Stage One

6:15 a.m.

Last night Capella appeared to enter Stage One labor with some nesting (digging blankets in a corner of the bedroom) and some panting overnight. This morning she did not finish her breakfast, did more nesting, and has a faster-than-normal respiration rate as her body does the hard work of preparing to have puppies. This stage can last 24 - 36 hours 😬

Think good thoughts 🩷💙🍀🙏

1:30 pm

Capella and I have very different ideas about where the babies should be born.

🤷🏼‍♀️

7:15 pm

Capella has spent the day alternating between panting/digging/acting like she is about to get down to business — and sleeping. This all seems pretty normal at this point. I guess we will see what the night brings.

Puppy Central is Ready

Still percolating here but the space is ready.

🩷💙🩷💙🩷🩷

Little Ones

This happened yesterday.

In my backyard!

I quickly created a barrier to keep the dogs from the back end of the yard.

How does anyone live a life without x-pens?! They are handy for so many things.

I figured out that the nest is on the side of the house, which is fenced off from dogs so that is great — unless Mama Duck does more field trips to the rest of the yard. Hopefully the x-pen fence will keep everyone safe.

The nest is under the rose bush that is right outside the living room window and within feet of the catio. Cindy provided excellent advice on the care and feeding of ducks, and see for yourself how happy they are all this morning (including the enthralled cats)!

Capella is still percolating her little brood.

I am busy getting everything ready. Yesterday I picked up the small tank of “just in case” oxygen, and did load after load of laundry so everything will be clean and ready.

Multiple conversations have been happening about the litter theme. Yes, it is the N Litter but I also like a fun theme.

Some of us like the idea of “new” but I note that the various combinations with the word, “New” just do not have the right ring to them. For example, New Life sounds like a mega church and New Beginnings is a great name for an inpatient rehab. Not quite the vibe I am going for with these babies.

My daughter, whose name is Nicole, thinks it should be the Nicole litter and all puppies can have variations of the name, Nicole. She even sent me a list. So helpful (not).

Obviously, we need to keep our thinking caps on.

Capella and Pozy

The living room is getting set up with the essentials — that was the view from my Peloton bike yesterday. You can see the edge of the whelping box and the desk chair. I will essentially live in that room for two months, and so it has to have all the things that keep me relatively sane.

Nesting continues today. SO exciting!

Happy Saturday to you — I hope it is a wonderful day ❤️