All good things come in due time

“When we get impatient because something is taking too long, we should remember that Life waits on us a thousand times more than we wait on Life.” 
― Laura Teresa Marquez

They finally arrived this afternoon, our long anticipated Diva/Dempsey puppies and I am just tickled with them. Michelle jokingly says that "Little Eden Girls whelp during the day" and she was right on the money on this one. Just before bed last night Diva's temperature dropped and she started showing the early signs of labour. Not knowing how long it would be before she whelped I decided to sleep in the whelping room, on the floor, and keep an eye on her. She seemed to really enjoy the company as she would begin to bark after about 30 seconds if I left the room and become quiet again on my return. I remained at my "post" all night and through the following morning until a little after 1pm when the first puppy made it's appearance. The next hour and a half was all a blur to me as by 2:30 pm we had welcomed 6 new terriers into the world which is quite a frantic pace for whelping by any standard. Thankfully Diva is a wonderful mom and left little for me to do but watch and enjoy the appearance of each new addition. Things went by so quickly that it wasn't until it was all over that I was able to pick up each individual puppy and determine how many of each gender we actually had. We ended up with  2 girls and 4 boys which is particularly thrilling for me as I intend to keep a male from this litter and there will hopefully be plenty to choose from. Almost 12 hours old all the puppies are nursing and settling into life outside the womb and Diva is quite pleased not to feel so much pressure on her insides and celebrated with a couple of fine meals. She, understandably, has had little appetite these last couple of weeks but made up for it today in spades. I can not wait to watch these puppies grow, mature, and develop but for now I will try to get some sleep even though I would prefer to just sit outside the whelping box and look at them for another 12 hours.