I AM IN AWE OF MY DOG

I cannot remember as a child our dogs having puppies. I know they did, I just don't remember. Watching Sophie giving birth, then cleaning her puppies, was just amazing to me. Watching her cleaning them was a trip, I honestly thought she was going to hurt them. I said as much to Harold, he told me she knows what to do. Each day I am more and more in awe of this process.

We purchased two heating lamps to keep the puppies warm. Living in Volcano, it can get into the low forties in the late evening and early morning hours. Volcano's weather is constantly changing throughout the day. One minute, it will be hot and sunny, then, cloudy and cold or pouring rain. However, I do feel sorry for Sophie with the heating lamps, she hates being hot.

On Friday, we had a beautiful sunny morning. I got up to check on the puppies at 8:00a.m., Sophie was frantic in her kennel. When I let her out of her kennel, thinking she need to go potty, she went behind one of the other kennels and started to dig. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, due to the sun being out she was worried the puppies were too hot. I shut the warming lights off and she instantly settled down. Mind you, I am new at all this. Later that afternoon, she started doing her frantic act again, the temperature was dropping. I turned the lights on, she once again settled down.

I am constantly checking on them, making sure all of them are eating well. I did not have children, I can't imagine how new mothers do it. The constant worrying is just too much and these are only puppies. 

My family thought I was nuts last night cause I didn't want to leave them for too long, after all it was New Year's.  But, it was a pretty cold night and I was worried about them. We went to my sisters house for about an hour and a half. Believe it or not I had a hard time being away from them. When I got home, I checked on them and they were fine. I got up at 3:00a.m. to check on them, the temperature had dropped quite a bit, I lowered the lights which warmed them up.

They are getting bigger day by day, I still worry about the last born. He is so tiny and the other three seem to push him out of the way. So I sit there and make sure he gets a belly full each feeding. 

The second puppy from the left is the little guy I worry about

As usual, I asked to pose and she did!

 As you can see by the above photos, he is such a little guy compared to the other three.