We are very happy to report that Gloria is pregnant!....but let me go back a month in time:   

Sep 7

Gloria doesn't do anything normal...normal for a golden retriever that is.  Exterior is beautiful like a golden...but she thinks like a human - and has emotions of a human. She smiles, she gets frustrated; she has crowned herself Queen of the yard; she gets jealous; she does payback by chewing up things belonging to the person she's upset with; she's guilty when caught; thinks it's beneath her to be outside while the humans are inside; she understands many things so I can talk to her like a human.  When I say "Gloria, can I check you" she immediately drops to the ground, lays on her side with legs sticking up so I can check her. She is cautious withstrangers - doesn't greet people with then uninhibited exhuberance of  a normal golden - she reserves that for people she knows and trusts. She does not trust everyone - you haveto earn it. Her intelligence level is unlike any I've seen before in a golden.  If there is such a thing as a narcississtic canine, Gloria would be in that category.

All of our females are on 6 month cycles...not Gloria - she likes to throw in the odd 9 month cycle, which she did this time.  We have attempted 3 unsuccessful breedings with Appollo - none of them resulted in a pregnancy. (turns out he wasn't capable of siring a litter)   I was fooled each time - Gloria gained weight, showed physical signs of being pregnant - increased appetite...morning sickness...sleeping more...personality changes, nesting behavoir.  We were disappointed each time when a sonogram showed no puppies.  In November 2009 I took her for her sonogram and Dr. Jackie says "yep, she looks pregnant...let's see how many"  She looked and she looked - couldn't believe that she wasn't pregnant.

For this heat AND, to add a twist to it, she had a split heat, which I didn't know existed, until now.  She started her heat cycle normally...by the 4th day I picked up Troy who was the intended stud. He took one sniff of her and walked away disinterested...I found this very odd...the next day her cycle stopped.  Troy was definitely not interested ...within a week, the bleeding started again and this time lasted the regular amount of time.  AND Troy was definitely intererested to the point of being a pest.  So we waited patiently till Day 25 when we could do a sonogram.  In my opinion, she really didn't display any signs of being pregnant, other than being a little more needy and she had a very good appetite.  I walked into the vet clinic and Dr. Jackie asked what I thought - told her I really didn't know.  Within a few minutes of checking she showed me two puppies on the screen - said it would be a small litter - could be up to 3 puppies.  Anything is better than none so I am quite excited about the news.

The puppies are due Thanksgiving weekend - we can hardly wait.  I will start measuring Gloria's girth so we can monitor her growth.  I'll also start adding a cooked egg and/or cottage cheese to her diet.