Meet Our Miracle Puppy and His Littermates

This was Belle’s first litter, and we conservatively estimated her due date at November 11., really expecting her puppies around the 13th. But starting on the 10th, she would be under watch, as our pregnant Mamas always are as their day comes near.

We home fellowship, and have a group of 25 or more people meeting in our home for worship every Sunday. The Sunday of the 9th proceeded as normal, right up until we shared in Communion together. It was then that Bekah heard unmistakable “puppy noises” coming from the large room where our dogs were hanging out during fellowship time. I was surprised when she ran out of the living room, as I had not heard the noises that she did.

Bekah has been our “puppy midwife” for almost all of our 360-plus puppies, so there’s not much she hasn’t seen or done, whether “normal” or heart-breakingly difficult. We have a puppy incubator and emergency supplies of all kinds to deal with just about any and every eventuality with new puppies as they come into the world.

But this was different.

When Bekah entered the dog’s room, she found Belle birthing in a giant stoarge bin of folded blankets and wehelping pads. Four puppies were out of their sacs,  and one was still in. Belle, being a first-time Mama, probably didn’t know very well how to chew and open the sac to let the puppies breathe. We didn’t know how long she had been laboring.

Right away, Bekah broke the unopened sac. The puppy was already cold. She immediately cleared the nasal passages, held the puppy at a downward incline in a warm cloth, and began to massage him. 

After several minutes with no sign of change, she wrapped the puppy in a cloth and looked at the other four. Three were clean, warm and snuggled under their Mama. One had an obviously cool body temperature.  She began to massage it and saw movement.

At that point, she scooped up all four puppies that she knew were likely viable.  She called Belle to follow her upstairs to her already-prepared whelping area. 

By now, I knew something was going on and broke away from our church gathering in progress. We got a small heater for the whelping area and a heating pad for the puppy whose body temperature had dropped.

Quickly, Bekah updated me: she was sure the one puppy, unfortunately, had not made it. He was cold. He was stiff. His tongue was sticking out. Even with “puppy CPR” and the warming and massaging she had tried to do in the first few minutes, he simply wasn’t responding. All the signs were there: it was too late.

Heartbroken, I went downstairs and found the little Merle parti boy wrapped in a cloth. For sure, I agreed with Bekah’s assessment. Unfortunately, we’ve had a few puppies of our 360+ not make it. It is always heart-breaking, but sometimes simply unavoidable, even with days of interventions and all our heart poured into them. This little guy hadn’t even made it that far.

Of course, we would want to bring him outside for a respectful burial. But, we were still in the midst of our home fellowship gathering. What to do? I simply wrapped the puppy securely in his little cloth and put him in our mudroom on top of the washing machine, where I knew that at least he would not be disturbed.

Bekah worked on the one puppy whose body temperature had dropped, and after about 15 minutes, reported it to feel more normal, with regular movement, and nursing. We were very happy with this progress.

We thought Belle would still have one or two more puppies, but as we assessed the four that had come upstairs with her, she had no other birthing activity.

Suddenly, Bekah heard what she could only describe as a “puppy scream” from downstairs. She was quite confused, wondering if a puppy had been left behind. She went downstairs and, as she walked through the mudroom/laundry room, she heard unmistakable “puppy noises.” She unwrapped the puppy that had been pronounced dead, and found him very much alive!

We both felt right away that he should be named “LAZARUS” (after the friend of Jesus that was raised from the dead, see John chapter 11). I said to Bekah, “Are there any girls? We should name the girls Mary and Martha!” (After the two sisters of Lazarus). She said, no, all the other puppies that had been born were boys.

But, she  said, she wanted to name the puppy that had almost died Thomas. In the Biblical account, Thomas was a disciple of Jesus who said he wanted to wanted to visit Lazarus even after his death, “so that we may die with him.” 

Within the next hour, two more puppies were born, both girls! And fittingly named Mary and Martha. So the other puppies in this litter were named after disciples of Jesus in the biblical account: Simon, Andrew, and Phillip.

We currently have three people on our waitlist for this litter and one will be a giveaway puppy. This means that between now and early selection day (Dec. 10), we can add three people to our waitlist for these puppies.