Puppies are Born

The day was here. We were on The Land. John and Mary were camping with their granddaughters, Julia and Libby. Michelle and Mark were camping with their children, Muriel, Rhys and Kyle. Michael was staying in the house with Tilly and us. We moved the whelping box we made for Tilly next to the bedroom window. This allowed the children to come to the window and see the pups without disturbing Tilly or the pups.

Everyone went to bed. Tilly, however, woke me every time I started to fall asleep and wanted me to take her outside. She was feeling pressure and trying to go potty without success. About 1 AM., I got tired of her trying. I got a foam mattress, put it on the floor next to her box and when I layed down she settled into her whelping box. About 2 AM Tilly started pushing and the pups were ready to come.

Phil went down to Muriel's tent and told her it was time. By the time the two returned one pup was born and the second one was starting to come out. Muriel and I were the midwifes and did all the weighing and labeling of pups, as well as the recording of information and taking of pictures. Phil was in charge of watching. The first pup was the one and only girl. The girl was 7 oz and golden in color. We put a pink band on her and said she was Princess Tina.

The second pup, a boy, was born at 2:10 AM. He was the smallest and very white in color. We banded him with orange and called him Squeaky. He weighed 4 oz. He was born feet first. I took a picture of him coming out.



Before the third pup was born, Michael heard the commotion and came upstairs. He then started taking pictures and notified Melissa, who gets pick of the litter, that the pups were here.

The third pup was a white colored boy. Born at 2:42 AM, his name is Snowball, and we banded him with white. He weighed 6 oz.

We could see that another one was moving in Tilly's tummy. At 3:17 AM the forth pup, a light golden colored boy was born. We labeled him with blue and called him Bluebell (later in the day changed to Cobalt). He was 8 oz. Michael took a video of his birth.




We waited and waited and thought things were done. At about 4 AM, Phil and Michael went to bed and Muriel and I started cleaning up. We gave Tilly a sponge bath and put fresh linens down and just when we finished we noticed some more pushing and low and behold another one was coming. Muriel hoped it would be another girl but no such luck. It was a golden colored boy and we labeled him yellow and called him Emerald. He was also born feet first. The guys did not want to get up to watch him born. The pup was 8 oz and born at 4:34 AM.

Time to clean up and get a few minutes of sleep before everyone else got up.