STORK DELIVERY CONFIRMATION

Okay, first of all, my apologies to my dedicated blog-watchers for the complete lack of updates this month. We hit a few life-snags that slowed us down a bit. Donovan poured Orange Juice in into the vent of our computer (directly on top of the hard drives) and I rushed it in to be professionelly cleaned only to learn that the owner of the shop has a bad habit of dissappearing for weeks at a time, and so I guess we were lucky to have gotten it back at the end of 2 weeks rather than 2 months. But for those two weeks I was completely lost and braindead without my computer! St. Anthony thanks for answering my prayers and bringing it back!

All is now back on track and this momma is ready to spill it all....

As you can see from the picture above, I motherhood has found me AGAIN, but this time by adoption the old-fashioned way...the stork STILL DELIVERS. Lets begin this tale of tails....

May 23rd, I am walking to our mailbox (a block away, a community safe-box) when I spot a little brown dog that from even my distance showed signs of a serious maternity crisis. Her belly was practically dragging with pups (she looked a lot like a pygmy goat:) and I could tell she was desperately searching for a place to whelp her pups. On closer inspection my suspicions were confirmed by her bloody discharge and I knew that time was short. So being the farm girl I will always be no matter how big a city I live in I did the only thing I knew to do, I scooped her up and carried her home. Her brown eyes glowed with relief. I was glad too, for the storm drains in our neighborhood were all open for repairs and I knew that cave-like holes would be attractive to her but dangerous.

I walked in the front door with my arms full and to my surprise Joe (talking on the phone) whispered at first "that dog is not staying in here" then I just said "she's having puppies" to which he surprisingly answered "Oh, ok." As if bringing in a whole family of dogs somehow was more acceptable than just one. I just kept walking through to the backyard, thanking God that I overcame that hurdle so easily.

I plopped her in our newly fenced kennel area and went back to get things to help her feel more at home.

May 24, 7:30am....Trying to beat the heat, I took both boys with me to the backyard to help me build a whelping box. Momma dog was holding those puppies in since the conditions were not right yet. So an hour later I had a deluxe box built that looked as if I had PLANNED for this.

May 24, 7:30pm....We had been a our nephew's bday party only to come home and discover 5 puppies in every possible color all nursing blissfully with Momma Dog. I figured she was probably done, but 2 hours later 2 more puppies appeared in the box. By midnight there was another and when I awoke in the morning there were 10 all-told. One didn't make it through the night, probably got stuck behind one rotund female that stuck out like a sore thumb. Wow. 9 puppies. 5 females, 4 males.

May 25, Early morning flash flood downpour turns my deluxe puppy box into Noah's Ark and so I am rushing back and forth dodging lightning bolts with fistfulls of puppies to the shop for a much needed location change...and there they have stayed ever since, perfectly situated right by the doggy door which is great for Momma Dog.

LATER THAT SAME DAY: It finally dawns on Joey that we are puppy parents and he utters a single profound question: "Explain to me just how did we go from owning 2 dogs to 12???" I pleaded the 5th.

PRESENT DAY...the pups just opened up their eyes and ears and are now starting to play with one another. Joey walked in this morning with one in his hand and surprised me by saying with a bit of REAL enthusiasm, "Wow, Kateri, they are actually getting cute!" Okay, I know- for all of my husband's good qualities, he was completely deprived as a child from anything that had fur or 4 legs, so you have to understand that for him it is legitimately surprising to discover that a dog, which falls under the category of animal, can actually go through a cute stage. He will get a good education in doggy cuteness now! Then he decided to test the ingrained theory of puppy scents and buried his nose in the ball of fur and took a big whiff.......I think the puppy didn't look quite as cute after that, as he just made a funny face & handed her off.

As of now, we are keeping Momma Dog (I know, I know, she really needs a name!) AND pick of the litter pup. Donovan & Avery are already doing the groundbreaking pup socialization, by the time these lil guys are ready to go to new homes they will be very tolerant:)