(*Warning* This post has graphic birthing details 😛 )

Mercy strung me along for a few days for sure. With that temperature drop on Saturday morning, I figured whelping was imminent. And then nothing happened Saturday night. Nothing happened Sunday. And I had stopped taking her temperature thinking “it’s going to happen today/tonight”. Then Sunday night passed with nothing but a bit of restless sleep for both of us. Monday morning rolled around and I decided to take her temperature again. It was low, but not like the drop we’d had Saturday morning. She was a little restless, but not very dramatic about the whole thing. So I was in for another day of waiting I supposed. (Does that make me a “lady in waiting”?)

But then it happened, fairly quietly and in a reasonable amount of time. The first pup made its appearance in the early afternoon. And was it flashy! Not what I expected at all, but pleasantly surprised. And it was a nice sturdy weight.

The next one arrived about an hour later and it was a whopper! I was starting to think my guess of five to six pups was off and maybe I’d just have a few healthy, big pups.

But that little momma just kept at it with the third pup and then the fourth.

I felt like there was at least one more little body in there. And also thought it was about time for mom to have a potty break. I took her out front so she could have some privacy. That’s when things went crazy for a few minutes. She headed for a grassy area to relieve herself, wandered over to another spot and squatted to pee again, and out came a puppy too!

As soon as I saw what was happening I rushed over to her and caught the puppy. Of course, to make matters more complicated the afterbirth had not passed yet and the puppy was still attached to the back end of mom so I couldn’t just grab the puppy and run inside with mom following. Nope, I had to scoop up mom too and ran for the house. Thankfully, our front door knob is the lever kind that you just push down on and I’ve mastered opening it with my foot when my arms are full. 😉

By the time we got indoors, she had passed the afterbirth and I was able to get it cleaned up, suctioned and dried off, then handed over to mom.

And about forty minutes later she delivered her final puppy.

And like her mother before her, Mercy is proving herself to be a devoted, nurturing mother. Not bad popping out six puppies in three hours time with no complications (except for that potty break “surprise” in the yard).

All the puppies were born at a good weight and this morning’s weigh-in showed that they had all gained through the night, except for the largest one, but he at least stayed the same weight.

I expected to get black and tan and/or apricot colored puppies, so I was surprised when the first puppy came out a very flashy tri-color. Then the next five all turned out to be black and tans. And we have three boys and three girls so a nice balanced litter!

The whole crew

The boys💙

The girls💜