07/30/2024
This is an old article I wrote about one of our very first litters.
Apparently the stork has keys to our house.
Ember our Toller was due to whelp her puppies either Wednesday or today, depending on which breeding took. Nothing happened on Wednesday, and yesterday morning everything seemed normal. She wasn't nesting and her temperature had not dropped. Her first litter was three days late, so we were preparing ourselves for the same delay with this litter. We had kept track of her temperature and her behavior. After consulting with a few more-experienced breeders, we determined we had a while before she would deliver her puppies.
She was in a playful mood, and was begging me to play fetch with her.
We determined that Karri could go to work and I could go off and train for a few hours. It was a beautiful day with the temps in the low 70's and a nice breeze. All the windows in the house were wide open with some fans blowing.
I put Ember in her whelping room (my office converted) and put up the baby gate to keep her in.
After a few hours of training, I came home. As I pulled into the driveway, I could hear Ember barking her usual "welcome home" cheer. But she was in the front living room, and I did not think twice about it. She is an agility dog, and she could clear the baby gate if she really wanted. When I walked into the house, Ember greeted me with her normal excitement. I went to let her out to potty. As I looked at her in the back yard, it suddenly occurred to me, "Oh my GOD, she is skinny!" I immediately ran outside, called her to me and put my hands on her. "She had delivered her
puppies!!!!" I ran into the house franticly looking for the puppies, and I
could not find them anywhere. But the house sure smelled like she had them.
I finally got the idea to let Ember back into the house and figured that she would lead me to them. Yes, I know it should have been the obvious thought, but I was not thinking at the time. None of this was immediately sinking in.
I let her in, and she went running into our room and jumped on our bed. She sat up there all proud and gave me a "look what I did" grin. I still didn't see anything, and finally said to her "Where are they?" Still nothing.
"Ember, where are your puppies?" She nudged her head under a pillow. I lifted the pillow and there were six perfectly healthy and clean puppies.
They were all lined up in a perfect in a row - warm, content, and sleeping away.
At this point I just had to sit on the edge of the bed and take a deep breath. I called Karri at work to tell her what I discovered, and she thought I was joking. I was finally able to convince her that I was not pulling her leg when I told her, "We need a new mattress!" Karri immediately rushed home, trying her best to avoid getting a speeding ticket and maneuvering afternoon rush hour in Chicago.
Ember did a great job cleaning up after herself. There were no obvious signs of anything. We had dark sheets on the bed, so the blood stains were hidden pretty well. After she heard the whole story, Karri teased me that, "at least she did it on your side of the bed." The mattress and mattress pad are ruined, but we have a healthy little girl and six strong, healthy puppies - three boys and three girls.
Ember has always been an independent little girl, and yesterday she reminded us of that. She also reminded us of the amazing power of nature.
