Olivia Surprises Us All with Double Digits

On March 1st, right before midnight, Olivia woke me up. I took her outside and, when she tried to dig herself a birthing hole in the garden, realized we were in for it.  A few hours later, I woke Millie up to help me move the whelping box into the bathroom, and 2 minutes later, Olivia had her first puppy on the outside steps, followed by her second a minute later in the bathroom.

It was a loooong night. Since it was Olivia's first time birthing, we wanted to make sure she tended to them properly, plus, she got agitated every time we didn't check in on her.

She did what mother dogs do well, popping out ten puppies like it was a breeze. If we had gone back to bed, though, this little one would have died. One of the times Millie checked on Olivia, she found this pup cold and not breathing, with part of the placenta still over its face. Olivia had been sitting on it, and then ignored it when she saw it wasn't likely to live.

I spent 20 minutes suctioning out its airways, getting it breathing, and warming it, and then, since Olivia shoved it away every time we tried to get her to accept it, I had to make some makeshift puppy food with yogurt and evaporated milk and feed it myself for the first couple of hours. Thank goodness once the puppy perked up and started whimpering, Olivia came around and wanted her back. There's no way I could have tended to the pup for more than a few hours.

And, of course, that morning who should arrive for his daily lengthy stay but the good-for-nothing fellow who undoubtedly fathered EIGHT out of ten puppies. Poor John Wayne. He didn't stand a chance.