Last Thursday, without any signs of early labor, Sophie decided that enough was enough and delivered her first puppy at home. We know from the Tuesday before that her litter was large..... usually the breed has 1 to 3 in a litter. She had six, possibly seven by x-ray. Erik (Monte) called me frantic on Thursday when she popped out the first..... He don't know nothi' about birthin' no babies he quietly shouted in his Gone With The Wind -esq panic. It didn't help that a second arrived ten minutes later. Armed with Dental Floss (for the umbilical cords), a cell phone with his lifeline (our friend Heather) and more adrenaline than Paris Hilton after someone yelled 'NARC', he calmly took care of the pups before Sophie could eat the placenta and cord like spaghetti and got the family into the car and up to the vet. I, and eventually Heather, met him up there. After failing to progress further, the remaining 4 puppies were delivered via C-Section.... Two girls, one Blege, One Black and four boys, two Belge, one black and one black and tan. Puppies, mom and Erik are doing well. All the puppies are healthy and starting to gaining weight (knock wood). They had their tails and dew-claws docked today. Hopefully, we can start taking them into the bedroom at night as we had been rotating vigil 24/7 this weekend. The next two weeks will have us holding our breath a little till we're over the most critical period. The pic is at about one day old.
