They are here! Two Days Early!

NINE of the little cuties!  4 Males, 5 Females.  Not sure on colours yet.  There's definitely both black & red and sables.  

I arrived back from my God-daughters wedding and Cruz went into labour 6 hours later.  I was already exhausted from my trip because I went a day early to help set up and left a day after to help break down.  I wouldn't have changed a thing; but I was tired.  I was heading into this with about 10 hours of sleep in the last 48.  Labour started at 8:00PM with the first pup arriving at 8:00AM.  Those 12 hours were spent pacing, and panting, and Cruz slept.  Just kidding!  Cruz paced and panted and whined throughout the 12 hours.  Nothing was helping her except being there with her.  As I said, the first pup arrived at 8:00AM and the last pup arrived at 10:15PM.  

Cruz did a wonderful job!  The smallest pup born was 298 grams and the largest was 490 grams.  And the others are every where in between.  A real mix of sizes.  

I've mixed up my home-made formula to help out the smaller pups but I can see that Cruz is doing a great job.  If the pups are hungry, they will cry and not a single pup appears to be hungry.  A real treat after Maya's first litter where all 11 pups needed feeding twice a day.  For 6 hours a day, I did nothing but bottle feed puppies!  This litter is nothing like the last!

Wish us luck as we get through these critical first days!

Mary Ann

Guardian Angel Shepherds - German Shepherds the way they used to be!  The way they should be!  The way they are!