7 beautiful puppies born between 4:20 and 7:20 AM Alaska time

I’ll pre-warn you. I’m a writer. I went to grad school for it. I love dogs, and I especially love my Dalmatians. I am writing this with 4.5 hours of sleep, an Old-Fashioned and a very giddy heart because we have 7 new heartbeats in our home. What follows is the story of the birth day of our planned litter between our good girl, Ruby, and a stellar show dog, OD.

I went to sleep with Marty (my 18 month old Dalmatian boy) while Jonathan stayed on the couch with Ruby, who had been nauseous and sick all day. She finally had fallen asleep and he was content there, too. Jon let me sleep from 11-4, and is my hero. I’m sure he is Ruby’s hero, too. He woke me up at 4, saying Ruby was panting, and he thought that contractions had begun. Sure enough!

I got up, brushed my teeth, washed my face, started some water for coffee, put some can-do pajamas and my grandma’s sweater on and escorted Ruby to the whelping pen in my office/laundry room. It has a heated floor and I love the lifeproof flooring we had installed. The direct access to the backyard is perfect, when it’s not -6 degrees out. Safe to say that door isn’t getting opened much until this cold spell is over.

It’s a beauty of a whelping pen. It is a Lucite and aluminum panel system and we scored two toddler pools in the fall at Safeway for $7 bucks. The whelping pen wasn’t 7 bucks, but hey, balance. It’s all about balance. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I told Ruby what we were doing, and she went back to her “condo” kennel in our bedroom for her two favorite blankets and three stuffed “babies” but we got down to business within 20 minutes. I had to call Jon from the whelping pen, “Hey Babe, we are in it to win it! There is a puppy out already!” Poor guy. I bet he got 2 hours of sleep at best. He’s an awesome guy and Ruby’s best human.

Our first puppy was a big boy with a really dark liver colored patch over his right ear. He emerged from the birth canal with the water sack and could still be heard hollering through both sacks! I helped him out of that sack, as Ruby looked at me with the most incredulous face – she looked at her hiney and that baby laying there – and back again and Ruby had such joy in her eyes. She began to lick him and I dried him at the same time and she just dried him off with such care and diligence. He was so ready for the world and within a few minutes, he was latched on to a teat with zero human help! He weighed 14.2 oz and had incredible vigor.

The second pup was also a boy, born nearly an hour later than the first, and he arrived without issue and Ruby took right to cleaning him up. He was chipper and happy to latch on and join his brother while his mum massaged him and he was funny, talking to us – well, probably to his mum though I like to think I was part of his welcoming committee, too. 🙂 Boy 2 weighed a respectable 11.5 oz. and he has nice pigmentation – Liver pigmentation!

Pup number three was born with minimal effort, two pushes, to be exact! She arrived about 30 minutes after her brother and she was so strong! She twisted and arched and swam forward in the sack to meet my fingers breaking the sack open and her mum greeted her first with some sniffs and kisses and in quick time, she was nearly dry and vocal even as she found the teat. She kept talking to her mum while she latched on and she sucked hard enough to pull the paint off the wall from two feet away! Well, that’s untested, but it should suffice to say that she is a strong girlie and I’m super happy that she was 13.0 oz and so outspoken. Guess what? Another Liver Dal! She’s starting out as an opinionated Liver girl and I’m not a bit surprised!

A full 20 minutes later, Ruby pushed hard once, and I could see that the sack was protruding but not coming further, not slipping out like the ones before, Ruby tried two more times in quick succession, so remembering Dr. Hutchinson’s whelping lecture, I slipped a glove with some lube on and inserted my finger into the other exit canal to be able to guide that shoulder better and it worked! Out popped Boy #3! He was lively and Ruby bit the sack and began to clean him while I shucked off the glove and grabbed another towel to help him dry off. Things were happening pretty fast at that point, as Jon and I shuffled pups off the teat to the warming box in the corner of the whelping box, Ruby took the lead with this little active Liver boy! That’s right! Another Liver boy! He tipped the scales at 14.5 oz and he, too was full of squeaks and little barks as we burrito wrapped him to weigh him and take his cutie newborn mugshots.

Keeping with the 20 minute track, with humans shuffling pups off the teats to the warming box, Ruby sighed, and put her head down, tail out further, and pushed and we were hustling to help her unwrap yet another boy! I gotta admit, I was starting to think things were going to be pretty one-sided in the gender and in the color department! This handsome little guy made me smile as he was all business and quickly latched on even before the placenta and his bag were off. He was pretty quiet, with only a few murmurs of gratitude to his mum, and he was our only black and white boy of this litter, weighing in at 14.2 oz.

The warming box shuffle was happening when Ruby took a deep breath again and began to push and a round ball – the backend of a puppy was visible. Ruby pushed hard, and it did push out to the opening of her vulva, but not beyond. Jon said, “Hey, She pushed and there’s nothing.” He was right. I talked to Ruby and told her I was going to help her and I did my best. That puppy did come out and it was small, and pretty darn limp. She was grey. My heart beat faster and I suctioned her, grabbed a couple of microfiber towels and dried her and then swung her and checked her again, nothing. No motion. I’m not going to lie. I was insta-sweating and putting all the prayers and good vibes out in the universe that I had, looking at her excellent markings, our only second girl out of what was expected to be 7-8 pups – I just wasn’t going to let her go without a fight. I rubbed, swung, and remembered something we did with calves – there is this reflex that triggers some life – I tickled her cheeks, wiggled the suction tip in her mouth, blew on her face lightly, and I’ll be darned, it worked! she gapped her mouth and though no noise came out, there was movement. I noticed some pinking up of her face, and I went through it all again, handed her to Jon because another pup was coming, and he rubbed her and we continued to work with her while we got another one cleaned up and on the teat. It was dramatic but man, we don’t give up easily. I’ve lost pups and calves and foals and never regretted trying for a shot at life. It worked. I had to call my good friend and Ruby and Marty’s breeder – Julia Soukup – with gooey hands, and asked if she had any other tricks that I didn’t have. Nope. We were on the same wavelength, and I’m here to say, I’ll never give up on a pup if I see any signs. You’ll have to pry me off. This girl might be pretty special. Time will tell, but this is our only black and white girl. She’s small, not tiny. She’s well formed and she looks smaller than the others but fine. After all day watching her, she is barking, sucking, sleeping and crawling around just like the rest of them. I texted the repro vet Dr. Caroline Bolt in Florida, and I told her the weights and she clued in to it and said , When ever you pass by the pen and see her off a teat, put her on a full one. Will do, Dr. Bolt! Will-do! Little Miss Black and White weighed in at 9.6 oz. She’s got some catching up to do, but damn, she’s cute.

The 7th and last pup born was a very spunky girl that I don’t remember much about in the moment, as her little sister overshadowed her with some serious enlivening efforts that required phone calls, multiple efforts, and made me wish for a cup of coffee and a few more hours sleep. That 3rd girl is a pretty thing and she is good-sized 13.4 oz Liver girl. As I’ve watched them today, this girlie is thriving and I’m sure she’s her mum’s daughter!

I haven’t come up with names yet, but I will. For now, they are #1-7 and we are lucky and as grateful as can be.

Tomorrow is dew-claw removal with Dr. Emily Clinton. She’s our Repro Vet and I’m already tickled pink that she is going to do this for our kiddos. More tomorrow… <3