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| How cute are we! |
“The Breakfast Club”
This may well go on record for one of the longest whelping sessions in a long time. Puppy births generally happen in the middle of the night and this was no exception. Despite our desire for sleep, Hannah was in no hurry. Her labour began at midnight and she produced her first pup (Mr. Bacon) at 2:00 a.m. followed by Miss Omelette, Mr. Hash Brown and finally Mr. Toast at around 6:00 a.m. just in time for breakfast!
One never really knows how a girl will take to motherhood, but Hannah has joined the ranks of those we deem “supermoms”. She has been exceptionally enthusiastic when it comes to the hygiene of her pups and initially licked them so much, we were surprised they still had fur on them. Hannah is so dedicated to the wellbeing of her new family that we have to drag her out of the whelping box just to get her to go out for a bathroom break. Once outside, to linger was out of the question. Like a woman on a mission, Hannah would race back to the door, anxious to get back to tend to her babies.
A mom’s milk contains antibodies vital for the first several weeks of their lives. Thanks to Hannah’s dedication, the milk bar is open twenty-four hours, so the puppies’ weights have doubled since birth. Of course they don’t spend their entire time eating; they spend a great deal of time sleeping and a bit of time in the gym as well. We’ve introduced a couple of stuffed animals into the whelping box that the little minions need to climb over as they scurry about in search of a snack. Since there’s less competition at the milk bar, we need to keep tabs on their waistlines!
Weighing the puppies, which we do twice a day for the first while to ensure that everybody is getting adequate representation at the milk bar, proved to be an immense challenge. Hannah would whimper as we removed a puppy to transport it to the weigh scale. Despite its prompt return to the whelping box, she wasn’t convinced of its wellbeing so she began to escort them on the journey, jumping up on the bed to be able to get a better look.
Puppies are born without sight or hearing and it will be a while before their eyes open, so for now their senses of smell and touch are what guide them to their mom. They use their tiny forelimbs, coupled with a great deal of determination, to propel themselves around. Now mind you the scale of their world is quite small at this stage so that when a puppy makes a wrong turn and ends up in a far corner of the 48” x 48” whelping box, the volume of their cries for assistance causes us leap to attention. And if that weren’t enough, Hannah herself begins to whimper just to be sure that we got the memo.
That’s it for now, but be sure to join us next week for another beguiling installment of “Puppy Tales”
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