They're here! The much-anticipated litter has arrived - a couple days early. Everything went well with the birth, much better than last time, in fact, and this time I was there (instead of missing the birth.) I have been taking Cleone's and Flossie's temperatures fairly regularly so that I would have an idea of when they were going into labor. A dog's temp usually drops a couple degrees as they enter the first stage of labor and this is a good indicator that puppies will be born within 24 hours. Sure enough, Cleone's temp dropped on Sunday morning. At first I thought I was seeing things, since I didn't anticipate her having the pups for at least another day or two, but thermometers don't lie, so I locked her up in the new kennel. It wasn't (and still isn't) 100% complete, but one bay was finished enough for her to whelp and raise puppies. I made her a cozy bed, gave her food and water, and finished the rest of the morning chores before heading to church. We came home a little early and I immediately checked on her. No action. Well and good - I wasn't really expecting anything yet. I made a tent over her bed and she immediately liked it. So did Dickon... I also set up a chair in the kennel and took the "vet bag" out there so that everything would be ready. I had already taken out a bag of towels, old sheets, and blankets. I got up in the middle of the night to check on her again. Still no action. Monday morning, I got up at 4:30 and immediately checked again. Still no puppies, but she had been nesting and had piled up all the sheets in the middle of her bed. I decided to take her out and let her go potty, but determined to keep her on a leash, knowing she would prefer to have her pups under the house - a totally unacceptable place! I went inside, started the coffee, read my Bible for a little while, and then grabbed a leash and headed out again. This was about 5:05. Imagine my horror when I opened the kennel door and she was - missing! Apparently she had squeezed through the hog panel door and escaped. I have not yet put the smaller fence wire on the door, but I had no idea that she could squeeze through a hog panel, especially with as round and tight as her belly was. I immediately called her and headed for the access panel to go under the house. She did not come (as I expected, since she was ready to have puppies) and she was not under the house. I hunted and hunted, occasionally calling her and listening for the tell-tale jingle of her collar. Nothing. I crawled under the house (for the third time) determined to search every inch, since I was sure that was where she would go and figured I had just missed her in the darkness. I don't know if you have ever spent any time crawling around under mobile homes, but it is dark, spidery, and a bit confusing. There are lots of cement block columns and some ductwork that all block flashlight beams and provide ideal hiding places for dogs that don't want to be found, so I was pretty sure I had just missed her in the shadows. I was praying that I would find her as I crawled deeper in, but I didn't want to call her too loudly since I was right under my parents room and they were still asleep. (By this time it was about 5:35. Halfway down the length of the house, I heard the tags on her collar jingle. I called her softly, heard them jingle again, and kept on looking. A minute later I heard her trotting by me - outside! So now I was stuck under the house and she was outside, free to roam wherever! A second later though, she came in the access panel and stared in surprise at seeing me waiting for her. She came right to me and I immediately returned her to her kennel, then went inside for a much-needed cup of coffee - after blocking up the door so she couldn't squeeze out again! Around 7:15 I went out to check on her again. At the door, I heard a puppy crying. In I dashed and found a beautiful little black-and-white female (Delta.) I texted Mama and LilyAnn (one of my sisters.) Mama brought out my camera and another cup of coffee. She stayed for awhile and LilyAnn showed up a few minutes later. About half an hour later, the next puppy (Bravo) was born. I helped pull him out and assisted Cleone to clear his airways and clean him up, then positioned him for his first breakfast alongside Delta. Between puppies Cleone would stretch, pant, relax, lick her babies, or just enjoy getting attention. Sometimes she was even a little goofy... They followed one after the other, 20 - 60 minutes apart. Every pup was black and white. I was beginning to wonder if she would have a merle after all when finally the very last puppy, Echo, was born. I had been wanting to name one of the pups Echo, but I wanted to name one that looked most like Cleone or Duncan. As soon as I realized she was a merle female, I knew she was Echo. And, sorry folks, I'm keeping her - at least for now. We'll see if she stays here on a permanent basis.
Finally Cleone was finished birthing all the puppies. They were all nursing well and I decided to go inside for lunch, as it was now after 1 PM. My sister and her husband were leaving the next day, so the rest of the family had gone frisbee golfing and bowling with them, but of course, I couldn't leave Cleone at that point, so I just had to miss out. In a way I was thankful to have the opportunity to enjoy the new puppies and catch up on some computer work. It had been raining off and on all day, but as the evening closed in, it began to pour. We are in the sandhills region and don't get much rain, so it was a huge blessing to get such a good spring rain, but as it got darker, the rain got harder. By 9 PM we had gotten several inches within the last few hours. That was when Farrah (my sister who was leaving the next day) said, "Alayna, you don't think the kennel could flood, do you? It's in that low spot." "I checked the water earlier when I did the chores and it was several feet away," I said, "but I'll run out there and check again." It's a good thing I did: the water was just flowing into the kennel when I got there and it was almost knee deep just a few feet from the door. I piled three pups into each of my raincoat pockets, covered the last one up with the bedding in the pool, called Cleone, and took off for the barn, wading through our yard. I put the pool down on the barn floor, gave the pups to their mama, and ran back to the dog kennel to rescue the goat kid I had bedded down in the second bay. Ironically, I put her there to keep her dry, but now she was in danger of having to stand in several inches of water all night. I lost a shoe on the way over, but rescued the kid and bedded down Cleone and the puppies in the barn loft under a shelving unit- no way the water could reach them there! We almost never get more than 1/2" of rain in one afternoon and even when we do, rarely pools deep enough to reach the dog kennel area, which is raised a few inches above the low spot just in front of it, but of all nights to get 6+ inches of rain, it would happen to be the night after the puppies were born! About Cleone escaping... Well, all I can say about that is that's the kind of crazy thing dogs will do sometimes when they want to have their puppies somewhere else. I'm going to try to get smaller wire on that door today so we don't have a repeat. The good news is that everyone is all right. That's why it's important to closely monitor dogs close to whelping!
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AuthorMy name is Alayna Feldman. I have been greatly blessed and am thankful, first and foremost, to the Lord Jesus Christ, Who has saved me. I am also deeply thankful to my parents, who have raised me in a stable, safe, loving home and taught me about what is most important in life. Archives
February 2022
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