Marvelous

Word got around the internet pretty quickly yesterday about a pregnant female German Shepherd in a shelter in West Virginia who was said to be due within a week. Erika messaged me, I agreed, and she sprang into action making arrangements with the shelter and transport arrangements to get her here. She also pushed through an adoption application for Woody and worked on finding other foster homes to take in the two Doberman pups we still have here. The result was a planned arrival here on Thursday about 1:00 p.m. 

The dobie pups spent their last night in the puppy shed and this morning I got to work cleaning it out for the expected new arrival. While I was up at Lowe's buying a mop I got a message informing me that the time schedule was being accelerated because momma dog had gone into labor and already delivered one puppy at the shelter. I still had plenty of time to finish cleaning but most of the action was happening in the transporters' vehicles. When Gina arrived this afternoon, she had the mother dog and five puppies, four of whom had been born en route. 

We got them moved into the puppy shed and I began watching for the expected delivery of two more puppies (we were told to expect seven). Momma dog was friendly and would even let me handle her puppies some although she clearly preferred that I not. They seemed fine and she seemed fine so I left them alone. I brought her food a couple of times and she would get up to eat it so I could confirm that there were still just the five pups. This continued throughout the afternoon. 

I don't know what the expected count of seven puppies was based on and began to doubt it. She was not displaying any signs of labor at this point and looked to be done. We will continue to monitor her, but I'm assuming that five is the number and it's a good number so I hope we're all done. 

Momma dog is obviously a German Shepherd. She had been surrendered to the shelter and the owners said she couldn't possibly be pregnant because she had never been around a male dog. I'm not sure if that qualifies these puppies as miraculous births, but they are marvelous births at least, so we named momma dog Marvel. The puppies, three girls and two boys, will be named after characters from the Marvel universe. Right now I'm thinking Storm, Rogue, and Elektra for the girls, and Thor and Hawkeye for the boys. One of the boys appears to be solid black, the rest are sort of brownish, but it's too early to tell what their coats will be like. 

They all appear to be nursing and Marvel is taking good care of them. She seemed very relaxed and happy to be someplace stationary. I guess this was the equivalent of giving birth in a cab on the way to the hospital. I missed out on the excitement but I'm okay with that. I see my job as taking care of Marvel so that she can care for the marvelous puppies.