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Chapter
Three: The Whelping
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 6-24-00
(12:20 am) Well, I gave up and went to sleep around
11. Ivy crawled under the covers and down to my feet
again, but I was so exhausted that her squirming around
didn't keep me awake this time. Around midnight, I woke
up to a soaking wet bed. Instantly awake, I leaped out
of bed into the whelping box. "We need to get you
moved in here, honey," I told her. Amazingly, Ivy
jumped right into the box and started nesting. With
a few minutes, we had a puppy emerging. She seemed very
confused, so I helped ease it on out and broke the sack
for her. She took over immediately, thank goodness...I
was having flashes of the Bad Mother Stories everyone
has been telling me. Some bitches more or less refuse
to have anything to do with the puppies and the breeder
winds up raising them herself! As soon as I could, I
took a peek to see what we had...a brindle girl with
just a spot of white in the middle of her neck. She
seems fine. 14 ounces. That's a big puppy. |
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 (1:10)
I'd forgotten how nervewracking it gets between puppies.
Ivy seemed for awhile to have just stopped with the
first one. She spent a great deal of time cleaning her.
I'm letting her do as much as possible by herself, though
it sure makes me nervous. A second puppy arrived at
1:00 am. Another dark brindle girl, this one with a
white slash on her rear and half a thin white collar,
15 ounces. Ivy did better this time. I did help get
the sack off...I just can't trust her to do that fast
enough, even though I know she would.
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(1:30 am)
Boy, by the time we got the last one cleaned
up, the third got here. Yet another girl, this one
a lighter brindle and white, 14 ounces. I don't actually
know how much whippet puppies usually weigh when they're
born, but I had collies who didn't weigh this much!
They sure are healthy little girls, and all have caught
on to nursing with no problem.
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 (2:15
am) Girl number four. Another dark brindle with
a white patch on her rear and a white patch on her neck.
This one was 15 ounces! Ivy is very professional about
this whole thing, and very happy for me to help. She
does most of the work, but I do still get their little
heads out of the sacks. I had planned to take some pictures
of this process, but the camera is downstairs and I
don't want to leave. Walt got up and checked in on us
half an hour ago, but I forgot to ask him to go get
the camera. How did he manage to arrange sleeping through
this whole thing? He did ask if I needed him to boil
some water. "Isn't that what people do?" Right.
Thanks, honey.
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(3:00
am) I don't think she knows how to make boys. And
they're getting bigger...this one was 16 ounces! A dark
brindle girl with a thin white collar. Ivy is getting
tired, but still taking care of them. In between puppies
I sit studying my Canine Reproduction book and
trying to be sure everything is going right. Again I
shudder at wht all can go wrong. Puppies born with their
organs outside their bodies, mothers hemorraging to
death... I try not to think about it. When Ivy starts
laboring hard again, I put all the puppies who are already
here in a little box with a heating pad to wait till
the next one is born. Fortunately she trusts me. I have
had moms who really just wanted to be left alone. Nine
times out of ten they would do fine all by themselves,
but it's that tenth time that keeps breeders sitting
up with their girls all night.
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 (4:15
am) Well, we lost one. She went a long time between
puppies this time, and seemed to go in and out of contractions
a few times. I think she is really tired. About the
time I was thinking about calling the vet, she finally
had this one, another little girl, born dead, the sack
already gone. An hour between puppies is not usually
considered an emergency...yet (I had a collie who went
two hours once) but apparently it was too long this
time. I cleaned out the pup's little mouth, gave her
a few slings to clear the mucous, and massaged her vigorously,
even blew into her mouth, but never got so much as a
gasp. She'd been dead too long to bring her back. Geez,
I hate that. I feel there was something more I could
have done, but I don't know what. Ivy licked her a few
times, but wasn't very interested.. She figured out
immediately that the pup was beyond help and just started
cleaning the others again. I didn't give up as soon,
but finally had to admit the baby was gone. I put her
on a heating pad though, in case there was a miracle.
There wasn't.
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 (5:00
am) Finally a boy! This is number seven, so if
the x-ray was correct, we're done. This guy started
nursing before he was all the way out of the sack!
He's much lighter than the girls, maybe a blue brindle?,
and weighs 16 ounces. I'd really hoped for a blue
brindle boy. Maybe this will be my keeper!
(6:30 am) Ivy says we are finished. She didn't
want to leave them to go out and pee, but when I insisted,
she came right along. She sure didn't fool around
though. The minute she was through, she was straining
on the leash to get back to the door. I let her in,
took off the leash, and she was up the stairs and
in her box in no time. Walt and I took the dead puppy
out to bury her under the peach tree behind the barn.
Gosh, that was tough. A little life that didn't have
a chance...or maybe would have if I had known more
or done more. I do know from my collie years that
it's normal to feel that way, but it doesn't help
the pain very much to know it. Should I have called
a vet? How long can you wait between puppies?
Was there something more I could have done to revive
her? And it's hard too, wondering what her little
life would have been like. She just looked so normal,
as if she could have started breathing any moment.
But I'm happy
the others seem so healthy. Walt is making me waffles
with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast.
Much more useful than boiling water...
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Chapter
Four - The Puppy Rearing
Chapter Five - The Ledger
Chapter Two - The Pregnancy
Chapter One - The Planning
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