Guess How Many Puppies?

It's time for the latest round of our Guess How Many Puppies contest! This time it's for Phoenix's first litter due in mid-March.

The rules are simple: Send us a guess that indicates how many puppies you think Phoenix will have and the date and time of birth of the first puppy. The winner is the person who guesses the correct number of puppies and the date/time closest to the actual first birth.They win their choice of a $10 Timmy's or Chapters gift card.

Here is some info to help you make educated guesses.

Number of pups

• Phoenix was one of a litter of 8 (if I recall correctly). Her mother, Cassonade, always had large litters (8-10) and they say doggy mamas often take after their dams, so she could have a good-sized litter. (Of course, then there's Mo who was one of 9 pups but only produce 3-5 herslef - go figure.)
• This is Phoenix's first litter, and often the first litters are smaller  than subsequent ones.
• Phoenix is 22 lbs or so. So she's likely to have more pups than a smaller dog. (Then again, tiny Garnet - 15 lbs - had 5 and 6, while Mo - 20 lbs) had as I already said, 3-5.)

Date / time of first birth

• tPhoenix ovulated on 15 January. Gestation is normally 9 weeks from ovulation, which would put the due date at 19 March, but can happen as early as 8 weeks (12 Mar) or as late as 10 (26 Mar). In my experience, our dogs have usually whelped on the early side, between 6-1 day prior to the 9-week mark. This is Phoenix's first litter so we don't have a track record for her, but a rule of thumb is the due date give or take 3-4 days. So I'd recommend targetting dates between 15 and 23 March. 
• Dogs can deliver any time of day or night. Of the 8 litters DragonRam Doodles has produced, one arrived in the wee hours of the morning (2-4am), three in the late afternoon (2-5pm), and the rest in the evening (6-9pm). So I'd recommend targeting afternoon or evening.

Deadline: Monday 24 Feb at 10pm

Phoenix's ultrasound is scheduled for Feb 24 at 4pm, at which time we will have a preliminary puppy count, so all guesses must reach me in advance of that (you have until 6pm as I won't get home and have a chance to post anything on the blog until at least that evening!) That gives you almost three weeks to get those guesses in!

Submit your guesses to me via e-mail or as a comment to this post. Once I've received a few I'll post them on the blog. (Limit of one guess per person!)