We're Getting Ready!

Skye's due date is rapidly approaching so I'm starting the blog for the "Southern" litter. We've chosen that theme to honor Dana Morris, Skye's first owner who died from ovarian cancer three years ago, and Lauran Mancuso, Skye's present owner. Dana was from Lexington, KY and was a true Steel Magnolia. Lauran is from Louisiana and is a true Southern. So the pups' registered names will either have the words South or Southern in them or will have to do with the American South.

Skye is looking pretty darn big at the moment and is waddling wherever she goes. She has an excellent appetite so far and is a happy a dog as we've seen. We've started spending time in the whelping box but I'll confess, Dreamer thinks it is more fun than Skye. Skye can't really figure why we are hanging out in this silly white box. Not to worry, she'll figure it out.

I wanted to get an idea of how many pups we have, either confirming or adding to the ultrasound results of 10 pups. Skye was also smelling kind of ripe after enjoying some good rolls in God knows what so I shaved her, scrubbed her down, bathed the rest of her and dried her. After dinner, she settled down for a nap and I poured a glass of wine. Using a Sweet Beats doppler (thanks, Charlie), I started the slow process of finding heartbeats on the pups. It took an hour but I found quite a few--we are somewhere between 11 and 13 pups, if my investigation was correct. It's always fun to see how well I did once the pups are here. Skye thought I was pretty crazy, marking big X's on her belly for each heartbeat. The X's make it much easier to check on the pups over the next few days. All the pups sound good, with heartbeats between 196 and 209 beats per second. Think "bdrdrdrdrdrdrdr."

Her temp is all over the place, ranging from 98.6 to 101 degrees over the past few days. However, the general trend is down so we know the process is starting. For those who didn't follow our last blog, we are looking for two temperatures below 99 degrees out of the four we take each day. That will indicate the pups should be born within the next 24 hours. I've estimated her due date as Oct 30 but we aren't sure. Only time will tell.

Well, it's time for all of us to hit the hay! Stay tuned, Southerners coming!

Gayle