Puppies

We dropped the ball on Sophie’s (our female dog) contraceptive. Somehow we miscalculated the date and she came into heat without us getting her another shot. Anyway, as soon as we realized what we’d done, we put her in one of the barn rooms, hoping that she may have avoided being bred. You may have gathered by the title of this post that we were wrong!

The other day, she disappeared. Given that our male, Sam, was still around (they often go off hiking together) and that it was around the due date, we assumed that it was her time. The only problem was that we couldn’t find her anywhere, and it happened to be the one day in months that it was pouring with rain. Soaking wet and chilly, we gave up looking.

All of a sudden she came to the front door, birthed a puppy on the doorstep and then took off. I wrapped the pup in a blanket and gave it to the boys to keep warm and then went looking for her again. I eventually found her and brought her into the house with her pup, and set her up on a pile of old sheets. She instantly relaxed and went on to have a total of 9 puppies. They are all camped out in the entranceway room (as are the boys most of the time), and seem to be happy and healthy. Sophie is almost excessively attentive, although she does occasionally go outside, even if just for a little bit.

Once this litter is weaned, we will get her spayed. It was always our intention to let her breed once with Sam (although ideally we would have wanted her to be closer to 2 years old than to 1). Our other dog, Salsa, came from a shelter and was fixed before being released, and it always seemed a shame that she never got to be a mother. In the meantime, we get to enjoy these warm and fuzzy little bundles of joy!