How clever of Sasha to realise that today was Thursday and that she should whelp her pups today so I could blog them. I thought briefly about capturing the moment on youtube by Ben Elton's latest book Blind faith came to mind and I thought that might be a bridge too far.
She started at 15.30 and luckily I had come home early from work as she was out in the garden at the time. I was just making a drink when I heard her give an almighty yelp, being a good dog mummy I dropped everything and knew as I ran out that she has delivered one of them. She was supposed to be in her whelping box but Hubby kept saying she wanted to go out and be near Ollie.
So there she was looking a bit bemused in the middle of our vast garden and there's a small not moving pup on the grass. I grabbed both pup and Sasha to get them inside getting totally covered in all kinds of fluids. Lots of vigorous rubbing and one breathing boy pup.
The rest followed fairly easily at about 40 minute intervals, and apart from the only girl who took a long time and a bit of swinging as well as rubbing to get breathing Sasha did very well.
So we have four males and one female. No brown and whites this time round only black and whites. They are sooo sweet. There was a sixth another little girl but we couldn't make her take her first breath. So sad that we lost one, but great we have the others.
Peri was a bit put out with all the fuss being made of Sasha and he had to have a peek in the box to check out what was going on. He had been sharing the box with Sasha just that morning and I think he was hoping to play midwife.
I am very pleased that she's safely delivered and I'll try not to think about what happens when we have to say goodbye to them.
Her last lot are growing into very nice young dogs, all with the same calm natures that their parents have. None of them spook easily and all handled the New Year's fireworks like water off a duck's back. Must be the chaotic household they were born into, somehow prepares them for unexpected noises.
So now we keep them warm and watch and pray they all thrive. At least it's still pretty warm here during the day so I'll only need to use a hotwater bottle.
