my puppy story, part 1

i've been thinking about this post for a long time. as most of you know, i am the grandmother of six precious puppies. the story is kind of long... which is why i've been slacking on writing this post. so i'm splitting it into a few sections. that will be much easier to write (and for you to read).

SO!

the first part.

gracie's last pregnant days were interesting. i'd been watching her carefully and corresponding heavily with a member of our church family who breeds dogs. we'll call her kelly. i was emailing back and forth with kelly constantly, trying to see warning signs that labor was on the way. i kept thinking, 'gracie's acting weird, today is the day..' and it never was.


first of all, we had been keeping gracie in the kitchen with her doghouse in case she went into labor during the wee hours and we didn't wake up in time (we didn't want it to be on our couch, for example). we bought a sturdier fence that she couldn't knock down and made is as comfortable as possible with towels and one of my shirts. she seemed to take really well to it. previously, she had been sleeping on a small stack of pillows next to my bed, which she loved and obediently laid until invited on to the bed. in the mornings, i let her outside and then bring her upstairs to hang with the pack and visit her little bed. it was getting to be a nice little routine.

until tuesday, july 26.

i take gracie out 3-4 times a day to pee/poop. once in the morning, once for a long walk in the afternoon, and once or twice in the evening. she had only peed in the house once, in a corner of the living room (right in front of me) and was promptly corrected. on the morning of the 26th, i took gracie out before work. she promptly peed and pooped -- something she hardly ever does without persuasion. she came upstairs, but then jumped off the bed and went to the top step. when i looked back out of our room, she's gone downstairs.

gracie never goes down to her exile that quickly after release.

i followed her down, and sure enough, she was trying to pee in the corner!

i took her back outside, where she peed twice and then i saw the funky little plug hanging down. i had seen some stuff before so, while my red flag went up, i just noted it and filed it away as a sign to mention to kelly. we finished getting ready and went to work.

at work, my boss, who knew the whole story (he's the one who found gracie) suggested i go home after hearing the story. he was as excited about the puppies as i was! i'd only been at work for a few hours, but i decided i should get home early. i headed home about 11 am.

i walked in the door expecting to see gracie in the doghouse with a puppy (which i expected to see every day for the past week).

but i didn't see gracie.

it was quiet and the gate was up... but no gracie. i began to panic. i stood at the door and called her, afraid to turn the corner and see a bloody mess on my couch. i peeked around the corner and breathed a sigh of relief when i saw a clean couch. but panic quickly returned when i realized gracie wasn't there either. i let the fence down and creeped around the corner calling gracie's name. i got more panicked and darted toward the stairs and stopped dead in my tracks on the landing -- two tiny poops were laying on the floor, which threw me into full panic mode. at the top of the stairs, there was a small blood spot and a turned and saw what had been my greatest fear.

gracie.

on her bed of pillows -- the pillows for our bed -- with a wet stain and a white puppy on its back next to her.

the puppy didn't seem to be moving, so i inched over and shook the edge of the pillow. when it didn't respond, i ran downstairs to get my cell phone and called the Sarge in a frantic, blubbering, semi-psychotic state and told him that gracie had clearly jumped the fence, had a puppy in our room, and i wasn't sure it was alive.


read part two!  :)))
(i didn't mean to make it a cliff hanger but this is getting LONG!)