Diva

It seems that Janey has decided that a perpetual state of pregnancy will assure her of all her aspirations in life.  Janey has decided that she is a true diva.  Having the puppies will mean that she has to become a caring mother; being a diva is much more fun, so she is dragging things out as long as she can.

A week or so ago, Janey was introduced to the whelping room, my special little room adjoining the living room with all the comforts and necessities a mother and new litter require.  It took about five minutes of inspection of the room and the whelping box for Janey to decide, “This is mine!  An entire room, just for me!!!!”  The room was made even more attractive by the fact that this is where the dog food bins for the house dogs are.  I had to put a puppy fence around the bins, since Janey decided that all food here was free and hers.

Janey has a choice of sleeping in the whelping box, with piles of papers to scratch around in, or on a nice plush dog rug near by.  This morning I found her in the whelping box with the dog rug, which she had carried in and arranged comfortably.  Why choose if you can have them both?

Of course, Habibi is stopped at the threshold.  This room is hers!  But she is very calm and regal about it all.  No scratching around, poking in corners, nervously looking for the proper place – although this is her first time to have puppies, Janey obviously understands exactly what is about to happen, and that she is special and deserving of the consideration and worship of all involoved.  Come, slaves, and rub my belly…

Update:

The puppies have been born.  In true diva style, Janey ate her breakfast (no ridiculous middle of the night hours for her), had a nap, and decided that carrying around this enormous belly was getting to be a nuisance, and it was time to start.  Very calmly and efficiently, she started to deliver puppies.  There was an absolute minimum of fuss, no excessive panting or fidgeting around, just a few strong pushes, and the puppy was out.  Without any hesitation, she thoroughly cleaned each new arrival ( very sensibly spacing them with about 45 minutes between pups, so that each received the necessary attention), and each clean and dry puppy was then nudged over to a nipple.  By late afternoon, the family was complete – eight big fat pups, contentedly nursing, with their mother curled around them, extremely pleased with herself.

Like all Canaans, Janey is an extremely devoted mother.  The first two days, I actually had to pick her up out of the whelping box and carry her outside for a few minutes of relief and movement.  Food and water had to be brought to her in the whelping box (well, a diva doesn’t have to move, she gets served…) – her puppies needed her every second.  Now that they are six days old, she is willing to get up and come out every now and then for a few minutes, warn all other dogs to stay away, and then come back quickly to inspect the little darlings.

I have never been one to let visitors in to see puppies while they were very small, as most mothers do not care for this.  But I have had some house visitors in the last few days.  Janey immediately came to the door of her room (the door is glass, so that I can see what is going on inside and the dogs inside can see what is going on in the living room), asked to be let in, climbed onto the lap of the visitors and started to tell them how absolutely and unbelievably clever she is and what amazing and gorgeous children she has…

I have a feeling that raising this litter is going to be very interesting…