BEST. WEEKEND. EVAR!

Oh man. OK, let me start with saying that no, I didn't get a request or anything like that. I got something better.

PUPPIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seven total. Seven beautiful little bundles of squeaky joy. This is Tebow.---->

At 2:43 yesterday morning Bella went into labor. Under my parents' bed. I had a freaked out Daisy in my bed not long after that, and as I staggered downstairs to get the children away from me, I heard Mom in the kitchen. "WE HAVE BABIES!" she said. I was too groggy to be excited, and then when I got back into my bed, I thought about all the things that could be wrong, because they're premature. Eventually I went back to sleep and got up around 930 or so. Immediately made a bee-line for my parents' room. And then I heard them. PUPPY NOISES! I. Love. Puppy noises. I bent down to look under the bed, and there was Bella with 3 little babies nursing away. There was a fourth that we thought was stillborn. After all, this is Bellie's first litter, and babies don't always make it. We got Bella some food and water and left her to her business.

A little while later we went to check on her, and to retrieve the little stillborn one. I was the only one who could reach him, and he was SO COLD when I touched him that it felt like he was frozen. But when I got him out, he moved his little leg! I squalled, Mom grabbed her bathrobe, and I sat with him for hours to warm him up. After a quick call to the emergency vet, Mom picked up puppy formula and a bottle. While she was gone, #4 spent the next 30 minutes sucking on my fingers (I had to try to keep him stimulated...or something). He was strong. Just not able to move around like his brothers and sister.

Mom returned. And thus, Operation Save #4 began.

After about 3 hours, #4 warmed up. He lay snuggled over my heart, wrapped in a small dishtowel, Mom's robe, and the electric throw. I couldn't stop myself from fawning all over him. It'd been so long since we'd had itty-bitties that I just fell in love with him immediately, but I was worried. What if he didn't make it? What if something was wrong with his systems and he wasn't fully developed or something?

Yeah...the marvelous thing about wee ones is that they're resilient. And this little guy is resilient as hell. He took his bottle and drank a little bit, then curled up to sleep on me. He ate about every 1.5-2 hours like clockwork. And he was LOUD. Oh my goodness, he's a loud little guy! I didn't worry about his lung development after that ;) Then he'd make cute little soft baby noises and curl up and go to sleep. We repeated this all day, until Mom got the doggie bed. I put him in there while we ate dinner, and then Precious got him out in the floor so she could 'take care of him.' Calmly, I put him back in his bed and covered him over (since he gets cold easily) and moved the bed to the chair by mine at the dining room table where Precious tried to get him again. So did Sophie. And Daisy. And Lila. Riley left him alone long enough to eat, but when I got him back on the couch with me, she gave him a bath. He was not happy.

But he tried to stand up. He moved around a lot. He's functional. He peed on me. Life is good.

Oh and his five brothers and one sister are doing great, too. So's Momma dog.