Our Friday started out awful. I used the InstaPot to make breakfast and it ended up burnt. I discovered that the kids had removed all the seals on the lids to my water jugs. The fresh americano with whip my husband made for me spilled all over the floor. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the girl pigs decided to go frolicking through a neighbors buckwheat field. Our pregnant livestock guardian dog, Fleece, hadn’t been seen since last night, and the kids were being overwhelmingly loud.
The pigs were fine, they decided to take a nap on the neighbors front porch…you know, like pigs do. Fleece however stayed missing all day. This would be stressful under normal circumstances but she got herself knocked up a few months back and we have been checking every morning and evening to see if she had her babies yet. Our vet said a week and a half ago that he expected she would have them anytime. I made myself sick going out in the muggy heat several times to call for her. If she could hear me she didn’t seem to care. I ended up putting my energy toward stress cleaning the house.
After a few hours of stress cleaning and metal music, Connor got off work and decided to make homemade pizza with fresh mozzarella and basil from our garden. He did amazing and it was delicious. While everyone else was still finishing up I grabbed a pail of dog food and headed out to make sure Fleece had food when she showed back up. After filling the food pails I went to fix the garden gate. It was open just enough that a hungry piggy would be able to wiggle right through. A bump on my butt made me turn around and our beautiful Fleece was there waiting for me to love on her.
Right away I noticed the lack of belly. Like we had assumed, she had her babies and ignored me when I called. The bad part was she had decided to give birth underneath our barn that collapsed from the tornadoes last summer. Even if I was small enough to fit into one of the openings and shimmy my way along the ground my newly found claustrophobia screamed against it. Luckily our kids understood the assignment. Equipped with long sleeves, pants, and flashlights Annabelle and Hayden lowered themselves in and army crawled along for their excavation mission. Annabelle hollered out as they crawled along, “no puppies yet!”, “Im following the fluffs of Fleece’s fur!”, and finally “I can hear them!”. She was able to wiggle herself down into where they were and start passing them up to Hayden who then crawled the length back to the original opening to hand them to me. Aria joined in and she alone brought out 7 puppies all by herself. It was so sweet to hear her trying to calm them as she shuffled along. “I’m saving you baby puppy!”, “I’ve got you baby doggy!”, “shh shh baby doggy!”.
12! Fleece had 12 puppies! I don’t know a lot about dog litters but that seems like a crazy amount. We brought her and the babies into the mudroom. She was already trying to move them somewhere and, suffice it to say, her and I disagree on what a safe place to keep babies looks like. She calmed down as soon as she was able to lay down with her babies. As I started to line them all up to eat I noticed she didn’t have enough teats for the amount of puppies. I left a message for our vet asking if she would have enough milk for all the babies, but after a phone call to a friend who grew up breeding puppies I did run out and grab a tub of puppy formula just in case.
We are already so in love with these precious little babies and can’t wait to see what their personalities are like as they grow.
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