On Tuesday, Feb. 12th, I came home just before having to leave for the temple, to check on Billie to see if she had any pups. There were no pups, but she hadn't eaten hear morning meal, so I knew they were imminent. I worked at the temple until about 7:30 then I drove to the Long Beach airport to pick up Nancy from her Boston trip. We drove through a Wendy's for a quick meal then headed home. When we got there at 9:30 I checked on Billie. When I opened the door to the whelping box, there were puppies everywhere. She gave birth to 11 puppies!! There were 8 orange and white males, 2 black and white males, and a black and white female. The female is the one closest to the camera. Unfortunately, one of the orange and white males was either born dead or died shortly after birth. The remaining ten seem to be doing well, although a couple of the orange & white males are a little smaller. Billie seems to be a good mother, but she is a little goofy at feeding time. I have doubled her feed, but she still seems to be ravenous. For the next four weeks she gets to do all the work, then when I start feeding the puppies I get to do most of the work. Needless to say, Nancy is thrilled. I don't understand her. It seems that most women would love to have 13 dogs running around the house. I tried to give her pick of the litter for her Valentine's present, but she (not very politely) declined. Like the song says, "She didn't say no. She said HELL NO".
