The miracle of birth.

Sally had her puppies finally.

On Saturday morning, while I was getting dressed, Sally came into my room and started to try to dig a hole through the marble. I knew that something was up so I called my mom and I told her that I was going to take Sally to the vet so that when she went into labor there would be a professional there to help her out (not to mention that this weekend we only had one car in the house and I had a few errands to run).

Well, my mom refused to let me take the dog to the vet.

"Mom, I am going to take Sally to the vet so that when she goes into labor Sandy (the vet) can take care of her"
"Are you crazy? do you think she is like a dog and that you can just leave her abandoned at the vet?"
"hmmm...mother, she is a dog and I am not abandoning her. I am worried about her"
"NO. Let her stay home and when she is ready you take her to the vet"
"But I have to go out and take care of stuff! I can't go out worrying like this"
"Just go and take your cell phone. Besides, I doubt she'll give birth during the day"

I don't know why I listen to my mom. Seriously. Every time she is so matter of fact about something, it's like the stars conspire against her because whatever she says won't happen, will.

As I am at the hairdresser with half of my hair still wet, Ivan calls me up to tell me that Sally has gone into labor. I just kept thinking to myself "I shouldn't have gone to the gym...fuuuck" but like a good parent, wet hair and all, I ran out of the place and drove home like a bat out of hell to take my little dog to the vet.

By the time I got home, they had already taken her to the vet so I jump back in the car and drive over there.

When Sally saw me, it was the funniest thing ever. She had a puppy hanging out of her (literally) and yet, she jumped off the bed to meet me with the poor puppy banging its head on the floor. It was terrible. Anyway, it was a good, easy delivery because she decided that she wasn't going to do any work. No pushing, no nothing. Sandy (the vet) had to literally pull them out of her.

Because the process took what felt like 8 years, I kept driving back and forth from my house to the vet checking on the health of my dog and the 6 puppies we were expecting. You can only imagine my surprise when at 7:30pm when Ivan and Alexis went to pick them all up to bring them home we found that Sally didn't have 6 puppies, she had 7.

My first reaction was "are you sure it's hers?" hahahahaha

But they all look the same in a very hamster like way. Hell, they could be hamsters! but they are all white (and they are dogs) so we know that the one to knock her up was Charlie. damn dog!

Anyway, there have been problems with the puppies and Sally though. While she was delivering them, I thought it was really weird that she wasn't licking them or even looking at them. When Sandy would put the puppies where she could see them, Sally just barked at them and growled. To me that seemed unnatural.

After a while, I saw her feeding them and I thought it was kind of weird that she was so rough with them because they really are small but I figured that nature is taking its course and that this is how it should be. Well, that theory went to hell when we realized that Sally was killing her puppies.

Sunday morning we woke up to find a dead puppy. We thought that was natural selection because nobody wants to think that anyone (or anything) would kill their own offspring; but we changed our mind when Alexis found another dead puppy, this one with bite marks and the look of someone who had been smothered.

Needless to say, we are extremely upset about these terrible losses!

Now the five remaining puppies are chilling in a breadbasket under a lamp on our coffee table away from Sally. We bring them together under strict supervision every few hours so they can feed but we don't leave them together too long and have decided not to do it until the puppies can fend for themselves (or at least bark).

My mom always says that motherhood brings out the best in you regardless of whether you are a human, a dog, or an elephant. She often reminds us of what a great mother Katerina was when she had her pups a year ago but I think that Sally is an example that parenting is not for everyone...

and that really makes me wonder...