Are You Sitting Down?

Yes? Okay. Get ready, because look what I found in the barn this morning . . .

PUUUUUPPIES!

EEEEEE!!!!

They were NOT supposed to be born in the barn. Mama there (that's Otty the show dog) was bred at the end of December. She was supposed to have the puppies on Monday, in a nice, heated, carefully prepared whelping area. She showed no signs of imminent labor last night when the MiL put the dogs in the pasture for the night. But still, I went up to let the dogs out this morning at 8 a.m., and Otty wasn't waiting by the gate in her usual spot. She came out from the barn briefly, then ran right back in. That's pretty much when I knew what had happened.

I glanced in the barn, saw the pile of wriggling flesh in the hay, and literally ran back to the house, bursting into the kitchen and announcing the puppies to the MiL, who in turn ran up to the pasture in her robe and slippers. The next 15 minutes were intensely chaotic, as the MiL grabbed one puppy that wasn't moving and tried to revive it while I hurriedly finished setting up the whelping area in the house and moved Otty and the puppies down there, trying to keep the other dogs away at the same time.

There were a lot of lucky breaks here. It was relatively warm last night, otherwise the puppies would have died of cold. The MiL was home this morning--Thursday is the only day she doesn't go to work at 7:30 a.m. Otty didn't start to have the puppies until about 6 a.m., so I found them not too long after they were born. In fact, she had one in the time it took me to get to the house to tell the MiL, and that one was inexplicably deposited in the open, in the middle of the pasture. But because we got up there immediately after it was born, we could grab Otty and make her take care of it right away. And lastly, I went up there earlier than I normally do. Most of the time, I leave the dogs in the pasture until about 9 a.m., when I feed them.

Sadly, one of them did die. It must have been the first one born and just gotten too cold, or maybe Otty didn't take care of it right away. This is her first litter, and she's doing well caring for them, but she was probably a little confused as to what was happening. We still have three, though, and more are on the way. She could have as many as eight, though it will probably be more like six. Which means there are probably at least two more to come.

And people think living in the country is boring.

Update: Okay, we now have six live puppies. One is kinda sickly and a little dubious, but at the moment, they're all nursing and happy. And yes, they do kind of look like guinea pigs. Give 'em a week to fluff out, though, and the cuteness will be so overwhelming, you won't be able to look at the photos without shielding your eyes.