Are Whelping Dog Beds a good idea?

Last week I was describing how we decided to allow Alice to have a litter of puppies as part of her rich life. She has now passed away and we mourn her very much. She had a life of hunting, being a pet and doing a lot of modelling for our luxury dog beds. Alice really did everything as well as she possibly could and it was a delight to see her handle motherhood in the most impeccable way.

After the mating, the question is of course whether we are going to have any puppies… Alice was looking well, but completely normal. About three weeks in, I started to think that she had a little tummy. There was just that tiny little change to her shape when she sat upright. She looked completely normal when sprawling out on the dog beds, but when sitting upright waiting for her dinner, she displayed a small “bump”. And waiting for her dinner, she certainly did!!! What an appetite! So we fed her and she grew. Oh my god, how she grew. By the nine weeks, she was a virtual balloon. I remember that she had been allowed, in her condition, to come on the sofa instead of being with the other dogs on the dog beds, so she could lie with her head on my lap. She looked like a beached whale, but just as agile as always.

Then the time came and as the date got nearer, I was thinking that I could not let her have the puppies on one of the dog beds because there would be no pig rails. You must have a fairly flat surface just covered with a thin comfort and you must have it all boxed in so the puppies cannot fall out and cannot get squashed under the bitch. Alice was hyper sensitive about her puppies, but she could still make a mistake, so I went to the local white goods store and got a huge cardboard box that some fridge or washing machine had been packed in. The store people were super friendly and I came home with a massive, very suitable box. I laughed when I started to cut it to shape and saw that there was a sticker on it saying “Early Delivery”. Well, yes, that’s exactly what happened. The puppies weren’t due till the Wednesday, but as we sat Monday evening starting to think about bed time, Alice got off the sofa, took a few steps, then got back on the sofa and now I could see a pair of small feet sticking out her back end. Holy moly……   we got in gear and Philip got the kids out of bed.

The birth took about four hours and well before the last puppy was out, the family had lost interest and gone to bed. I enjoyed every minute of the experience, helping 13 puppies out. We lost three and one was a non-developed little lump. The three dead ones simply came out dead, but everything else went fine and at 3am I felt I could go to bed. Alice was not on one of her usual dog beds that night, she slept in out bed room and I could hear all the little grunts when they all fed. What bliss!!!!!!