Great Expectations...

This crazy girl, with an oversized tongue, has a secret; a very special secret.  Yep, you guessed it!  Princess Laila is expecting puppies soon!!  Danie had her covered about 6 weeks ago and her pups are due in about 2 - 2 1/2 weeks time.  She was checked out by her vet a couple of weeks ago and they did a scan to show that she's expecting about 4 or 5 puppies.  Danie said it was too cute to see the tiny, perfect puppies on the screen, but unfortunately, they don't print pictures of puppy scans.  All the puppies have homes already (thank goodness not mine).  Actually we have homes for 6, just in case there are extras hiding in there! 

 I must be honest, I am also quite excited about the arrival of Laila's puppies.  I don't want to keep one, but I'm looking forward to experiencing it all with Danie and Jake.  Jake is especially excited.  Looking at Laila's swelling body, I do feel a little sorry for the poor girl too - it was tough enough getting one baby out.  Not to mention feed it...

I am also reminded of our precious Amber and the beautiful litter she had in March 2003.  She was just over 3 years old and I can't get over how young she looked when I look back at these pics.  This one was taken the night she had her puppies...

She'd been acting strangely all day and we knew that she was due to give birth at any moment.  We'd also been told by our vet that she was having a small litter (without a scan), so when she took a break after the first 4 puppies were born, we though that was it...  

We'd set up camp for her in our bathroom.  The floor was lined with newspapers, plastic and blankets.  It was a long night for her and she was surrounded by our love through the entire birth. 

After the quick arrival of the first four pups, we were surprised to find another one about an hour later. And then another and another, until Amber had a beautiful litter of 10. It was a long night!Unfortunately, one little puppy had a cleft pallet and we had had to have her put down, as she couldn't suck.  My beautiful girl was an excellent mommy...

 Taking care of 9 puppies (and 2 adult dogs) is a lot of hard work.  I used to cover the bathroom, passage and kitchen floors with newspapers twice a day.  The puppies got sick and had to go to the vet for injections.  They got diarrhea and we had to feed them yogurt to bind their tummies.  But the work we did was nothing compared to what Amber went through herself!  It was OK when they were tiny and sleepy, but got tougher as they got bigger and more demanding.  Weaning was especially tough on her.  Seriously, imagine feeding 9 demanding puppies - no wonder she was asleep on her feet...

 It was an emotional journey too.  We kept the puppies till they were 8 weeks old and fell in love with each one of these tiny little bodies; it was so hard to give them away.  The first one went on my birthday - I was happy to see her going to a good home, but devastated at having to part.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted as soon as Laila's pups arrive!  I have a feeling they're going to come early.  No doubt to be as gorgeous as their mommy!!

Sue X

PS.  My pics of Amber's puppies were taken before I had a digital camera.  I borrowed our work's camera to take some digital snaps at the time.  The camera worked with a stiffy disk!! Not great quality, but you'll get the idea.