The Puppies Are Here

Molly had a restless night last night, then on the walk only did one round then stood at mom's door shivering waiting for mom to let her in. Rhoda came over and took Molly's temperature which was a good indication she would be delivering today. The first puppy came at 4:00 pm, a nice fat female. A half hour later she had another nicely marked fat female and at 5:00 pm came a big fat male. We waited around until after 6:00 pm but Molly seemed to be settled down nursing and not in labor any longer. Below are a few pictures of labor, delivery and her 3 pups. The first picture looks like some kind of monster but is 2 paws of a puppy as he is making his way into the world.

Above is the back end coming out first and below the puppy is just about to be delivered when Molly got up, her tail came down on top of the puppy as it was being delivered. The little face and tail are clearly seen. 

 Below Molly is nursing her 3 nicely marked purebred Shih Tzu puppies. 

Molly is a great mom. Mom will let us know if any more puppies arrive tomorrow.

The rest of the day was pretty busy. Diane, Eva Jean and I worked on the prison ministry stuff. We took 96 Bibles to the post office and got the studies all processed ready to take to church. By the time I got home Emily had the temporary electric fence strung and hooked up. Ayanna and Violet were turned out into the big field. But they didn't want to stay in the big field without the other mares to help keep the lions, tigers, and bears away. Ayanna is so funny wanting the safety of the herd. What she doesn't understand is unlike Middle Grove we don't have any predators here. Tomorrow we will move Missy, Cookie and Star in with her. Below are a few pictures of them this morning at feeding time. 

Ayanna is such a pretty mare. When Mark arrived home, he and Emily started on manure removal from the paddocks. They are making a mountain of manure in the circle drive again. Hopefully it won't stay too long there and the home owners association around here won't complain too bad. They quit at dark and by this time all of us were really hungry. Mark took Rhoda, Emily and me out to dinner at Gils Supper Club in Hanna City. As usual the food was good and filling.