Fact or Fiction? 15

Yesterday's story Here

About my parents-in-law being at the right place at the right time on two crucial moments in history is...

TRUE!

They were there when the Berlin wall came down and again when The Soviet Union fell. We were exceptionally worried because they couldn't let us know that they were ok.

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Pictures from Google Free To Use search

Today's story then - Tell me, Truth or Fiction?

We have always had dogs - Rottweilers - and our first and second dogs had such good pedigrees that we decided to breed a litter of puppies from them.

Everything went well, we built a whelping pen for Nina, the mum and a new home for the daddy, Nero. He was housed outside in a shed so that he didn't bother the mum-to-be.

The week coming up to the approximate birth-date, Trev and I kept close eye on Nina.

No, not like this... we made our own

Trev was on night shift that week and so, I made up a bed downstairs so I could be close to Nina in case she needed me.

It got to the point that when I went out to work, Trev would get into the pen with Nina and sleep in there for the morning. Don't worry about him, he was a miner - they can sleep just about anywhere.

As it happened, we were both so exhausted that come the weekend, when his night shifts had finished, we both slept downstairs in the whelping pen with Nina.

Of course, there wasn’t much room for two adults and a pregnant Rottie, so one of us went to bed. Me first, then Trev.

I came downstairs, grumpy and tired, but Nina needed us so I made the sacrifice.

I didn’t exactly time it right.

Nina went into labour not long after Trev went to bed.

I watched the miracle starting to unfold and called Trev to come and see.

Nina didn’t need our help at all. She seemed to know what she was doing and I lay on the temporary bed and Trev leaned across it so he could see too.

Nina paced around the whelping pen (the area was around 8ft x 8ft, the whole end of the dining room). She stopped and looked at us a couple of times and then she lay down. She seemed to lie purposely so that we could see the whole process.

The first tiny black puppy came out of her and we were entranced!

She licked the baby clean of the gunk and goo but didn’t seem to know what to do with the umbilical cord. We realised that she was at a loss and Trev got the pair of scissors we’d bought for just this eventuality.

He cut the umbilical cord, showing Nina exactly what he was doing to her baby at all times.

After a few times of doing that, she seemed to understand and he didn’t have to cut any more – she did it herself. We watched carefully because it can sometimes happen that the mother doesn’t snip the cord quite right and ends up pulling rather than cutting it clean and the baby can get an umbilical rupture. That’s nothing too serious, but it’s preventable, so we were careful.

At the end of her birthing process, she had given birth to eight beautiful puppies. We weighed them all and they were around 1lb in weight – not one runt in the litter!

As we’d been keeping a close eye on her throughout the pregnancy, taking her for regular vet check-ups, we called the vet and he came to take a look at her and the pups to make sure mum and babies were all OK.

Well, I’ve never seen such a transformation!

Nina went from being the serene, exhausted new-mum to a beast of murderous intent in no time flat!

Trev went to answer the door and as soon as she heard the voice of the vet, she changed. She stood up, exhausted though she was and she prepared to kill to protect her puppies!

It took both of us (Trev and I) to hold her in the corner of the whelping pen and the vet rapidly checked over the puppies. He did a quick check of her too and then made a hasty retreat.

As soon as the vet left the house, Nina went from the slavering, protective mother, to her serene, sweet self.

We’d prepared for the birth and spoon-fed her Bovril to help her get her strength back after the birth. We fed her Bovril for around a week, as a supplement to her usual diet.

Six girls and two boys!

Well done Nina and Nero!