Anticipation!

Today is the first official day that Cadi could be due but her temperature was 99.9 this morning -- it runs between 99.9 and 100.3 so no drop yet. Given that it is on the lower side of normal, I will check it again before I leave for work but I think we are safe in assuming no puppies today.

It is possible to be so accurate with due date because we tested her progesterone levels to know exactly when to breed her. The level of progesterone rises above 1.0 about 1 - 2 days before ovulation. Once the eggs are ovulated, it is another 1 - 2 days before they are mature and can be fertilized. Gestation is 64 - 66 days counting the day of the progesterone rise as Day 0. A really good article about this can be found at: http://www.hilltopanimalhospital.com/IVIS.pdf

Cadi's progesterone rise was September 17 and she was bred via surgical insemination using fresh chilled semen shipped from New Brunswick, Canada on Saturday, September 20 and via vaginal artificial insemination using fresh chilled on the following Tuesday. I believe that the Saturday insemination was the perfect day and clearly this all worked. Thanks to Jed's, mom, Trish, for her willingness to work with us! Trish had quite the drive to her vet and of course timing is everything so it is not like you can plan it all in advance.

The flying fish, as I called them, arrived from Canada via Overnight FedEx but since it was Saturday and this is Montana, I had to drive out to the airport to pick them up. The lady at the FedEx counter had read the declaration of contents and thought it was quite funny and made a comment about my dog getting a "booty call", which made me turn red even retelling it to Kim (Dear Husband). So, armed with the two parts of the puppies (i.e., Cadi and the box of flying fish) I drove to the vet where Cadi went to sleep and woke up pregnant.

And she is still pregnant -- but not for long -- and we will soon meet the results of many people's efforts!

Joan is driving up today and bringing umbilical clamps and newspaper -- we are always short on newspaper given there are no neighbors to collect from. Galen and I cleaned and got things organized and ready last night. The whelping box is set up, we have over 50 clean wash cloths, a dozen clean towels, new fleece for the whelping box, fluids to give Cadi if needed, oxygen for puppies, paper towels galore, and so on. The fancy digital scale is ready and waiting -- I do need to print out the data sheets for the puppies but I am only printing eight!! My guess is seven or eight and if there are more I am blaming those of you who have been saying ten and eleven!

I thought you might enjoy seeing the whelping box and room. We have a very large whelping box so that there is plenty of room for everyone, and to reduce the risk of a puppy being suffocated. The flooring is a new piece of linoleum and over that will go newspaper and towels during the whelping, and newspaper and fleece once we are settling in. We have three chairs in the whelping room and a television -- that was a requirement of The Puppy Nanny (Galen), although he will be absent when puppies are being delivered. There is also a computer in there as you can see. I took the pictures of Cadi this morning -- she is resting up for the Big Day.

Thanks for all your comments!!!! I hope your day is wonderful and filled with anticipation of good news things to come.