Happy Birth Day!!!

When I left for the group's Meet & Greet this afternoon, I knew that Shannon was getting very close to time to deliver the puppies: her abdomen had grown pendulous, we could express milk from her nipples, and her behavior was a bit peculiar.

I felt anxious to get back to her all afternoon, and we took off quickly at the end of the meet. I walked in just in time to catch her first puppy-- a beautiful big brown and white boy!!-- which she was delivering in our bedroom. After she had a chance to clean him and cut his cord, I moved Shannon and her boy to the whelping area we had prepared for them in the kitchen. Once comfortably there, she quickly delivered a darling brindle girl pup. Some time later, she delivered one last pup-- another girl, this time white with black spots. That wee girl was the smallest of the three, and she had a lot of bleeding from her umbilical site so I needed to clamp it off with some sterilized hemostats. Other that that, Shannon did it all 100% on her own!!

A bit after the whelping, we tried to take the rest of the dogs outside via the back kitchen door. Shannon quickly let us know that even behind her special "fence", she was NOT OK with her old pals (from only hours earlier!) coming so near her family. So we relocated the family to my study, where we can shut the doors and give them some quiet privacy for a few days or weeks, while still ensuring I will be with them much of the time.

Over the next few days we will be adding a Puppy Growth Chart to the blog and naming the puppies! There are already photos of the whelping and the new family in Shannon's photo album.