Pulling an all nighter

After starting to worry about whether we were going to have whelping problems because Miska's temperature dropped more than 24 hours ago, Miska finally started to really go into labour after midnight this morning. I had hoped to maybe get an hour or 2 of sleep before the party started but she was far too restless and doing too much panting.  She kept wanting to go outside. I made sure she was on a flexi and I had a flashlight.  I didn't want my pregnant Vizsla wandering off into the dark in the woods on her own and never returning - as happened to a pregnant Vizsla in Missouri almost 2 months ago.  That Vizsla and her pups have never been found but prayers are still being said for their safe return and reunion with the owner.

Hubs went to bed at midnight - he has a golf game today, a rare event in his life right now - but asked me to wake him when the activity started.  At 1:45 AM, Miska gave her first big push and at 1:50, out slipped the first puppy.  A boy! Pass the cigars out! And then a girl followed by another boy, another girl and finally two more boys, the last one arriving at 4:48.  Crack open the champagne! I managed to handle the last 2 whelps by myself and let Hubs sleep. It's 5:40 AM and so far (and I hope that's it) the final tally is 6 puppies. When we had Miska ultrasounded in April, the technician admitted she wasn't very good at counting the embryos in utero but her hazarded 5, maybe 6. She was adamant it wasn't going to be a large litter - like 8 or 10.  More than fine by me!!

So far, it's 6: 2 girls and 4 boys. Not exactly the gender mix I wanted as more people want a girl  - for some reason. So a few people are going to be disappointed as they will only take a girl.  Really, the boys are incredibly sweet!! Much sweeter and more sucky than the girls. Interestingly, this is exactly (so far), the same combination as in Miska's first litter. But as in humans, it's the male who is responsible for adding an X or a Y chromosome and I used a different stud dog from Miska's first breeding. So it's quite a coincidence that both litters produced 6 puppies & both (so far) have 2 girls and 4 boys.

Pictures coming soon!