As a 4 year old living in your typical Dog Show Family, one is subjected to many, many things in conversation, in actions and in everyday duties. We have a Ford passenger van that we use to go to “most” dog shows with. I say “most” because we haven’t had anything to really show in over a year now, so it’s parked in the driveway and used for crate storage, the trips to the vet when more than one dog is involved and when it’s necessary to move big objects like a new bed, a new washer, a new hot water heater and I could go on. So Brenna thinks that all big vans are “Dog Show” vans. And it always comes out in public places, like McDonald’s, very loud and boisterous.

“Look, mom, they have a Dog Show van too!!!!”

That’s when I get the stares, like, “What the hell is she talking about?” because it’s the van that just exited the drive-thru. So the world has many Dog Show vans…..to her. And though we haven’t really had any problems yet with this, I just know the “bitch” word is going to come out and it’s going to offend someone, somewhere in time. It’s such a common word around here. I try to refrain saying it to pet puppy buyers for fear I will offend them. I’ve warned the babysitter about this word and I know someday it will come out and a wrong impression will be had.

So, a couple of weeks ago at the dinner table, Brenna came out with a question that a typical 4 year old little girl wouldn’t ask.

“Mom, how did Polly get the puppies in her tummy?”

Excuse me while I clean that piece of chicken up that I just spit out across the kitchen….It was one of those moments where I was saying in my head, “Seriously? She’s asking me THIS?” And she just looks at you, waiting for the magical answer that I really didn’t have. Or did I? Before Matt could say anything, I blurted it out:

“Dr. Judd put them there.”

“Why’d she do that?”

“Because Polly was ready to have puppies.”

“Oh, okay.”

And not one bit of that was a lie! How genius am I? I didn’t get into specifics about exactly HOW it’s really done, but enough said. Oh, I’m singing the praises of AI right now!

Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit This Post Stumble This Post

I have to admit that this whole puppy thing has taught me a few things in life that I didn’t actually know before. I thought that newborn (human) babies were exhausting, and they are, but so is a litter of seven puppies. Seven little puppies depending on us to get to the next level, whatever that may be. I don’t think I’ve ever prayed to God for poop, but I did last week, and it did work……on exactly four out of the seven that night. Hey- it’s more than 50%! I never had to pray for pee…that came naturally…and abundantly…and usually all over me and the kitchen floor. I’ve learned that Polly has a motherly side to her. She went through great pains to “snip” at Luci and Patsy to tell them who was the “boss”. She was so damn effective at it that Patsy won’t even look at her now. Polly is finally “all cool” with Lu and Pats, but Patsy wants no part, I repeat, NO PART of Polly and her pups. Which brings me to be in shock that: A) Patsy is actually letting this affect her and B) Patsy isn’t fighting back. Yes, this is Patsy who in the morning can ignore my calls, pleas, shrieks and cussing to come in to eat.

“Did you hear that crazy lady this morning Patsy?”

Patsy: “What crazy loud lady? All I heard was Sinatra whining.”

But the biggest learning episode has come with my 4 year old, Brenna. No, Brenna doesn’t know how puppies are made (a box arrives from Fed Ex and….VOILA! We have puppies!), but she does understand the whole nursing process. She can stay on the chair, in her booster seat pulled up to the side of the whelping box and watch the nursing pups for the whole hour. Kind of like a petting zoo, you know? Give the girl a bag of “feed” and I could get a lot more sleep than what I have not been getting. And she’s really conscientious about giving us a play-by-play. If we had a dry erase board nearby, John Madden would be proud.

“Mom….he’s off…..uh, no he’s back on.”

In an effort to be CORRECT, we taught her the word nipple. So it’s usually, “Mom…..he’s off the NIPPLE!” The word pierces right through me every time. It’s just one of those words that makes me cringe. It almost makes the hair on my neck stand up. Its nipple this, nipple that every time Polly is nursing. My mom was over this weekend and she and Brenna were petting Polly. Brenna points to Polly’s, um, nipples and says, “Look grandma.” So what does my mom do?

“Those are Polly’s titties.”

I shot my mom a look and before she saw it Brenna says, “No they’re not. Those are her nipples.” Score one for Miss Know-It-All! Why the hell my mom said that is beyond me. Clearly not a word I want her to learn, but hey, she knows worse.

The next day I took Brenna in town to run some errands. We had to pick up a prescription at Walgreens and as I’m doing the transaction, doesn’t Brenna look at the really cute pharmacist and say, “Polly has nipples. They’re for her puppies. They need to suck on those to get milk.” Mortified! Yeah, well, she obviously doesn’t know how to edit yet!

Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit This Post Stumble This Post

It’s been a week since the c-section and our puppies were born. The puppies are getting big, somewhere around 2 pounds and change. I am going to try to get new pictures up this weekend. Yes, I said weekend, and it’s only Wednesday. I am not going to apologize though since sleep is way more important for me right now since there is a deficit in the house for all parties involved except the human kids.

I am calling Polly the part-time mom since she doesn’t feel like stimulating her pups to pee or poop. It usually comes naturally, but she doesn’t do it. I’m not sure why, it would save me a buttload of laundry and time. She will usually sniff down “there” and then go lick their faces. She sticks Matt and I with the whole pooping job, while not horrible, it’s messy. I thought I dealt enough with poop around here in the house with an almost 1 year old, but I guess not.

Like I said, I am aiming for this weekend for pictures. Halloween is Friday and I still haven’t bought Brenna a leotard to go under her fairy costume. I put my mom on that one. Oh, and did I mention we got 8 inches of snow yesterday? And I have to work the next two days and everyday next week? All I do is work, come home, do laundry, try to do the dinner dishes, go to sleep at 8:30 and wake up at 2:30am for feedings. But they are damn cute and I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to them.

Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit This Post Stumble This Post

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.

Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit This Post Stumble This Post