I can't believe I am writing this. I can't believe we are hurtling on down the puppy path again. I can't believe we have FIVE new little puppies to love taking up residence in our laundry. Again.
But we do.
After Roxy had puppies at Christmas and they had all grown up and gone off to happy new homes, we thought our puppy days were over. And while it was a great experiece and the puppies were gorgeous little beings and we were so relieved they all went to loving and beautiful new families, I really didn't want to go through it all again.
And we had NO intention of having more puppies. BUT it seems the snippety snip Mojo had a few months back was a week too late and here we are again with a new family of puppies here in the Archer household.
We weren't 100% certain when Roxy was due but knew it was somewhere between the 16-23 July. I truly thought she still had another week to go and when I said goodnight to her on Thursday night, as she stood wagging her tail at the side door, I had NO clue she was about to go into labour! There had been NO signs of labour about to happen. No nesting (that we knew of) and no signs that she was about to have the puppies!!
We had a stressful and distressing night.
In fact I had only an hour and 20mins sleep so I was totally exhausted yesterday and fell into bed early and slept a solid night's sleep which I SO needed. Capri stayed up until 4am with me
and then slept in until around 9am whereas I was up again at 5.20am as Ken
woke me after checking on the puppies and said that he needed to cut the cord on the 5th puppy as
Roxy hadn't been able to do that. Oh great!
Basically..our
night was looooong. Roxy had six puppies. But very sadly, puppy no 2
was stillborn which was so sad. Capri and I witnessed that and we were
both quite affected.
It was a long labour.
The
first puppy was born just around midnight and the 6th and final puppy
appeared at 7.30am. In fact we didn't realise there was going to be a
6th puppy as Ken ended up leaving the still attached puppy until 7am
when he the cut the cord while I held Roxy as she was a bit aggressive
toward us - and we thought that little one was the last one...BUT after
Ken went to work, Roxy started acting weird again and at 7.30am the
last puppy was born.
We
have three girls and two boys this time and it's exciting to have some
little girl puppies in the house. They had a Vet visit late yesterday
and were all declared to be in perfect health thankfully and so was
Roxy. She hasn't coped as well this time - it was a long time for her
and she had been shivering and panting all day after they were born which the Vet said is a
result of a long and hard labour and that she's fine but will take some
time to heal and recover..the poor thing..
Again, Roxy headed for the bushes to deliver them and had been busy digging a hole at the opposite end of the garden - no doubt right under our noses for the past week but we hadn't realised.. And here I was keeping an eye on the same spot she had dug out last time! I had been watching the wrong end of the garden for her nesting signs!!
Brandt had worked late at his Pizza Hut shift and was on the computer in my craft room around 11.30pm which has a clear view of the garden and I had heard him tapping softly on the side doors to tell the dogs to stop fighting. Mojo and Roxy were rumbling with each other, like they do now and then, playing but were getting a bit loud. Around 11.45 Brandt came racing into our room and yelled, quick, shes having the puppies. NOW!
And so began our adventurous night.
The puppies are all a great size and just look like like little rats for now...We have a
female "Kenny" this time around and one of the boys is also black and
white (but not as marked as the female) and we have three white ones.
We
already have a little one who is proving to be a little fiesty! See if
you can pick him out...I LOVE the black "dot" on his butt...
and wish he was a girl so we could call him "Dot" after my Nana:) - he's quite a character already...just like she was!
And likes to climb over the others at feeding time.
And so that's our big news...and I apologise in advance for the puppy posts and the stack of photos I will add to the blog as they start to develop and grow!