Venus gave birth to 7 . . . no wait . . . 8, 8 little wet ratlike things - I mean puppies. They're really cute now and make really cute sounds, but they were a bit ugly at the beginning.
So starting at the beginning . . . from a previous post you'll know that Venus is a dog we're fostering from the Humane Society for Hamilton County. Venus' previous owners gave her up for adoption a few months ago, and a few week after she arrived, the staff saw that she was pregnant. Since there is 0 chance for her to get pregnant in a shelter, she was partially full with pups when she was released by her owner. Regardless, we've had Venus for two weeks now - thinking that she was going to blow as soon as we got her - but she took her time.
On Friday morning I got up to take a shower, and by the time I was done, Patrick had run into the bathroom to say that "puppies!" Despite our original plans for her to give birth in the extra bedroom, Venus had other plans and gave birth in our bedroom. By the time I got slightly dressed, she had given birth to one puppy and another was literally on its way. She had one pretty regularly every ten minutes and stopped at 7. In the middle of all this I called Andrea, and she came over.
It's a pretty painless process (well, painless for us) - Mommy does basically EVERYTHING. I mean she eats EVERYTHING, cleans up EVERYTHING - if you're getting my drift. I think she didn't stop licking until a week later.
So I went to work, and Patrick moved the new family into the extra bedroom. My sister came over to visit a couple of hours later and said, "Hey, can you guys count? There are 8 puppies here." Apparently one was a little bit slower than expected, and she was born in the other bedroom.
But they're all doing well - making those puppies sounds, nursing, etc. Mom is a bit hormonal and let Winston and Obie know it in no uncertain terms. She basically runs outside to go to the bathroom and then straight back upstairs.
