Last Sunday, as you all know was puppy matching day. It went well and all Joy’s four pups were quickly matched with their excited families. The “redheaded” puppies usually don’t take long to find homes.
But leading up to Sunday’s puppy matching we had some other excitement!
Friday, Hazel was very anxious, restless and obviously in pre-labor. I decided to go ahead and give she and Sage their baths (although Sage was acting fine).
Later that evening, I switched out the blanket in her crate for some newspaper. It’s absorbent and a lot of moms like to nest as they prepare for babies. And she did just that, digging, tearing and preparing her “nest”.
The restlessness went on all afternoon and evening. She was starting to do little pushes too. Although it seemed like forever and nothing was happening. I checked her a few times and could feel that baby was on the way and moving through the birth canal, thankfully.
And then around 8:30, one more push and baby was born!
As you can see by the picture, she (yes, it’s a girl, a tricolor girl) is doing well. And getting roly poly on all that milk. As I suspected, she was an “only” puppy.
Saturday rolled around and we had a nice day with my in-laws here for lunch. After they left in the afternoon I conked out for a bit of a nap. And it’s a good thing I did because just as I was going to bed later (on the couch next to Sage’s crate) she starting getting a bit antsy.
It’s funny how every dog is different. Just like people, I suppose. There was not hours of nervous energy and anxiety like Hazel had, but just a small show of restlessness and then, there it was. The first puppy had been born. It was about 9:30 pm.
And she kept steadily on. One after another. About midnight I dozed off for about an hour and woke up to find another pup. Sage was laid out with all the pups against her belly and looked quite comfortable so I decided to catch a few more winks. I woke up around three and decided she must be done. I took her out to potty and while she was outside, I quickly sneaked a clean, dry bed into her crate and counted puppies. There was an extra from my last count. Man, she must be done by now, I thought.
She and the pups were all snug in their bed and it was time to get a bit more rest. It was just a few more hours until it would be time to get up. And when I did wake up again, I shined my flashlight in to check on the crew. I counted, then recounted. Hmm..? Wait, what? She had added one more puppy from my last puppy check/count!
Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Sage has set a Pinewood record! She was carrying and successfully delivered nine puppies. Yes, you read that right! N.I.N.E
After finally wrapping my head around that number, I started to think about how I might have to supplement some or rotate them on her because I’m pretty sure she does’t have that many “faucets” (I haven’t actually gotten down there and counted) 😉 to make sure everyone would get enough to eat.
Sunday night I weighed them all (because those last two sneaky ones didn’t get their first weigh-in until Sunday morning, everyone else got weighed as they were born or soon after). Then I weighed them Monday morning. And I weighed them Tuesday morning, and each morning after that.
We have no struggling puppies and no teeny tiny puppies. They all were born really good weights and have gained well every single day. I couldn’t be happier!
And look at those colors! Besides setting a record for number of puppies, Sage also produced some colors that we’ve not had in the past. Granted we’ve had some parti-colored with merling, but never any solids with such dark, distinct markings and coloration. Pretty cool. There are three dark merles, one chocolate with some faint merle spots (Sage was similarly colored as a newborn, the turned kind of slate gray and then her pretty silvery gray that she is now), there are four black puppies and one lone apricot. I actually bred her to Clancy in hopes of getting some apricot and red puppies, but we can see that he also carries for black. Super excited and super happy to have this beautiful litter and Hazels’ lovely girl her with us even during this crazy, uncertain time.