***If you are looking for pictures of Ivy and Tycho, and Hibou and Chander, please go to the next post.
It was a busy time at Ancient Moon last week as we had both Ivy and Hibou in the nursery. Hibou's due date was first, but you just never know when puppies are going to come and it was Ivy who went into labor first.
Ivy was anxious and unsettled during the day on Sunday, but once she settled down after her first puppy was born, she was awesome. Also a bit funny. Ivy has one of the best temperaments I have every seen in any dog...she is just cheerful, pleasant and always non-political. But when she felt the pain of impending birth, she would growl out her frustration and rip another sheet. I'm sure Nancy and I felt her pain!!
It's always a bit worrisome when one of our girls has their first litter, but Ivy proved there was nothing to worry about. Not only did she tend to her pups with great care, she had 6 puppies in 4 hours. It was exciting and wondrous and there was no time to even worry!
It's been a really nice, normal winter here in Ontario and we decided to celebrate that by giving puppy names that follow the winter weather theme: Storm, Winter, Frost, Flurry, Ice and Gale.
 |
| Nancy, a registered canine massage therapist, works her magic on Ivy as labour progresses |
 |
| Ivy and newborn |
 |
| Ivy - 5 out of 6! |
 |
| Ivy - all done |
Hibou kept us waiting and we were most worried about her. Last February when Hibou had puppies, she had a long time between each delivery and the last one got stuck and she had to have a C-section. This time we weren't taking any chances and were prepared to rush her to the vet at the first sign of trouble. Well, we needn't have worried.
Our vet says, different litter, different day and so it was. Hibou's labour and whelping went smoothly and without a hitch. She had her three puppies with no fuss even though they were very big babies. We had deliberately bred her to a medium sized male (Chander) to increase the chances that everything would go smoothly, but we could tell even from the xray we had done that she was going to have big puppies.
Ron was born first and after the surprise of an all-grey litter with Ivy (since Ivy is black and white and Tycho is red), it was fun to see a red male. Then we were surprised to meet the other two pups: Harriet and Hermione. I'm sure anyone who knows the Harry Potter story will get the names we chose, but in case it's not obvious....Harri is a girl, but she was born with a really neat stripe on her forehead that reminded us of the scar on Harry Potter's forehead. So we decided to call her Harri and the next girl Hermione. What else could we call our red headed boy but Ron.
 |
| Hibou and Kaden enjoying some time in the nursery before the big day |
 |
| Ron and Harri |
 |
| Harriet Hemione and Ron |
