Mari once made the flight from Portland to Detroit in a small puppy carrier. She came to us as a cuddly puppy with china blue eyes and a zest for imposing manners on the least mindful in our house hold. She wasted then, and still does, no time in settling the house into a more orderly abode. People have schedules to keep, dogs a hierarchy to respect, animals places to keep, and the cats . . . well, the cats have an obligation to tolerate daily baths from Mari’s intently curious self. Cat hunting and grooming became the norm in our home, with daily scouting parties to find the feline fancies. Now, with a pregnancy only days from progressing to newborn pups, the kitty radar still operates, just not so zestfully.
At eight days from birth, Mari is hardly in cat chasing shape. Her form not only less supple is now also rather bulkish with a wide body that mimics the air force transport planes which fly, upon occasion, over our house. One marvels that they can remain airborne, just as we marvel that Mari can remain aloft in her own way. She still wants to find her cats, only now she requests human help in her journey around the house to find their current location. Days are spent in longer periods of sleep, with snoring the norm as she copes with the pressure of puppies upon her diaphragm. Still she is cuddly, and seeks out her people with a modified Aussie wiggle, one that seems to bypass the babies she is carrying. They remain suspended in their island of mommy, waiting for the day when nature finds them fit to be born.
The sequence of birthing puppies has involved two visits to the vet to date, one to undergo an ultrasound for the purpose of determining the accuracy of our due date. We traveled to Parker, Colorado to The Parker Center Animal Clinic. Mari had an early tummy shave with lots of attention from the vet and his assistants. The ultrasound revealed multiple puppies putting the puppies at 28mm at exactly 30 days gestation. Dr. explained to us that he liked to see one millimeter of growth for each day of development. We were able to feel the follicles within the uterine horns just as the vet could upon palpation. What has amazed us most of all was the ultrasound itself. Tiny skull shapes could be seen, even at such a young age. We were able to witness the miracle of life through the eyes of a machine, not even alive itself. Due date still set at February 19th.
Our second visit was to the veterinary ophthalmologist. Cipher and Mari were both due for their CERF exams, an annual event for our breeding dogs. Cipher, the gentleman that he is took his drops first, then Mari. Being the gentleman that he is Cipher felt compelled to move over and sit between Mari and the veterinary technician whose hands were, in his eyes, giant ladles of dilating eye drops. He never made a noise, just sat and watched as she tried to tenderly drip drops into Mari’s eyes from three feet above. From three feet below, Cipher sat and watched, best he could as his eyes were probably well on their way to dilating. Eyes cleared we proceeded home on that snowy day, dogs perhaps still wondering why they ended up at the vet and not for a romp in a nearby field. After days of Denver snow, it would be hard to imagine the discouragement of being so close to the freedom of outside and yet not quite there.
So, Mari continues to grow as the cats, from their perches high above the floor, not too far from the stars, rejoice in some time without too many dog kisses and jubilant wiggles. Those kisses will be saved for the puppies yet on their way.
