A Special Night

By Brother Luke

It’s 10 PM Sunday night, and I am with Shiloh in the puppy kennel whelping room, wondering if this will be the night she gives birth. She was x-rayed the previous Monday and confirmed to be carrying eight puppies. We are approaching a decision about whether or not she will need a C-section. Tuesday would be the last day to wait. Shiloh was in my room Saturday night and spent the night panting and moving around the room, but she did not break her water and gave no other signs that she was going to have a puppy. Sunday during the day she was calmer, but she would eat only dog biscuits and lean treats, not real food. I now wondered whether I should close the kennel and take her back to my room for the night or stay here and wait. But then she began to nest, and it looked like she was releasing her “water,” which is the ultimate sign that she is committed to giving birth. That made the decision easy. We were going to stay in the kennel for the night.

Now I began to stare at her more intently, looking for any indication of contractions. There was one, she began checking herself, another contraction, and at 10:19 the first puppy appeared. It was a beautiful, healthy girl. The whelping was under way! Less than an hour later another puppy appeared, another girl. I thought, well maybe recent trends of having more boys than girls might be about to change. But I was wrong. The next five puppies were all boys. Puppy number seven appeared at 2:25 Monday morning. I thought, only one to go, and then I can go to bed! But no puppy came. I gave her oxytocin at 3:30, but by 4:30, still no puppy and no contractions. I decided that possibly the x-ray might have not been totally clear, and it may have looked like she had eight puppies but really had only seven. So, at 5 AM I left her in a new clean room and whelping pool with her puppies and went to bed. I came back to the kennel at 6:45 to open up for Monday and to put out food. I checked in on Shiloh first and counted her puppies, just to be sure they were all still there. I counted, and there were eight! I counted again to make sure. Yes, there were eight. She had given birth to the last pup while I was asleep. And she did a great job. The puppy was totally cleaned up, and all I needed to do was weigh her and give her a rickrack collar. She got a lime-green collar! So little lime girl was the last one out, and they were all doing great. Three days later we weighed them to make sure they were all nursing and gaining weight, and they all were up in weight.

A very special day—or should I say night? Another gift that will bring joy into the lives of eight families in two months’ time. Even though I’m not a kid any more, and all-nighters are really for college students, being a witness and helper in this “life-giving” process keeps me grounded in the grace that life is for all creation. Not a bad lesson for a monk to keep in mind!



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