Yesterday was the first official day of spring and we are so happy to welcome it. Hadleigh Grange has not a few babies right now! Demeter, the very naughty dog, had her puppies on the 18th and Valentina, my epiphany of a goat, had her babies this morning! I checked on her early in the morning where she looked much the same as every other time. But, while we were at church, she was a very busy and independent girl. We came home to see three precious arrivals and I was so sad to have missed all the action.
Right after my last post, we went out in the evening to discover the mist had come back and the frogs were singing! It was such a miracle and I knew we had finally turned the corner. Fog and frogs. Who knew they'd make such a great day.
This picture below of Demeter, the very naughty dog, was taken two weeks ago. I didn't even know for sure she was pregnant. She had so few visible signs that I imagined I had invented it all in my mind and was getting ready to find her a new home so i took these shots of her. Can you tell she was two weeks away from delivering puppies?!
Maybe I should explain why she's pregnant in the first place. Demeter is only 9 months old. Her personality is such that I knew she would never responsibly be bred. And, having been told by the Great Pyrenees breeder that it was best to wait until 18 months to spay large breed dogs, I decided to wait until then to spay Demeter. But back when she was a young 7 month old wee lass, we left town to visit family in Utah. Our neighbors were watching our animals and, noticing that a rogue dog was spending too much time on our property, they locked all the animals in the barn. That rogue dog, aptly named "Bandit", broke into the barn and, well, rode off on the horses, burned down the village, and…well, you get the idea.
Not too long after those photos, probably one whole day, I knew for sure she was pregnant. And so we began the waiting game. Less than a week before she delivered I took these photos below. Does she looks pregnant to you? I thought I was crazy for believing she was.
Ok, she looks pregnant in the photo above. Poor thing could barely move. I locked her into a stall and turned it into a "whelping pen" a week before she delivered. I could see she was doing typical nesting behavior. It worked out well. Honestly, she was so desperate to escape that I'm sure she would have had her puppies in some ditch by the pond.
This is Valentina below. I call her my epiphany to goats because I never would have realized just how great goats are and how much I enjoy keeping them without her.
I bought Valentina thinking that I would keep her for a year before I bred her. A goat's gestation is 5 months long. So, if I bought her in December and she gave birth in March…the math will tell you that she came to me with some buns in the oven.
In the photo above, Louis Vuitton is to the left of Valentina and Braveheart is in the bottom corner. Brave is the father of Valentina's babies. The photos below show the mothers-to-be together. I love that they show you how small the goats are.
She looks pregnant in the photo below finally. How many puppies does it look like she's carrying?
It was 10pm on St. Patrick's Day when i realized Demter was having contractions. For anyone who wants to know when their dog will deliver, there are a plethora of signs. And I would recommend checking out this website. What let me know for sure was her temperature dropping below 99 F for 12 hours. By 11pm, the night was cold and I went inside. Knowing I should check in on her before falling asleep, I popped back in the barn at midnight only to find she'd already had her first puppy. Six puppies later and her seventh was healthy and eating by 3am. I went to bed, unable to stand the cold and the lateness any more. The next morning I thought I might find an eighth puppy but instead found 10 puppies. The tenth, sadly, was no longer alive. It's sad to think I might have saved it if I would have just stayed awake.
So we still have nine puppies. I have to find a lot of homes right now. And, by the way, children should never ever be around new mothers unsupervised. Those instincts to protect their young are powerful, immediate and highly unpredictable. I actually got bit when the cat showed up during the delivery.
The puppies are more white like the dad, who is a white Lab Retriever, than my golden Demeter. Do you know what pregnancy cravings Demeter had? My guineas. She snacked on my guineas like they were fried pickles. That's a pretty dangerous craving. I'm just not sure she can stay here with us.
In case you were wondering why the photos are black and white, it's because I had a heat lamp on and it made everything too red. The puppies looked engulfed in flames until I changed the color.
If you're curious to see how many babies Valentina had, I'll post some photos tomorrow.
