After a very restless night, Trudy's water broke about 10 minutes ago, so today will be the day! Updates will follow.

Trudy looks like a giant egg on toothpicks! The poor gal, and she is so cheerful about it. Brings back my own memories of being days from delivery and waddling around like a whale! So take a look at her, and guess how many pups are in there. The answer will be at the end of this post.



This morning Trudy went for an xray so I could have a good idea of how many pups to expect. She's gained 17 pounds and is up to 107. She was an armful getting up on the xray table

The xray showed 8 definite and one very suspicious shadow. We could find the spine for it, but not the head, as it was at the very bottom of the xray. So I'll be prepared for 9 and will be happy if there are just 8!

Sunday night we were watching the end of the Giants game, it was just past 10 pm. Normally we are zonked out and asleep by that time, but the game was exciting and when the phone rang I answered it without checking the caller ID because I just assumed it was Bryan, who is a rabid Giants fan. It was a woman from the production crew of the movie Hachiko, which is being filmed in Rhode Island with Richard Gere as the main character. How he is playing a Japanese man is a bit beyond my comprehension, but whatever.

For anyone who doesn't know the legend of Hachiko, here is a link to the story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachiko

Anyway, this woman tells me that the director decided to add a couple of extra scenes, and they wondered if I would be interested in letting them film the whelping of our upcoming litter. Say what? Are they out of their minds? I was more polite than that when I said I had no interest at all and would never put my bitch through that kind of stress, but I wonder if either she or the director had ever seen a dog whelp a litter? Or have any dog knowledge at all? Bright lights and cameras are certainly not condusive to a stress free whelping! How about all those messy newspapers and blankets? Not to mention that I'm in there, grabbing puppies as they are born, cleaning them off, throwing away the placentas, cutting cords, and swinging the pup if necessary to get it breathing! Do they think its like Wild Kingdom where the wolf does everything? Maybe it never occurred to them that without human intervention, puppies might not survive the birth? And let's think about when most whelpings occur - in the middle of the night! I'm really curious if they'll find someone who would go along with it.

Speaking of Wild Kingdom, Trudy has decided she found the perfect spot to have her pups. She's been working on this den for days - you can't see it too well in the photo, but the den goes sideways from the opening of this old doghouse for almost 3 feet so that area is totally sheltered from any wind that might blow in. She is so primitive! I'm sure she'll adjust to the cushy whelping pool with layers of blankets, LOL.



Then this morning the washing machine crapped out.
Won't agitate or spin at all. I'm not messing around with it, for what it would cost for a repairman to come out, I could buy half a new one! Marc already went to Lowe's and bought one and its in the back of the Tahoe. Now we just have to bribe Andy or Bryan into helping him bring it in

My final gripe is about the local weathermen. Don't get me wrong, I love Scot Haney, but come on now - this IS January in Connecticut, am I right? So do we have to get into a major panic everytime a flurry is forecast? Or how about going on about how cold it is outside, when its about 18 degrees early in the morning? To me, that isn't unusually cold or anything to get worked up about. It's NORMAL. If we were in Florida, okay, get excited - but we're all tough Yankees up here, we're used to cold winters, and can deal with it, so just give us the facts and no tabloid headlines, okay?

Let's see - do I have anything else to crab about today? Nope, I think that's it!

Thirty years ago today, our Michelle was born! Happy Birthday! Here is a photo of her when she was a couple of months old, taken at my grandmother's house...I would guess this is probably Easter Sunday.



Her birth was like something you'd see in a comedy movie - a few days before she was born we had a massive snowstorm - so massive that the roof of the Hartford Civic Center collapsed, just hours after a UConn basketball game! It might have been one of the snowiest winters on record - in early February we were socked by Blizzard Larry, which dumped about three feet of snow on the state. But I digress...I went into labor during the middle of the night, and when we went to leave for the hospital, our car skidded into a snowbank on the side of the driveway and it was stuck there. Marc ran up to the second floor and woke up the Otto family, and asked young Albert if he would drive us to the hospital. Albert was about 20 years old at the time and was nervous about it, but willing to do so, so off we went! Fortunately the hospital was only about a mile and a half away. I was wisked into the delivery room almost immediately, and Michelle was born less than an hour after we arrived.

Now she's a mom of two beautiful kids, and lives in Florida - where did all the time go? If you'd like to leave her a birthday greeting, here is her blog url: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JandRlearnathome/

Here are some other important events that happened on January 22. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_22
What did we do before Wikipedia???

In other news...

Yesterday Arlo was neutered, and Stormy was spayed - a double header! Both came through the surgery with no problems. Arlo was pretty pissed off to miss his breakfast yesterday morning, and I think he's plotting on how to make up for that food shortfall . Stormy was a little sore last night, but is back to her old self this morning. It's amazing how fast they bounce back from surgery. Arlo was back to his old self last night, LOL. He couldn't wait for his dinner!

Next Wednesday I'll be bringing Trudy in for her pre-whelping xray. She's looking like a blimp on legs right now and is getting that pregnancy waddle. We'll set up the whelping pool this weekend and get everything ready for the new arrivals.