The Flip Side

Here we are on the flip side of 18 hours of labour and delivery. December 23rd saw Halo go in stage one labour at about 10pm - panting, restless, digging, etc. Christmas Eve she started at 8am with puppy number one. She completed her long and arduous journey into motherhood at 3:45pm with puppy number 12. There are 6 boys and 6 girls, a much better ratio than last time, having a puppy every half hour more or less. They are all show ridged, no dermoid detected, no kinks, no cleft palates. Everyone arrived kicking and screaming except one ...

Puppy number 9 was a hard fought battle against the odds. This is him at left with Momma after my rescue efforts. Halo had been contracting for about an hour and he finally arrived completely lifeless. He came out in his sac with placenta and everything still intact; all the other puppies had come out seperated or mostly seperated. I thought he was a goner and suspected that he had died prior to birth and was perhaps partially decomposed so I didn't let Halo touch him and went to pick him up and wrap him for disposal. My finger just happened to touch his ribcage above his heart and lo and behold there was a tiny little flutter. I immediately ripped him out of the sac(which is hard to do in a hurry you know - they are very slippery) and started CPR. His tongue was blue and he was limp and lifeless except that little fluttering heart that wouldn't give up. It took about 10 minutes to get a gasp and another hour to get him completely normal. Today he is a beautiful big boy now christened green ribbon. We just can't have anyone die on Christmas Eve!

Halo is being the stellar mom again, very attentive, but much calmer and less manic about it than last time. She was whining when she had 11 at the milk bar but one was stuck in a corner - she whined til I came to see what the problem was and rescued the puppy from it's lonely crying.

I added a couple examples of the ridges we got in this litter - they are all just great, really against the odds in this breed to have all 12 ridged and with no extra or missing crowns. I think one is a little short and there may be a couple slightly offset crowns but otherwise this is such a good result.

We just have to get through the next couple weeks with no losses and I have to mentally prepare for the care of one dozen puppies in the middle of winter.

One last look at proud Halo doing her "These are mine".