But I have a good reason. (*wink) Anybody want to guess?

In the wee hours of Monday morning, Rosie started getting restless, so around 2:30 am I got up to let her out to potty. Of course, you can’t just let one out, so the rest of the girls went with her (except Treasure how remained unmoved by the commotion). Rosie’s crate is next to Glory’s and looking back, I suspect Rosie might have been restless because she sensed Glory’s impending delivery. (I might be reading to much into that, but just a hunch).

The girls went out and did their jobs and then everyone was tucked back in the crates for the night. I grabbed my blanket and curled back onto the couch.

A couple hours later, my sleep was interrupted by small cries.

It’s weird how I can sleep in a room with two other moms with babies, but that newborn cry stands out and sounds different.

I jumped up and peeked in Glory’s crate to see the first pup had arrived safely and she had it cleaned off and drying. Good mom!

I tried to catch a bit of sleep as I waited for more puppies. (I really don’t like nighttime deliveries when they wake me up in the wee hours. I’d rather start late at night and just stay up until it’s done. But apparently the dogs don’t always do what I want.) 😛

A little before 6 am (she’d had three pups by now), she started acting like she needed to go outside to potty again. (This was a trick! 😉 ) I let her out the back door, flipped on the porch light so I could keep an eye on her, then ran for the large flashlight (more like a spotlight) because the porch light doesn’t shine very far into the yard.

I zoomed the light around the yard until I found her bearing down. Yep, sometimes they feel like they need to potty, but maybe it’s a contraction or the contraction comes on when they go out to potty (I don’t know for sure since she didn’t tell me 😛 ). No, Glory! I could see from a distance that she had something dark  hanging from her backside! I grabbed the nearest towel, ran out the backdoor in my tank top, shorts and bare feet across the remainder of our hard-packed snow to get to her as quick as I could. The baby was still attached via the umbilical cord, so my plan was to grab it with the towel and pick baby and mama up and get them back to the house. But things do not usually go as planned when you deal with animals. *sigh

Glory hightailed it to the back door (because she knew she had puppies inside to get back to, but not in her right mind enough to remember she had one hanging off her hiney!) *sigh* As she ran the cord tore and the little munchkin plopped to the cold, hard ground. But no worries, I was right there to scoop him up and he got a really fresh gulp of air for his first breath!

Glory zoomed back in the back door straight to her crate leaving a trail of birthing fluids splashed across my floor! *sigh* (Sorry, for those of you with a weak stomach, but I share the good, the bad, and the gross here..hehe)

I dried the pup off and got him settled in with mom and the others, then went to mop up the mess.

And since it’s after six now, there’s no more time for sleep, it’s time to get up and get started with the day.

I kept watch on Glory, as I could tell by looking at her and feeling her abdomen that she had more babies still to appear.

Hubby got up and starting taking care of the other dogs, so I could stick close to Glory.

As the morning passed, more puppies arrived. About 9 am she had finished delivering her pups, all eight of them! :O Unfortunately, the last one didn’t make it. He had a very faint heartbeat, but I never could revive him or get him to take a breath. He was a gorgeous, healthy-looking puppy otherwise.

This “business” is definitely not for the faint of heart. Puppies are cute and fun, but there are losses and disappointments, things we don’t understand, along with all the fuzzy, cuteness and miracle of birth that we get to experience. And despite the loss of that one puppy I feel very blessed to have the rest of this litter to watch grow, mature and someday make some families very happy!

But without further adieu, let me introduce you to our newest litter; proud parents, Glory & Sundae. We have seven stunning puppies; two apricots boys, one tricolor girl, three tricolor boys and one black & tan girl.