We are so proud to say that our puppy has arrived. Safe and doing well!
Our 'Morkie' house dog, Ginger, gave birth to her first litter of only one puppy yesterday at 1 PM. The past few weeks we kept playing the game of 'is she pregnant or not?' Two weeks ago we could finally tell that she was expecting and we were excited and anxious about this new adventure. I was the one feeling nervous because I have never dealt with any animal birthing babies, especially not in my house!!! (However, we did have a stray cat birth kitties in our basement one weekend. A long story, short, Mike was working on remodeling our basement a few years back and while the basement door was propped open a stray cat snuck in and we didn't notice till a few days later. She had her litter and we were sure to let her know ... she wasn't welcome in our basement!)
Anyway, I did some online research about some signs to watch for before dogs give birth and I also talked to family about their dog experiences. (Thanks Fannie Lynn and Thelma!)
I noticed yesterday morning that Ginger hadn't eatin her dog food. (A clue!) Normally, as soon as I put out some canned dog food, she was right there devouring it. After lunch, I left her outside to pee and when she came inside she went right back to Matthew's room and didn't even eat her treat. (Another clue!) Ashlyn was sleeping in there so I told Ginger to get out. She then went to Hadassah's room. I thought she was acting a bit strange and so a few minutes later, I checked on her again. This time, she was laying on Hadassah's bed with a puppy! WHAT??? I immediately grabbed the comforter and carried Ginger and the puppy out to the little child's swimming pool we got for her. We were hoping that she would birth her puppies in the pool. (I read this online and it sounded easy to clean and a good place for Ginger to give birth. We were trying the past week to get Ginger to sit and relax in the pool hoping that that would be her sign of nesting and to make the pool her spot to give birth.) I grabbed some newspaper and laid it in the pool. I plopped Ginger and the puppy on the newspaper and waited and watched to see if she would have more. She licked and licked and cared for the one puppy so well. We waited a few hours before knowing that her first litter just consists of "one puppy". This will be one spoiled little puppy around our house for the next 8 weeks.
Every puppy needs a cute name ... even if it's a few days old and maybe even moving on to live with another family in a few months. We are pretty certain that the puppy is a girl. (We haven't touched the puppy a whole lot yet. It's kinda hard to tell the gender yet. We are new to this experience! :) ) Hadassah wrote down some girl name options on a paper and we took a family vote. "Zoey" was the top choice.
Meet "Zoey".
The mothering dog!!!
Ginger is doing well. She's so far being a very good momma! She trusts us completely and we enjoy watching the little puppy bond with her mommy! We help keep Ginger and the puppy warm with a heat lamp. They are both doing great!
