Pork chops and puppies

It all started after the x-ray on Tuesday. Polly just wasn’t herself and I was almost sure she was having a few contractions. Matt came home and noticed the same thing. So we just kept an eye on her thinking she would start whelping in the middle of the night. Donna (our mentor and co-owner of Polly) called at 4:30 that afternoon to talk to Matt about some upcoming dog shows and Matt told her that Polly was very agitated and possibly having contractions. At that point, I guess she didn’t feel the need to head over to our house.

Polly was in the whelping box while we were eating dinner. Very restless, panting and circling. The whelping box is right off our kitchen/dining room. We were almost finished with dinner when Matt checked on her and found a puddle of fluid. Did one of the sacs rupture? And the way she was circling, Matt thought she was going to spit one out right then. So I pushed the pork chops over to make room for the scale to weigh the little critters. I really thought I would be doing that in the middle of dinner! Yeah, I could see it now:

The Babysitter: “Did Polly have her puppies yet?”

Brenna: “Yeah, mom put them right next to the pork chops.”

It became apparent that this whelping was starting, so I called Donna. I got her answering machine. I left a message. I proceeded to call Donna’s cell phone. No answer. My kids are still at the dining room table and my house dogs are all like, “What the hell is going on?” I urgently get the dogs out to the kennel and I expected to see a new pup when I came back in, but I didn’t. So I deal with the kids. I try to get Rowan to drink her milk, but of course, she’s more interested in the activities going on in the other room. I think Matt told Brenna to sit in the chair and don’t move. And she did. Still no puppy. I call Donna again. Still no answer. Matt called Marian. Matt called Sandy. I was on the phone with her earlier and Matt was walking in from the kennel and Polly didn’t want to come in. She kept looking back at the kennel. Sandy remembered this and had me go check her kennel for a pup. No pup in the kennel, thank goodness!

I get the girls in bed. Still no pup. Matt called our vet and she told us to wait an hour and she’d call us back. Still no word from Donna after countless calls. The vet called back, I checked her and I could feel a sac about 4 inches up, so she knew the pup was in the birthing canal. There were lots of phone calls that night back and forth between the vet and us and Marian and us. At 8:30pm, we all made the decision to get her to the emergency vet for a c-section.

Matt called me at almost midnight to tell me there were 4 girls and 3 boys, all alive and well, and that they were searching for the 8^th puppy. They never did find that 8^th pup and the one in the canal did survive despite the broken sac!

Polly, Matt and the pups arrived back home at 3:30 that morning. It was a very long night for not only Matt, but for all us. I don’t think my phone rang as much ever in this house! We got Polly situated In her box and the pups nursed for the first time at home. The pups are very feisty eaters, which is good, because we thought they wouldn’t be because of the timing of the c-section.

My phone rang at 4:30 in the morning and, oh my God, it was Donna! She was all like, “What’d I miss?”

Uh, well, everything! Turned out that Donna was “out” and had her phone on vibrate so she didn’t hear her calls.

Here’s the breakdown of the pups:

Puppy 1: male, 1lb. 8oz. almost full mantle

Puppy 2: male, 1lb. 5oz. half mask

Puppy 3: bitch, 1lb. 7oz. two spot on the collar,

Puppy 4: bitch, 1lb. 8oz. monk’s cap (just like her daddy!)

Puppy 5: male, 1lb. 3 oz. almost full mantle

Puppy 6: bitch, 1lb. 7oz. round spot, left neck

Puppy 7: bitch, 1lb 1oz, torn mantle

Everyone is doing well this fine Thursday morning.

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