We’re at the very end of the month of April ’05 and it is about time to u-scan “Yoda” (Mitsouko de Castro-Castalia), who was at her highest peack of progesterone on the 4th. My Vets and I aren’t really sure there will be any puppies, because the Sire, “Tonton” never looked really attracted my her and didn’t really seem to put up much work nor interest while being with her... in fact, I never saw them tied-up although I let them toghether all the time.That very first u-scan isn’t really conclusive, and although it confirms that there is a pregnancy going on alright,  the Vet announces that “being really optimistic and if we’re lucky enough there may be only six”. Anyway, I tell him, it certainly looks like a short number, since my girls usually whelp by tens or dozens, but it is good enough, considering that I wasn’t very optimistic about her being the least pregnant.

Patty y Jota, Clinica Veterinaria Anubis

The surprise comes when it is time to x-ray “Yoda” just a few days before the whelping... and... we count not just the six that we were expecting but... nine?, ten? We certainly have a laugh, because her belly is full of perfect little skeletons and I even dare to say that I suspect that there are... eleven!

So off I go home, pretty happy, since “Tonton” certainly performed much much better than was I ever dreamt, particularly since we had tested his sperm a few days after noticing his lack of interest for “Yoda”, and it surely looked it wasn’t as active as usual.

Radriografia Yoda de Castro-Castalia

On the 11th June, at about 04.00 pm “Yoda” decides it is about time to start labor and she does so the very minute I had decided I was going to sleep a little siesta... so, no siesta. She pushes the first pup out some five minutes later, and the next, and the next and the next... Let me tell you that I am used to fast and clean whelpings but this one takes the very biscuit! In less that four hours she has whelped the whole lot of nine, without ever sighing ... and that is when she decides to take her little nap, which she does, totally relaxed while her babies are helping themselves quite gladly from the milky bar.

I too take a break then and clean a bit around, get my notes in neat and make a call to the Vet to let him know that once she wakes up, I shall be driving to the Clinic to have her and her pups checked, as usual.

Before I carry the babies to the car, in their warm box, I check her belly again and I can pretty well feel that there is stil one pup to go... so I think to myself, that she may whelp it in the car on the way to the Clinic and if she doesn’t then we will help her out with a little oxitocine but it is really worth going anyway. So off we go. No incidents of mention take place during the 45 minutes ride. The looks at aise and the little ones do to, comfortably sleeping in the well equiped travel box.

On the 11th June, at about 04.00 pm “Yoda” decides it is about time to start labor and she does so the very minute I had decided I was going to sleep a little siesta... so, no siesta. She pushes the first pup out some five minutes later, and the next, and the next and the next... Let me tell you that I am used to fast and clean whelpings but this one takes the very biscuit! In less that four hours she has whelped the whole lot of nine, without ever sighing ... and that is when she decides to take her little nap, which she does, totally relaxed while her babies are helping themselves quite gladly from the milky bar.

I too take a break then and clean a bit around, get my notes in neat and make a call to the Vet to let him know that once she wakes up, I shall be driving to the Clinic to have her and her pups checked, as usual.

Before I carry the babies to the car, in their warm box, I check her belly again and I can pretty well feel that there is stil one pup to go... so I think to myself, that she may whelp it in the car on the way to the Clinic and if she doesn’t then we will help her out with a little oxitocine but it is really worth going anyway. So off we go. No incidents of mention take place during the 45 minutes ride. The looks at aise and the little ones do to, comfortably sleeping in the well equiped travel box.

Camada S de Castro-Castalia

As we get to the Clinic, the Vet has it all set up to x-ray mom, while his wife, the other Vet, checks and auscultates the lot of nine. A couple of minutes later, the two of us hear a hilarious laughter coming from the room next-door. “Jota”, the Vet seems to really be having a ball all by hemself! And we immediately ask if there is one left.

“- One?” –he replies – “Nope!, there are another... three!”

“-Three?” – Patty and I look at each other in typical women’s complicity, stil laughing.

Solo Seis de Castro-Castalia & Superavit de Castro-Castalia.

Just a few minutes later, after some “feathering” and a little shot of oxitocine, “Yoda” starts laboring again and pushes out the three darlings. Two are sound and healthy and pretty much active; the other is just a little mummified thing that did not conclude its full development. It’s time then to chose a name for the two girlies and that is the funniest part... one will be called “Sólo Seis” (“Only Six”) de Castro-Castalia and the other, “Superavit de Castro-Castalia”. There certainly could be no better options, could there?

And hour and a half later, when all eleven puppies have had another try from the milky bar, I drive back home with a happy bunch and their mom.

Camada S de Castro-Castalia

(Original text written by Christina of Lima-Netto and Federico Baudin specifically for this web page and protected with Copyright. Not even whole can be reproduced not partially by any way, without Castro-Castalia's express assent in writing).