch open his mouth and gasp for air, and then wheeze has he let it escape again. I finally let him lay down with his mom, and then I went to pick up Alena from school. He was gone when we got back. I tried to give one last effort at resuscitating him, but his pulse was gone...*sigh* Nature runs it's course.