Wonders never cease!

I had prepared everything in readiness for Piper's upcoming litter. The crate was ready with a layer of newspaper. My whelping kit was stocked and handy. And my thermometer told me it would be soon. Wednesday was my "town day", but I decided to postpone that when I saw what Piper's temperature had dropped to. (For those unaware, a dog's normal temperature is usually around 101.5. About a week before whelping (delivery) it will drop to around 100 degrees. Then 12-24 hours before the big event it will drop between 98-99 degrees.) Just before leaving for town her temp had registered 98.4 and now she was "nesting" in her crate. Town could wait.

Murpy's Law of course kicks into affect now. Had I gone to town she would have had the pups while I was gone. (I know dogs have been having puppies on their own for thousands of years, but I'm the type of person that likes to be there to make sure everything is going as it should.) But since I stayed home she didn't do anything all day. Of course, I knew what that meant, I'd be up all night!

My normal routine is to park the whelping crate between the couch and the wood stove. Momma dog goes in the crate for the night and I "sleep" on the couch so I'm close by when things start happening. "Sleep" is relative when you're talking about being next to a dog that's panting, scratching, digging and shredding papers in her crate of course.

I had somehow dozed off when in my semi-sleep stage I heard a "kitten" meowing. When my brain translated that to "puppy crying", I was suddenly awake! It was 1:15am when little "Romeo" made his appearance.

 Only about 45 minutes passed when Juliet showed up.

Now if they would all pop out in that time frame I'd be happy. But it was not to be. I dozed off and on, checking and rechecking Piper's progress, or should I say, lack of progress. I was getting a bit concerned when a couple hours passed and no puppy appeared. (She wasn't very big for this litter and I had guessed there were only three pups. Feeling her gut confirmed there was another one still in there.) I did my usual thing, pray that something would happen soon and give her an herbal supplement that is suppose to help with contractions.)

Finally around 5:15 am, little Cupid was born!

I was happy and relieved that all three puppies were finally here. And pleased with the beautiful colors. I was surprised though that we hadn't gotten any black pups. Piper's last litter consisted of a ruby, a blenheim, two tris and two black and tans. Oh well, that's what's fun about this "business", the element of surprise.

I rechecked Piper and she seemed done. So I let her settle in with her pups while I caught a bit more sleep before it was time for me to start my day. 

Soon enough my day began. After giving Piper a new bed, making sure the pups were all nursing, and making her the customary "post delivery" meal of a warm scrambled egg, I headed out to do my regular chores and get ready for my trip to town later.

I left for town later that morning, ran my errands and headed home in time to pick up my youngest son from school at 3pm. When we arrived home, I opened Piper's crate to let her out for a potty break and spotted something black! What?! There was another puppy! He was already pretty dry, so he had to have arrived quite some time before. Voila' Casanova!

So we had our black puppy after all.

Six o'clock rolled around and it was time for Piper to have a break and me to change her bedding. She came out, I looked in and; I know math is not my strong point but I do know the difference between four and five. You guessed it, there was another little body in the crate!

Hello little Valentine!

All I can figure is Valentine was probably in there when I spotted Casanova, but since Piper was in the crate and there were already two ruby pups, I must have missed her. There's just no way a dog could go that long in between delivering puppies and have them come out alive.

Don't you just love Valentine's Day surprises? Wonders never cease!