They've arrived!

It was an exhausting weekend!  From Friday night on, Kodi was fussy and uncomfortable.  She was in Stage 1 labor most of the day on Saturday and finally began having contractions in earnest around 7:00 PM.  Our first pup arrived at 11:03 PM and puppy #8 made an appearance at 4:01 AM.  

Mama Kodi and babies

We knew there was one more pup still due to come and worked with our amazing vet to attempt to stimulate his arrival.  Unfortunately he was stuck and, although we were able to finally deliver him naturally after hours of hard work from Kodi, he was born dead.  

Our final puppy count of 8 includes 4 males and 4 females with a mix of curlies and wavies.  All the pups are mostly black and the majority have some white markings.

Kodi, Jan and I all took the loss hard even though we hadn't "met" this little guy yet.  Despite this sad end to the  whelping we are very relieved to have a healthy and content Mama dog with 8 beautiful pups.  Kodi was such a trooper through the whole ordeal and Jan is amazing at supporting our girls when they give birth, while I mainly bark orders and wring my hands, LOL.

We choose a theme for our litters and give the pups names for the 9+ weeks we have them (instead of calling them by their collar color).  New owners are welcome to keep the names (a decent number of names from each litter has "stuck" as we try to select cute names) or chose new ones.  This year's theme is the Bears of Katmai.  Jan and I both lived in Alaska for a time and ever since we discovered the live feed cameras in Katmai National Park that show the grizzlies fishing and feasting during the salmon run, we like to tune in a few times a week in the summer ro watch.  We have not had a chance to chose the names yet, but will post them here when we do.

A few more quick photos from last night and this morning...

The first two pups born.  "Auntie" Delta
(nose at bottom right) supervised the whelping.

Pups peeking out from Mama's fur.

You'll notice lots of heating pads and microwaveable heat disks in the photos.  Pups are born with ears and eyes closed and unable to regulate their body temperature.  Heat sources in the whelping box allow us to keep the air temperature comfortable for Mom and also keep pups from getting dehydrated, while still making sure they do not get chilled.

More tomorrow...