New mama – and pups – arrive early
WEEELLLLLL, Things don’t always go as you plan do they? Sometimes you need to roll with things, have loose hips, let yourself be moved by the world rather than trying to control everything. We had a good plan – new mama, named Angel, comes North to Chicago (from Southern Illinois) on Saturday, spends the day with a temporary foster and arrives Sunday afternoon after Chloe and her final five pups have gone to their new homes. Sort of stressful but doable.
Ha!
So, Michelle, our wonderful dog coordinator for Homes for Endangered and Lost Pets (H.E.L.P.) calls me on Saturday afternoon asking if we can take Angel early, on Saturday after I get off work. I think, ok, that’s doable.
New mama Angel and her 9 pups
Ha.
So as she is describing Angel’s heavy panting, rejecting food, and restlessness I say, “Ah, I think you need to come over here as soon as possible” And sure enough she was starting to have her pups on the ride over. We got her into the house and settled into a temporary room, as Chloe and pups are of course still in the puppy room, and she gets down to business. It seems clear that this is her first litter as she seemed a bit clueless in the beginning. But with Michelle’s and my help she got the bulk of the group (8 so far) delivered by 11:00 pm. But I fear she isn’t done. I am, however, heading to bed after this post and one final check. It figures, another large litter. But when I saw her I guessed 8-10.
We did have one scary moment – pup number 5 came out and it was clear in an instant that something was terribly wrong. He was opening his mouth and struggling to breathe but nothing was happening, just a “click” sound, no breath at all! He started out pink but was rapidly turning a scary shade of purple when I started to get really worried. I tried shaking him down (something you do to remove the amniotic fluid from the lungs) and there were none of the usual bubbles at the nostrils and normal breath sounds. I worked on him for 20 minutes while two other pups were born until I felt I had done all I could. He was less purple, and there were breath sounds when I stopped but that was the closest I’ve ever been to loosing a pup. He may be too weak to nurse, time will tell. But after an hour we both found it difficult to tell which one he was…oh, by the way the pups are all shades of blond, like their mama!!
So, here we go again….
One Response to “New mama – and pups – arrive early”
They are so little! I love you, sis. You are amazing.
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