Our first litter – So Rhumbs pregnancy and subsequent whelping earlier this year on Valentines is still so fresh in my mind.

It was very planned, very wanted, and a tender trap of sorts, five months of maternal bliss with Rhumb.

Watching Rhumb go from Maiden to Mother was incredible, eye opening, so deeply instinctual, and she very clearly became the teacher, and me the student. This experience brought a softening of sorts to her otherwise explosive and dynamic personality.

My question has been, when does this all start up again? I wasn’t sure when her heat cycles would start back up, from the date of her last cycle, from conception, from whelping, or from the day she stopped nursing?

So my calendar had four potential weeks highlighted, just in case. Truth be told though, Story is my best indicator when Rhumb’s estrogen spikes right before she comes into estrus, way more accurate than a calendar.

And then on 10 months to the day from conception she came into heat. She has been a 10-14 month cycler, like her Mom, her Grandma, and all of her sisters.

On our new property we have five separate fenced areas. We also have access to the outside from up stairs and down stairs with gates in the house.

So the ‘sexy yard’ was waiting for Rhumb, or Rhumb and $eeker because he is neutered, or Rhumb and Mama Beetz. They could exit the downstairs into their own yard, and the Boyz could exit from upstairs into the front yard or side yard.

Slick all the way around. I have been wanting this type of set up for a long time so there is not even a chance of an oops.

I give about 3-4 weeks before combining the dogs again, and for sure not until Story shows no more interest, and Rhumb isn’t over the top in arousal.

Oh boy! Am I really seeing what I am seeing? And then right about 4 weeks after her heat cycle she was morning sick.

What the hell?

And then about 5 weeks after her heat cycle started, her mammary glands started to swell.

DOUBLE what the hell?

Phone calls were made to the other family members in the house, “who left the gates open?” Call and repeat times 100!

My panic was kind of real, really real.

Then her belly, right about 6-7 weeks started to grow, and her coat became super lush and shiny.

Flashbacks to Valentines.

I prepared my husband for an unplanned litter, suspicious heritage at best, or immaculate conception 2018!

I got out my stethoscope to listen to the heartbeats, so cool to hear the little ones inside, a peek-a-boo of whose to come. Nothing.

The nesting, the panting, the nesting, the panting, the pacing, all of it. At 62 days more or less, the same time frame for her previous litter and whelping.

If it is going to be it is going to be, but I kept going back to who, what, why, when, where. Our management is nothing short of Fort Leavenworth, but I can’t outsmart the divine, immaculate or not!

Right at 62 days! Her mammary glands started to shrink, her belly lost its full feeling, and she doesn’t want to eat.

I spoke with my breeder today and she said that it was most likely a false pregnancy, that some whelped females will hormonally go into pregnancy mode, because that is what their bodies are now prepared for.

I can tell you, I wasn’t Joe Cool this past month, nor was I graceful or collected. My heart was racing pretty quickly for nearly a month. Panicking and preparing at the same time. Excited and OH WHAT THE HELL also at the same time. HOW!!! all day long.

A collective sigh, a big fat giant collective sigh.

I did however have names picked out just in case, Peter, Paul & Mary.

The End, thank God!

Nancy

psst – we do have a litter in the thought process for 2020, you can follow that info at SEXY BEAST BORDER COLLIES