I’m not one to count chickens before they hatch or in this case puppies, but either Shadow needs to do rather more work on holding in her tummy muscles or there’s something going on that looks promising. If she isn’t pregnant she is going to have to go on a mammoth diet. If she is pregnant then either she has lost some control of her muscles given it’s her third litter or there it is going to be a big litter. I’m sure that at this stage before she didn’t really look very pregnant, but since last weekend she has started to look more than a little rotund. She would be just over 4 weeks pregnant now so there are another 4 ½ weeks to go or a little more. She is very affectionate and quite definitely hormonal in a motherly affectionate sort of way. It has even led to my Mistress spending a little longer looking at names and I think we have a shortlist. At this stage the shortlist has 4 preferred boys names and 4 girls although the order may change. We will have a list of 6 of each by the time they are born, not because we think there could be as many as 12 but it’s possible they might all be boys or all girls. It does happen though not very often. So far our litters have been fairly evenly split. The shortlist for boys is Casanova – in the hope he will become a stud dog. Che – which is the Portugese word used in some South American countries to mean ‘friend’. Chekov – because one of our puppies always seems to turn out to be bright, and Cholmondeley (which for those of you who don’t know the name is pronounced Chumley and is a bit of a joke in our house for any word that sounds different than its spelling). The shortlist for girls is Cinderella after the fairytale and pantomime character. Cracker – because it’s Christmas. Cuddles – because that’s what we are like and my Mistress had a stuffed rabbit pyjama case that went by that name when she was a child. I say ‘had’ but there is a strong possibility it is in the wardrobe in the spare room! Finally Crumble because my Mistress likes it. Now we just need everything to go ok.
Alfie’s Diary – the Book is available at Amazon UK –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00583ZGSA
You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com