Guess how many puppies... And the WINNER is...!!

First, we can add to the guesses:

Carole        6      28 Nov, 14:00

Second, the x-ray was taken at about 16:45 pm on Friday Nov 25. The technician, Sarah, thought she saw six. The vet, Dr. Gumley, said no, just five.

I didn’t get a chance to look at the x-ray at the vet’s office, but when I got home I took a look. I could clearly see five, and was searching for signs of #6. Then I noticed that the date on the x-ray was 20.05.2011 – they gave me the x-ray from Garnet’s May litter, when she indeed had only five puppies!! So if that’s the one the vet was looking at, no wonder he said five. I’ve asked them to e-mail me the correct x-ray. I will likely get it tomorrow and I’ll post it then.

But for now I can say that:

THE WINNER IS….

Heather!!!

Who correctly guessed six puppies and had the closest date/time guess of Saturday Nov 26, 22:15. She was a full 17 hours and 8 minutes out, but everyone else guessed the 27^th or 28^th!

So here’s the scoop:

The x-ray, as I said , was taken at about 16:45pm. We were waiting in the lobby for the vet to finish what he was doing and take a look at it with us. Mo (who had had her teeth cleaned that day) & Garnet seemed to need to go out to pee, so we took them out to the little grass patch. Mo pooped, Garnet did a little pee. I was waiting outside for one of the kids to bring me a poop bag while the other took Garnet in. When I got back inside, Garnet was shaking and seemed to be pushing – and lo and behold, there was evidently a puppy on the way!

The vet staff quickly got some blankets and a doggie bed and put us into one of the exam rooms with the lights on dim. Garnet panted and pushed, squealed and – at 17:07 out popped a little red girl!!

So what do we do now? The vet’s office closed officially at 17:00 but they weren’t going to kick us out. But birthing five (or six) puppies could take a few hours. Seeing as we live a good 30-60 minutes drive from the vet’s office (depending on traffic and route), I wasn’t about to get in the car and head home right then. With it still being the height of rush hour, our trip would be closer to 60 minutes and anything could happen in that time!

So we waited. And waited. And waited some more. My son went next door to the Indian take-out place and got us some supper. I called various people to tell them the exciting news. One of the people I called was Linda of Canadian Doodle Puppies. She called back a few minutes later to suggest we come to her place, which is much closer to the vet’s than we are. I decided to wait until after the next puppy – as then there would likely be another break – and come over after that.

But by 18:30 there still was no second puppy. We had our food, the vet staff were wanting to go home (nobody said so but I knew they would like to go, heck I would want to get home on a Friday evening!) and Garnet didn’t seem to be pushing. So, with rush hour more or less over, I decided to make a break for Linda’s house. The vet gave us a basket to put the pups in, along with some blankets and a hot spot, and we piled into the car and got on the highway. We were almost at Linda’s when my son said “there’s another puppy coming!” It was born in the basket in the backseat of the car, and a minute later we pulled into Linda’s driveway and carried mother and pups into one of the bedrooms where Linda had set up the whelping box for Garnet to use.

Puppy #2 was – a red parti girl !!!!!!! What a SURPRISE!! I knew there was a chance that Garnet carried parti, since her grandfather is parti, but I didn't really expect she did. But I had no idea that Idol did! This girl was born at 18:50. We got her comfy, tucked into our supper, and waited some more…

An hour later, at 19:51, #3 arrived – another parti girl, this one black!

From this point on, they started coming faster. As the puppies nurse, that promotes the formation of oxytocin which stimulates the uterus to contract some more, so with three pups out, #s 4 and 5 followed quickly. At that point, since Dr. Gumley had said five pups I went to the living room to relax and have a cup of tea. But barely had I settled in than my daughter, who’d nipped in to check on Garnet & pups, called out “there’s another puppy coming!” Puppy #6, yet another black parti girl, arrived at precisely 21:00, a mere 12 minutes after #5.

So in summary: 

17:07 – red girl, 238g, Scarlett

18:50 – red parti girl, 256g, Cardinal

19:51 – black parti girl, 253g, Daisy (lots of black in a saddle pattern over back, head, & legs)

20:20 – black girl, 244g, Nightingale

20:48 – black parti boy, 218g, Leo (lots of black but a bit more white around neck & hips than Daisy)

21:00 – black parti girl, 225g, Ariel (mostly white; black head & a couple black spots)

We may change the names yet, but that’s what we’re using for the time being. (Daisy started out being “Saddle,” then the kids called her “Cowy” as her pattern looks a bit like a Cow, but we figured that wasn’t such a great name. Lots of cows are called Daisy, so that’s what we’re using for now.)

We left Linda’s very shortly after Ariel was born. Mom & babes are now sleeping in the puppy corner with kids sleeping beside them. I’ll be heading to bed very shortly too!

We took a few pictures after we got home but camera batteries died before we got too many. Here are a few shots, more to come tomorrow.

 Ariel is the black parti closest to the foreground. Leo is behind her, then Cardinal, with Daisy in the back. Scarlett to the left and Nightingale to the right.