Category: fun

In a time far-far away (probably 20 years ago), I had just whelped a new litter. I stay up with my new moms for about a week, trading short sleep shifts with my husband, keep a baby monitor on my puppies, to hear them no matter where I am, in the event mom rolls on one, which is rather silly, because when a bitch rolls on a puppy, it is silent and quick. I’ve had it happen only three times in 40 years. It has always been the result of a tactical error on the bitches part, and never behind her, but rather, under her. The bitch stretches way forward to clean another puppy in front of her, as one crawls behind her, and up to her now exposed underside, then the exhausted mom rolls back to lie down, and rolls onto said puppy, ignoring the lump directly under her. Said puppy hasn’t got a chance if not found. We Lost one that way, saved one in exactly the same spot when my young son did a nose count and came up short (saved that puppy with nose to mouth breathing), and a stranger saved the third… thus the story:

I stay up with them and we do shifts, as mentioned, above. This particular girl was an experienced mom, and wrangled puppies with finesse. Sometime at the end of week one, my presence seemed moot, and I was totally exhausted, as we all are at that stage. Not only are they on an audio baby monitor, which I carry, this was the first time I had put them on a webcam. In those days I was a member of a group I had started called “whelp-watch”. The concept was wonderful, and in truth, I would like to start that up again. People opened their whelping’s, setting cameras up for viewing (no location mentioned), and people were free to watch the whelping process. The agreement was, that if a viewer saw anything (bitch acting as if in labor and no human visible on camera, puppy in danger, anything untoward), that they would call a number provided by the litter owner, and notify them,

So, here we were, a week out from delivery, and I suggested my husband and I go and enjoy a glass of wine in the jacuzzi, look at the stars, and just relax after a long week. That is exactly what we did! What I fail to mention here, is that we do so sans bathing suits, as suits add soap to a jacuzzi, and we indulge as God made us. Our jacuzzi area was beyond the view of others (acres away) and we went in when it was dark.

There we were… wine, a hot jacuzzi, the baby monitor, telephone, a clear warm night, the stars, and just sitting back, finally relaxing after our week, sinking down into the water, feeling every muscle relax. The phone rang and pierced the silence. “Ma’am, you don’t know me, but I live in North Carolina (thousands of miles away), and I was just watching your camera, and thought you should know a puppy crawled behind your girl, and she rolled back on it!”. FEAR gripped me! I jumped out of the jacuzzi, ran through my bedroom, into the hall, into the living room, right to the room my mom and puppies were in, and God (thankfully) put three thoughts in my head – JACUZZI – ROBE – CAMERA! I had just left the Jacuzzi, I had NO robe, and the camera was ON (to the world!). Holy cow, I was about to dart into a box as God made me! I ran back, snatched my robe, put it on while running back, and tied it on as I arrived inside the box. I lifted my bitch up just in time to save a puppy gasping it’s last futile attempts at getting oxygen, and it took a deep breath, and was fine. I gave a thumbs-up to the camera, and snuggled my little one, on camera… in my robe. It could have been so much different had I not had that camera on the puppy, had that man never had the courage to call, and had God not put three thoughts in my head!

A Facebook friend recounted a harrowing adventure in whelping a litter, and it caused me to recount one of mine.

My most/least (you pick) favorite whelping memory started fine. She went in to labor, and delivered one puppy without ceremony, …and then nothing! Secondary inertia seemed likely, as she did nothing for hours. Absolutely nothing. Dan and I drove off our hill in the middle of the night, headed for the E-Vet, with me in the back with my bitch, sure we were headed for a c-section. Half way to the vet, she decided the time was right to start pushing. We pulled the car over, and a nice healthy puppy was born. We turned the car around, and started for home. She started pushing again. As she did, a car zipped past us in the fast lane, zig-zagged into the slow lane ahead of us, lost control and rolled over the embankment. The resulting dust looked like an explosion!

As all of that was was happening, I failed to see it, because I was assisting the puppy from the birth canal.. but of course, I felt the braking, heard the gasps and swearing from Dan. I had that puppy with its placenta still in hand, and I looked up and saw the billow of dirt to our right, as Dan pulled our car over. I now had two wet puppies, one still in my hand, one in my lap in a towel, and one older sibling in the warming box, and my bitch starts pushing yet again. Now, I was an ER Nurse, and should have immediately leaped from the car to rescue the driver, but that accident looked like it had to be a fatal crash, and I had lives counting on me where I was. I yelled at Dan to go see just how wounded the driver was, because if he/she was already dead, I wasn’t leaving my dog! He could do CPR as well as me if necessary. If anyone was alive, I would assist.

Just as I said that (as I was trying to cut the cord on that puppy before the next appeared), a woman runs up the embankment and runs almost into our car. Dan and I both yelled “how many in the car, and do you need an ambulance?” She screamed “just me, don’t call the police” and starts running down the freeway in the center of the slow lane on foot, drunk as can be. We called 911, and a CHP Officer nearly materialized before our eyes. I yelled for Dan to call my neighbor to come get me and leave her car for Dan because he had to give a witness account. I told him “You witnessed this, I didn’t!!! I need to get out of here!” Dan called Leslee. I helped deliver puppy number 4. Momma relaxed. More were coming, but she clearly needed a break from her jet propelled prior three.

Think this story is crazy enough? As Dan is talking to the CHP, who had run after the woman and returned with her, my neighbor’s truck almost screamed past us. She pulled over in a cloud of dust just a ways ahead of us. I swear she opened her door and piled out before the dust settled, and ran toward us in her nightgown, robe, and slippers. She runs almost headlong into the Deputy screaming “WE’RE HAVING PUPPIES!!!” She tossed her keys at Dan, and without so much as an adios, jumps in my car, and drives us home, leaving Dan, her truck, the very confused looking officer and the drunk behind.

Hi-Ho, Silver! Away……..

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We lost Leslee some years later to cancer. Gosh I miss her, but remembering this story gave me a great laugh and a wonderful memory of her.