Day 1.

Wow, the miracle of life is much more incredible when you witness it first hand.

This morning around 3:45 am I was woken up by a shrill squeak in Rosie's cage. Without a second thought I jumped out of bed and fumbled for the light switch. When the light came on it took me a second to realize there was a little squirming ball of fur in the cage with Rosie. The little guy was carrying on just as I would hope.

Not wanting to experience this phenomenon alone, I quickly woke up my roommate, and the two of us watched as Rosie did her thing. It was truly amazing to watch this dog go into mother mode. She removed each puppy from its sack, and then vigorously cleaned them. Puppy after puppy, she never slowed down, as though she had infinite energy. In the few longer pauses that she had she would look at me with a big grin on her face, while daddy (Roy) waited in the other room, rather impatiently.

As the minutes went by, there came a longer than usual pause when I thought Rosie may have been done. I inspected the puppies, and gave Rosie a chance to walk around a little bit. She came to me first and licked my face, then went to my roommate, then went to Roy and gave him a big kiss. It was adorable to see how excited they both were. I think they both feel really proud of themselves about what just happened.

However, they weren't quite done and Rosie produced 2 more puppies, bringing the total up to 9 on her first litter. She is glowing. She is cuddled up with them, and enjoying a little downtime after the massive ordeal she just went through. It is astonishing to see how her instinct can kick in to take care of so many new lives.