Lucy's puppy.

Lucy had her puppies early! I put her to bed in her kennel on Saturday night around 11:30 and she seemed fine. Then I went running early before church with Marnee and went to get her out of her kennel when I got home around 8:30am and she wouldn't come out. I did not think anything about it at first since she was not due for a week and that is a long time in a 63 day long pregnancy. I went and took my shower and she still had not come out. She moves slow these days but I went to check on her and she was lying there peacefully. Then I saw it. In the back corner of her kennel was what looked like a puppy. I doubted myself at first as I have been fooled before by little toys that Kadie and Issie put in with Lucy to keep her company. I ran and got the flashlight. By the way, I was home alone with Issie, Brad had taken the kids to church but I was planning on staying home to get the car packed for our weekend at Great Wolf Waterpark. I ran back and yes there was a puppy, but it was in the back corner, away from Lu and not moving. I started to panic, texted Brad to come home. I was not sure if she was still in labor or how long the puppy had been there. I was scared to touch it, not wanting to touch it if it would freak Lucy out and not really wanting to touch a dead puppy. But I took a towel and moved the puppy toward Lucy. That is when I saw another puppy, already nursing and wiggling around. Lucy liked the puppy and tried to get him to respond but he did not. Brad got home and wrapped him up and tried to warm him up but it was just too late. I have no idea how long he had been there unattended, if he was born dead or just did not thrive. So we had to bury the little boy puppy. It was sad but we are so glad Lucy is ok and her other puppy looked great. It took some time to see if she was still in labor but I soon realized she looked way to calm to be still laboring. She was not panting and her tummy did not look to be having contractions. So it was just the two puppies in the little and only the one little girl survived the birth. Yes it is a little girl. We were supposed to be leaving for Great Wolf for an early celebration of Kadie's birthday so we were blessed to have a friend come up and stay at the house with Lucy and the baby. They seem to be doing well, I have not been able to get too many good pictures since I do not want to stress Lucy out, especially since she is a first time mommy. But here are some I took right when I found her.

Look close and you can see the little tail of the baby.
There she is just sucking away. She is cute but kinda looks like a little pig combined with a mouse. I am sure she will start to look different all of the time.

The hardest part, other than the baby that died, is that we were so hoping to have several puppies to give away. Lucy is so sweet and has been such a blessing to us and unfortunately she is a very expensive breed. We just wanted to bless some people with her puppies. It was hard to make so many disappointing phone calls. People understand and there was no guarantee but it was still sad. Lucy's puppy is promised to the daddy dog "Tucker"'s family. Since there was only one in the little Tucker's owners offered to not get him fixed so we could try again but that would be a year from now (since you skip a heat and they go into heat every 6 months) and I don't know if we want to do that to Lu. We will pray about it. She seems to be a good little mamma and had no difficulties with delivery which is what we were concerned about. Anyway, we will enjoy having a sweet little puppy in the house for 6 weeks or so. It is a great experience for the kids and they new from the beginning we would not be keeping a puppy so they are handling it ok so far. Jack was sad as he had hopes that his dad would get one then he would have a puppy at his dad's house but this is how life works and things like this are out of our control. I will post more pictures soon when I feel comfortable moving her from her mamma.