No One Expects The...

Quick update to let you know about a dinner time surprise. While eating, and working on table placements for the reception, we noticed Juno was scratching in random places in the house. Shortly there after it looked like Juno was vigorously cleaning her underside, but then Justine noticed she was actually cleaning her new born puppy! Justine helped her cut and tie off the umbilical cord and birth her second puppy. Both the mother and puppies are in good health and are resting safely away from the other animals.

Okay, now make that three puppies!

So this was completely unexpected, in fact, we took Juno, who is 9, to the vet and he found a spay scar on her. We're wondering now if it was a C-Section scar, but perhaps not since the birthing went so smoothly. In retrospect, we realize the scratching she's been doing was nesting behavior. We also noticed she had been putting on some weight (but not nearly enough to look like she had three puppies) and figured she had been eating too much. We've also been having problems housebreaking her; I guess we know why! In hindsight There are a lot of clues we missed, but after getting the okay from the vet, pregnancy wasn't even something we fathomed.

We haven't had Juno for the entire gestation period, so we're pretty sure the father is a Papillon named Bandit from her previous home. Here are some pictures of the mother and her new progeny: