Well it is now a week since Shadow showed the first signs of labour and we all went into alert mode. Now here she is with four beautiful puppies all of whom are doing well and she is looking very fit and well for a dog who has been through a traumatic birth and a caesarean section. She says she’s really looking forward to going for a little walk later just to have a look round at the world and check it’s still there. Our Mistress is always a little reluctant to take her to places where other dogs go at this stage as she doesn’t want to risk bringing any infection back to the puppies. At this stage the little ones have very little immunity so it’s important to try to shield them as much as possible. Shadow will be washed down on her return too, which Shadow appreciates as she hates getting grit up between her teats as she walks.
It won’t be very long until the roll bars come out of the whelping box too. Our Mistress usually reckons by the time the pups weigh a kilo there is more risk of them getting stuck under them that being injured because they aren’t there. The helping hand for Dixie and Della yesterday paid off and they both did a little catching up on weight. Duchess is now 840g – up 60 on the day before. D’Artagnan had a very long feed at one point in the night and is up to 810g having added 80g. Dixie added 60 to get to 780g and little Della isn’t so little anymore. She added 90g to bring her up to 755g – so they’ve all passed the three-quarters of a kilo stage.
Just vaguely, with a good imagination, they are moving from looking like guinea pigs to little puppies. It’s amazing how they change so much so quickly.
The winner of a pair of Tickets in our Discover Dogs Ticket competition is Jo Lomax. Well done, Jo. We’ll arrange to have your tickets sent out to you.
You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com
Alfie’s Diary – the Book as well as our other books are available HERE