Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Nola and her babies





Have you ever seen a birth of an animal? I have, a Cow, a Zebra, an Alligator and a few others.... but NEVER a dog!

So, I thought it would be really cool to witness a birth(s) of a puppy(s).

Nola, (mum, who is up for adoption through Pet Rescue By Judy) gave birth to 9 pups yesterday. I must say, as exciting as this was, it was also quite a sad moment when she delivered two stillborn babies out of the nine.

Initially I was quite nervous about her delivery. Not knowing who the father is, of course I was thinking the worst, and thought to myself "geese what are we to do if they end up being Bull Dogs, or Pugs or Boston Terriers." I started to read up on helping with the delivery, but I can not even handle it when a dog gets hurt let alone a delivery! So I thought "there's going to be no preparation for this, it will have to be a going with the flow kinda deal."

The one thing I did want to do, is document the time in between each delivery, whether the puppies were born head first or rear first, colour, gender, and mum's reaction to each delivery.

Let me tell you, none of that happened. This is how it all went down. At 5:30am her water broke. By 7:30am she had her first puppy. From that point, it was all one after the other.



The first one out was a black brindle pup with the cutest white markings. Minutes later, came out the second one. Unfortunately he was the first still born. I lost it at this point... I mean heck I was not prepared for this! I had no clue on what she expected me to do.... so I just watched her. I mean if she could talk, I think she would have told me "Teena hang in there, I've got this!"



She ripped open the sack, ate it, chewed off the umbilical cord, licked the puppy quite aggressively in an attempt to stimulate movement and breathing, and there was nothing. I could not even believe this, but she gently pried open the puppies mouth with her mouth and licked the inside of his mouth.... but still nothing. She was clearly quite distressed by this, as evidence of her body language. She left the first pup, and stood up to walk around this one, nudged him ever so gently with her snout and tried to push down on him. I don't know if this is what she was doing, but it is exactly what it looked like.... she gently put her head, tilted side ways on the puppy's abdomen, and leaned down into kind of a play bow, only that her front legs were tucked in towards her belly using her weight towards the front. It looked like she was trying to do the Heimlich maneuver on the puppy.... I could not even believe this!

I watched her as I cried, and then played the interfering human role.... and took a towel and placed it over the stillborn puppy. It was honestly more for me than for her.... I could not have handled it if she ate the puppy, which I doubt she would have.... but I thought she needed to go back to paying attention to the first one. Once the puppy was covered she moved away from it to the first one, and lay back down.... after which the third came out.



I will upload the video for tomorrow, for you to see how amazing animals are, how instinctive they are, how amazing of a mother she is, and when nature calls, there is not much you can do to keep her away from her puppies. It was fascinating to observe her so calm, so trusting of us, so alert. She was the perfect mummy! It was amazing to watch her move towards a cleaner area for each delivery. How does she know all this, and how is it that as humans we don't have these sharp of instincts?



Did we ever, and is it that we have lost them along the way?

More on her birth tomorrow. Enjoy the photos.

THANK YOU NOLA for allowing us to be present.

4 comments:

Becky said...

Oh my gosh Teena! They are so precious! Can't wait to see more pics and the video! and to find out what you name them :)

tailwagginknitter said...

Nola is absolutely perfect! I adore her crazy ears and markings. More than that, I adore her motherly instincts. I can't even imagine being there like you were. I was crying whilst I read this (and I already knew the story). Such a sap! Anyway...suggestions for president puppy names: Kennedy, Theodore (Teddy), Woodrow (Woody), Quincy, Lyndon, Pierce, Truman. Like?

Unknown said...

woww!
can't wait for the video...

doglando said...

Lol.... an interesting question was raised by Matt (one of our fellow campus coaches).... what if someone did not like that president, would they choose not to adopt that puppy??? lol.

Too bad, I'm with you Kelly, I will let you all know who is who over the next few days.