Hula has been busy
I’ve done little over the last few days as I’ve been somewhat preoccupied. I have become awfully superstitious in my old age so had let very few people know that Hula had been mated. It stems back to the woman who asked for a black and tan bitch and I didn’t have one until several years later, when Mme G had given up and bought one from someone else! It was frustrating that she bought her from someone I’d suggested in the first place…… And the b/t bitch that I eventually had is Hula.
Hula is a carrier of EF, from her father as Bijou was clear, so I had to find a dog who was clear. Although I like Lettie I didn’t particularly want to repeat that mating. It was SO irritating that my first choice was out of date with his heart test and his owner couldn’t get one done quickly. I considered the dogs I liked and thought to take a gamble. There is a rather handsome Blenheim dog who is only an hour and half from me. I had seen two nice pups from a litter he’d produced with a Ruby bitch: one Ruby and one Blenheim; both dogs. Yes, said his owner; she knows Hula and likes her so was happy with the idea and as she too is signed to the charte de qualité he was certainly up to date with his health tests: we gave each other copies of our dogs’ tests at the mating.
It was 2007 when I last had a litter of more than two; Cedric’s litter. Since then I’ve only had four litters producing six puppiesA second litter in 2007 produced a ruby and a black and tan dog, there were two ruby dogs in 2009, Hula in 2012 and then her daughter Lettie last year.
Clearly Hula had at least three: I could feel two move on one side and one on the other at the same time. She continued to play with Lettie and jump on the sofa even though I would have preferred her not to. She gave me that “For heaven’s sake don’t fuss!” look. She bloomed in pregnancy, her coat is really glossy and she had put on the right amount of weight.
Tuesday evening she sat on my lap but began to get a bit fidgety. She’d eaten her dinner as usual, but I’ve had others do that. When I put the dogs to bed she went into the dog room and curled up a cage. I went to bed then at about half past midnight asked myself what I was doing so went to the dog room. I opened the door and Hula trotted out, calmly, followed me to my room and then hopped into her bed which had been there for a day or so. She settled down for about quarter of an hour and then started to dig up the bedding: the first pup was born at 01:30 and the fifth at 03:30. After the third she was giving me a look that seemed to say “There was only one last time! Where are these coming from???” No 4 was a rather large b/t dog (253 grams; nearly 9 oz.) and it took her four contractions to push him out and then she just lay there: the other three pups were suckling. I cleared his head: the sac was quite hard to break. Once I’d done that she took over and the last one arrived without her seeming to notice as she was so busy with the boy. There was a black and tan bitch and the other three are ruby bitches. All have some white but I’ve had more from w/c to w/c matings.
There were two medium; 195 and 212 grams and two smaller; both 160 grams; one of them the b/t bitch, so quite a varied litter.
Hula settled down well with them but I had some anxiety on two counts. One was that she refused to go out and it was Thursday morning before she finally emptied her bladder and created a lake on the rather waterlogged ground (we’re now getting the rain after weeks of sun!) and did a poo which was, I was relieved to see, normal.
My “holiday home” neighbours, a Dutch couple, Ruud and Maryann, were down for New Year and by chance called round on Wednesday: Hula was perfectly happy for them to look at her and her babies but when Goldi tried to stick her head round the door was not impressed. I was intrigued that Raziela, one of the 15 year olds, spent about ten minutes with her nose to the bottom of my bedroom door, sniffing in hard. It was Rascally who was more “baby” minded and with whom Jasmine the kitten had often slept, but she just gave a big inward sniff at the door, almost in passing, and has shown little interest since.
The pups didn’t suckle the hind teats which started to get hard so I have spent some hours sitting on the floor with cabbage leaves pressed against them. I’m always anxious about mastitis, but this old method is working even if it’s playing havoc with my back. Although they must have been uncomfortable it hadn’t affected Hula too much as she is eating well, producing milk and the pups are steadily gaining weight, but about the same amount each so the smaller ones are still smaller.
I don’t sleep well as I wake at the smallest squeak and a couple of times I’ve switched on the light and Hula has blinked at me, pups lined up along her abdomen, as if to ask “What IS the matter with you?”
I saw Charline from the boarding kennels, told her I had a litter and when I said the boy weighed 253 grams she was quite surprised: her Staffie pups often weigh less that that!
I haven’t taken any more photos since the day they were born: Hula was looking up at Maryann. The next ones will show how much they’ve grown.
Jane
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Congratulations
