Dolyhir Dawn Chorus

Its not a competition or anything but I think Reba is only just winning the who is the most tired sentient being at Rock HQ. It was a long day for us all, admittedly she put all the real effort in but the humans were on the out of control emotional roller coaster watching their lovely dog give birth to equally lovely puppies. While she did the pushing and licking bit we were ready with hot water and clean towels, fetched some meds form the vet (which resulted in Tracey doing a spectacular comedy fall in front of some of the more elderly militia who frequented the vet yesterday, are you alright love, do I look alright? type scenario) and generally acting as birth assistants to a very capable Bernese.



Action started at breakfast when Reba tried to dig the dining room floor up, then declared that the kitchen was off limits to all except bipeds. This exclusion zone was rigidly enforced by Reba especially if your name had the letters C-A-T in it anywhere. This particularly confused the vermin cats who, being more used to a very genteel Reba, suddenly found the cat flap wasn't big enough for four of them to use it at the same time as she knocked over chairs and dining table in her effort to make the point that their presence was superfluous to requirements.



Satisfied the cats were not in the house she decided the whelping box was not for her and hid on the landing, giving herself away by trying to dog through the dining room ceiling. Eventually she was persuaded the whelping box was the place for the new members of the Dolyhir clan to make their entrance and the waiting game began. At 11.30 the first serious push resulted in a strange sort of pop noise and Squealer was making her first sounds hence the name. Over an hour went by before Ribbon decided to appear, so called as she has a slight over mark line from her blaze to a fish shaped mark on the back of her neck.



Then nothing. Reba sat and although still looked pregnant had given up any sign of delivering any more. As she had 12 last time we were pretty sure there were more. Google and the Berner book were spectacularly useless at this stage, contradicting each other on how births should be. So either over in 4 hours or 4 hours between pups was the norm. By half 1 the vet was called, a jab of oxytocin and another of calcium was recommended to start the contractions off again. Tracey dutifully went to fetch it and in the process entertained the locals( see above) while I sat with Reba. Almost as soon as the car had left Reba dropped Biffer, the first dog.



Tracey returned and the meds were given and seemed to have very little effect but at five past three Lucky made a dramatic entrance, backwards and apparently dead. Five frantic minutes of activity (clearing mucus, rubbing him with towels, holding him upside down to drain the fluid out of him, licking him, not me licking him that's a step too far, blowing air into him) later, the lucky Berner gasped for breath and so did we with relief.



And that appeared to be that. But like I said she had 12 last time so we waited. At seven minutes past six Pebbles dropped onto the towel another healthy girl. Reba was pretty tired by now and snoozed on and off. We sat with her until midnight when I volunteered to stand vigil. Tracey went to bed and it now being Easter Day, Lent over I had a small malt whiskey and sat with Reba until we both got bored at 4 am. Sensing it really was safe to leave her I went to bed when I was woken at half six by our very own Dolyhir Dawn Chorus. That's WooZah's full name. She was letting me know that a sheep was looking at her through the glass door of the Berner annex.



A quick check of Reba and the new clan members and all was well. These pictures are from this morning.



These pups are all for sale, we do have a waiting list and will be contacting people in the next week or so. Please feel free to contact us on collier13@btinternet.com if you would like to know more or to sign up for the Dolyhir Clan quarterly newsletter.



Many thanks to all who sent Reba text messages yesterday and thanks to the friends of Tales From The Rock who live the other side of the world for their kind email.