Farmington Valley Golden Retrievers

Emma had her pups last Monday morning. Her adventure though began Sunday, a day earlier…

She had been getting bigger by the day as noted above, but on Sunday the poor thing looked like an overstuffed sausage.

She was more restless as Sunday wore on, and then she started to go into corners and scratch. We knew time was getting short and so we readied the basement. Out came the cot and up went Emma to settle in next to the whelping box.

With the human births that I have attended, there has always been multiple family members and medical attendants around. However, I have had the good fortune to spend the eve of Emma’s last two labors one on one in solitude in our cellar. Both times we spent the night crowded together on the small cot, her back and fur pressed against my chest. It has been a very unique experience sharing such a primeval ritual with another species. She is restless, and breaths in short panting breaths for hours at a time. The cot shakes with the force of her rapid breathing. Every so often her panting would stop and she would listen as if waiting for some inner signal. Beneath my fingers her babies were active. Hours go by. Occasionally she would give me a lick as if to say thank you for your support. Both of us drifted off to sleep for short periods of time, neither one of us changing our positions. Then on the morrow, about sunrise each time, she would get quiet, listen again, and then a large wavelike contraction would be palpable in her abdomen. Once that occurred, we moved to the whelping box and awaited the start of the birthing process.

Those events are described in the previous blog. After her enormous work, she enjoyed, deserved, and needed, a warm bath.

The following morning everyone began the daily ritual of the weigh in..

The other pups go into the little white box to await their turn..

Emma gets to bond with a little one on one time..

And after the whelping area is cleaned, everyone piles in for a snuggle before the next nursing moments begin again.

The pups have already been to the vet, and all are very healthy. We have contacted the earliest clients on our waiting list, and are very pleased to say that we have two families who have waited since our last litter almost a year and a half ago for one of our puppies. Their wait is over. We are moving down the list, but with vacations, it is hard to know if folks are getting their emails or phone calls. Over half the pups are spoken for now, with many more clients to go. If we do not get a response from the clients we have contacted this week by next Friday, they will lose their chance, and then we will contact the next people waiting. I am sorry we cannot satisfy everyone who has written us, but mother nature has given us what she has.

We are very happy to report that Emma gave birth on Monday, to a lovely litter of ten healthy pups. Six females and four males. One additional pup was stillborn.

I was able to help with the birth of the first puppy, but then had to head to work. Mr. Blue was the first to arrive breech!

Barb and our neighbor Theresa handled the rest of the midwifery chores beautifully. The amount of work and energy Emma expended for her herculean effort is captured with this photo showing her weary and dirty after the delivery process.

Amazing though, what a quick cleanup will do for everyone.

In a few days we will send more details of the births, and then address our anxious puppy clients. For today, we are all emotionally and physically spent. We give thanks to our Creator for his/her blessings of new life in our home. Amen.

I’ve had a few days off this week and the weather has been overall very nice. The dogs tag along with me everywhere. They get bored when I do some of the yard work, and so I have to do it in short doses. Otherwise when I look up there are a couple of new big holes dug in the lawn or more flowers missing from their pots. I caught everyone in that watchful waiting mode today, all wondering why they haven’t been out yet for their run.

For the past two days there have been frogs in our pool. I wonder just where they come from? There is no free standing body of water for miles. Anyway the girls had some fun trying to catch them with their paws.

At the end of the adventure all frogs remained healthy and unharmed, while Riley (red collar) was particularly frustrated that she couldn’t catch one!

This morning Barb and I took Emma for her pre-labor XRay. While not absolutely necessary, the XRay allows us to know a little better how many pups to expect. There can be a long interval between puppies born, and the last few may not fare well if she has an obstructed labor or other complications. So this way we will seek emergency help if her labor becomes dysfunctional and not all the puppies have arrived.

She was very calm at the vet’s office. On her return home, she walked onto the first step of the pool and cooled off.

Now for the fun part of this blog: some audience participation. Get out your magnifying glasses and see how many heads and/or backbones you can count! First, though, click on the photo to enlarge it.

She obviously has a good sized litter coming. The vet office staff and us reckon 8 to 10 plus one or so. You can really empathize with her maternal condition when you see how much work she must do to successfully birth everyone. The wait is getting shorter..

Nothing satisfies like these very warm days of midsummer… Enjoying the heat of the sun resting on the patio, and enjoying the flowers that you so diligently planted in the Spring.

Everyone here is just marking the days until Emma’s due date of 8/08/08. She is moving much slower, taking up much more room on our bed at night, but still enjoying life in the pack… quietly.

The girls still enjoy chasing chipmunks in the front island and chewing various flowers that only they know are good tasting.

Like the youthful exuberance of young children on summer vacation, their smiles say it all!

…while those of us here who are older and saddled with more responsibilities, carefully watch and wait. Like this bush in the background, that I have been trying to mold for the last four to five years, we are expecting our hearts and spirits to soon soar with the arrival of this long awaited litter.

While we await the birth of a new litter of pups in early August, the wheel of life continues to turn for the rest of us and our animals. About 2/3’s of the folks on our waiting list are those who have lost a departed canine companion and friend. We get photos from our friends who come upon an old picture, and send it along with their remembrances of a family member too soon gone. And although I see life and death in many forms every day, most people see little of my world, and may only bump against the true reality of our short existences when their beloved pet passes.

Our friend Ken recently sent us a few more photos of their first golden Holly who died this Spring.

I recently came across a poem that seemed appropriate, author unknown.

“I Stood By Your Bed Last Night”

‘I stood by your bed last night, I came to have a peek. I could see that you were crying. You found it hard to sleep.

I whined to you softly as you brushed away a tear, It’s me, I haven’t left you, I’m well, I’m fine, I’m here.

You lay there very quietly, then smiled, I think you knew, In the stillness of the evening, I was very close to you.

And when the time is right to cross the brief divide, I’ll rush across to greet you and we’ll stand side by side.

I have so many things to show you, there is so much for you to see. Be patient, live your journey out… then come home to be with me.’

It is nice to daydream that somehow and somewhere we will all meet again, whether as spirits or particles of knowing cosmic energy. Like fireflies perhaps, we may soar on night’s breeze, intermingle, and, share the company of the universe.

More troubling to me this week was the number of people who came up to me at the office and hospital, asking if I could help them place their beloved dog, cat, or rabbit. Tough economic times are forcing folks young and old to move, and sometimes their new home doesn’t allow for their pet to accompany them. While some people can discard a longtime companion with little regret, the pain involved for most owners is terrible to witness.

One of our breeding friends sent us this moving video that was on YouTube. My family has already seen it, but for our readers, this speaks to the deep bond that forms between animals and mankind when love is the glue..

Click on this link and be sure your sound is on: http://videos.komando.com/2008/06/26/christian-the-lion/

Parting with a dedicated living companion (even one the size of a lion) is one of those experiences I hope to never have. The sense of loss and confusion in the mind of the animal must be equally unsettling.