black lustrous coats

6.30pm

My sis and I are just watching season 7 of monk. Kak Pam rings the door bell and waves enthusiastically outside the sliding door. My thoughts at that moment, "Okay, she wants to come in." So I walk to the door, open it and I hear "LILY IS GIVING BIRTH!!!!"

"WHAT?!?!?!"

I immediately run to the kitchen to wash my hands clean, simultaneously yelling "MEL GET MY PHONE! LILY IS GIVING BIRTH!"

6.35pm

We're standing outside her cage. I see one puppy halfway out of the birth canal.

One after another came out. We were up to 5 puppies. I was like a midwife in this whole episode. I had gloves on and had to transfer the pup coated in its placental membrane from its drop off birth spot to Lily's mouth so that the membrane would be immediately licked off and eaten by Lily. I know it's a gross thought, but that's nature. And it's amazingly wonderful how all these actions are innate. It was clear that exhaustion was getting the better of Lily after delivering a couple of her pups. Her reaction to turn towards her newborn to remove the membrane was increasingly tardy. So for almost 2 hours, my sis, kak and myself stood there just waiting for her to deliver and then we would come in.

Finally we were at the 9th. We went in for dinner and thought we were done for the day. Boy, were we wrong! After dinner, my sis and I checked up on her to see if she had given birth to more and if all the newborns were doing alright. Yup, everything seemed alright. Newborns all pushing to suckle on their mother's milk. No more pups in placental membrane near the birth canal. So my sister gave her a gentle stroke on her back. Few seconds later, we saw what looked like a contraction. Both of us panicked. "THERE'S STILL MORE?!" By the time, her cervix would have contracted and her body would be too weak to push. That meant bad news.

It seemed like the stroking helped with the contraction. So we both continually did that and gave her words of encouragement. The atmosphere at that moment was intense. After about 10 weak contractions, the head of the pup emerged. But that was barely good enough for a safe tug from me to quicken the delivery. I was so afraid I was going to injure the delicate little thing if I pulled any harder but at the same time I was petrified that it might suffocate to death if she took any longer.

We kept on with the encouragement and caressing. After more contractions and gentle tugging (on the body), the baby was finally out!! The whole thing felt like a human baby delivery and I was the inexperienced and desperate doctor praying for the best.

45 minutes after the last delivery, guess what? The 11th baby was delivered!! (no one was there at that point in time. So no one was there to assist her) Lily was so weak that she barely moved after delivering the precious little thing. Goodness knows how long it lied there wrapped in this placental membrane, unable to breathe. When we saw it, I panicked and immediately transferred the precious to Lily's mouth. In my heart I was praying so hard that it would be strong enough to survive. After Lily licked her child multiple times, it still barely moved and breathed. I took it in my hands and positioned her directly where she could obtain milk. It still barely moved to suckle on Lily's breasts. That is when I got extremely worried. I started rubbing its body gently, hoping that it might stimulate some movement. (reminded me of the 101 Dalmations scene where the one of the weak puppies was rubbed to increase its chances of survival) This went on for about a good whole 5 minutes. After a while, the future of the precious lil pup looked a little brighter when it started moving a little more on its own. It still wasn't able to compete with the other 10 pups for milk though. So I just held it in a convenient suckling position for quite some time until it wasn't so fragile looking.

That's 11 pups for you.

11 Rottweiler puppies with black lustrous coats sprawling about (?) with closed eyes, whining softly, ever searching for their mother's milk.