Happy birthdays

Today is the third anniversary of Della's birthing day, so happy birthday to the 12 pack puppies. They are all still thriving in their homes, as far as I know anyway, and I do see or hear about most of them fairly often. Della is less inclined to keep in touch. 

I've gone through blog posts from the first couple of weeks and pulled out a few pictures of Della being a mother and the puppies being fat little sausage rolls. We've had litters since then, of course, and even one many years before, but Della's was special because, well, it was Della's.

I always loved this picture because she looks so proud and happy here.

It was exhausting for all of us, but especially for Della, but she was

finally able to relax and nap while the puppies were nursing.

This is a great picture of Erika.

She was the only one who didn't realize that she would be adopting that puppy.

Although they didn't move around much at this stage it was still a lot of work

keeping track of 12 puppies because they blended in with each other and with her.

We would often lift a leg to count puppies hidden underneath.

We had her a couple of weeks before she gave birth, so she trusted us completely.

We learned a lot, but our job was really just to support Della doing her motherhood thing.

I do think we helped, and I know she enjoyed the company as one of us was with her 

and the puppies 24/7 for the first few weeks.

She wanted to be close enough to keep an eye on them and

they were happy as long as she was near.

After a couple days Della would take a break and play with Serena.

We really miss Serena still.

Touching even a bit of Della's paw was enough to feel safe and secure.

Sweet Serena, Della, and Theo.

If there's a better depiction of motherhood, I haven't seen it.