Ada gave birth to 8 healthy puppies!

My husband and I have been working on our assignments when my son (4) came downstairs this afternoon and said in excitement: "The puppies are so cute mama. They are squeaking. They are soooo cuuuute!" I didn't understand right away what he meant because we have been talking about Ada's babies for quite some time now, in preparation for the big day. Over the last 4 years he has actively seen puppies being born at least 3 times, which makes my son the best Whippet labor nurse someone could possibly have. Not only is he experienced in how to handle (and how not to handle) the newborn puppies, but he is also very involved in raising them. I had to question him a little bit until I understood that the whelping must have started.

See, we always prepare the whelping environment way ahead of the due date. We always set up a kennel or whelping box inside our bedroom (because puppies often come at night), so that we can be there throughout the whole process, and help if necessary. The kennel was sterilized and prepared, beside it a box with latex gloves, on top of the kennel a basket with our medical supplies in case of complications. But since professional preparedness isn't much valued by our dogs, Ada decided to have her puppies upstairs instead. In my son's bedroom. To be precise, it was in my son's tent in which he has been "camping" now for a few weeks because apparently, beds are uncool among the preschoolers.

Once whelping was finished we moved the puppies downstairs into the designated kennel, where they will stay for the next three nights. That way we can make sure that all puppies survive, which isn't always the case if the mother isn't supervised. Attached you can see a few snapshots.

We have not determined the genders yet, but I can say that we seem to have 3 or 4 blue pups this time. If our ad on puppyfind.com has lead you here, or even if you have landed here by pure chance, please send me an email if you would like to share a name recommendation with us. After all those litters we had, we are slowly but surely running out of ideas.