Deca and her pups

Deca's pups were born on Friday, July 25, 2008 in the late morning.

She was restless during the night, but there was no apparent sign that she was going to deliver today. The calculated whelp date was July 30th, so this was an early delivery.

I could tell that something was up when Deca was not standing, as usual, at the front door as I spoke to a neighbor outside of the house. After a few minutes, it was apparent to me that she was probably preparing to have her puppies.

When I went into the basement, where the whelping box is located, she had already delivered two pups and was busy attending to them. One of these pups did not survive.

A third pup was born at 11 am, a fourth at 12 noon, and a fifth at about 12:30 pm.

Mom and pups are doing fine.