Babies on My Mind

Look at that flat belly; no "baby boobies" on me!

Hi all, Lily the Corgi here, and how has your week treated you?  Here in Lily's World, all has been going pretty well.  As I told you last week, we are anxiously waiting the birth of a new human cousin.  If he doesn't make his debut by tonight, his mama (my very pregnant cousin Chelsea) will go to the hospital for induction.  That's pretty ironic since baby Luke has been trying to be born for the past 3 months and they've been running to the hospital so the doctors could make him stay inside; now that it's time for him to be born, he's not budging!

My cousin Ryan (Chelsea's sister) is a nurse whose job it is to help deliver babies, so she'll be at the hospital helping.  While all that is going on, Ryan's boys will be staying here with us.  That will be lots of fun!  Little Cohen, who is almost 2, loves to feed us pieces of his snacks; sometimes Lucy grabs them from his hands even when he doesn't offer them, but I have more class than that.  The boys are going to help my mama "kid test" our foster dog, Bernie.  Some people are interested in adopting Bernie and we must find out if he is good with kids.  The next few days will tell the tale (or is that tail?)

Check out Lucy, climbing right in Cohen's hand for a snack.

Anyway all this commotion of birthing babies and babysitting boys has made me do some thinking about children, both human and canine.  So let me first say that I love the little ones.  Even though I've never had a litter of my own, I think puppies are pretty darned cute--in fact, it may be because I've never had a litter that I think this.  My fur-sisters and I are a rarity in the dog world:  3 female rescue dogs who have never had puppies.  My first owner was a vet who spayed me when I was just a young girl.  My neurotic sister Sadie was taken in by the animal shelter when she was just a pup herself, so they made sure she was spayed before she started having puppies.  And we know so little about Lucy's past; we don't know how she managed, but it doesn't appear she ever had a pup.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I think having puppies is a bad thing.  I just know the heartbreaking truth about pet overpopulation.  I realize that lots of puppies--even planned and wanted puppies--end up in shelters; the lucky ones are adopted, but the unlucky ones are often killed.  I'd never want that horrible end for my gorgeous puppies, so I'm happy that I won't be adding to the population problem.

Like most mammals, dogs give birth to live young, in groups called litters.  Sometimes a litter is just a single puppy, but more often small dogs give birth to 2 - 5 puppies in a litter.  Then there are the overachieving large breed dogs.  It seems in the dog world, the bigger the dog, the bigger the litter.  Some large breeds average having 9 puppies per litter...that's the average, folks!  That's a lot of puppies. (Info taken from akc.org)

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest litter of puppies ever produced came from a Neopolitan mastiff in Great Britian who cranked out...get this!...24 puppies in one litter.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it!  No dog comes equipped with 24 teats; how could she feed them all?

Tia and several of her 24 puppies*

While human ladies carry their babies inside for 9 whole months, we dogs are far too impatient to wait around that long.  Generally, a female dog, properly called a bitch, is pregnant for about 2 months. This seems far more reasonable to me, especially for that poor mastiff mama with the litter of 24--I wouldn't want to try to waddle  around with all those babies for very long.  Again, it wears me out just to consider it.

Whew!  I need to get rested up before my boys arrive.  Balls will be thrown.  Ropes will be tugged.  Snacks will be dropped.  It will be a fun day!  Oh...the weather man is forecasting that we'll have sleet, snow, and freezing rain tonight, so it may also be quite slippery around here tomorrow.

And...I just watched a CORGI win her height group at the agility competition of the Westminster dog show.  AND, she's a rescue dog from a shelter.  Life is good.

I have to go patrol my yard a few times and be sure everything is in order before the winter mix arrives.  Til next time, stay warm and remember to spay and neuter your pets so YOU don't end up with 24 puppies!!

Love ya,

Lily the Corgi

Dreaming of babies, snacks, and snowmen.

*I am unable to give proper credit for this picture.  I found it via Google Images search but there was no owner/photographer listed on the image.  If I learn this information, I will edit to give proper credit.