🎉 It’s Official!
Today, we learned the happy news! We have not just one, but TWO dogs that are expecting! 😱 We invite you to journey with us as we document this monumental time in their lives.
The Tell-Tale Signs
About a week ago, we noticed Taki undergoing strange behavior. She’s normally a pretty lazy dog, but she was acting even lazier than usual. There would be times where she wouldn’t come when called to go outside, and even more unusual, she wasn’t eating her normal amount of kibble in the morning. Our worst fear was that she was going through some kind of depressive episode!
Then, a few days later, we noticed her nipples starting to hang. We weren’t sure what to make of it at first, but then we noticed Dona’s starting to hang as well. This is when we started to suspect pregnancy, but it was way too early to tell. And, we thought for sure both of them couldn’t be impregnated at the same time! Maybe there was another explanation, like they found some kind of strange plant to eat in the yard or something.
A few days after that, I noticed Taki seemed a little rounder in the middle. I wasn’t completely sure because she’s naturally a bit stockier than our other two dogs. But sure enough, her nipples were now becoming more and more prominent. At this point, I was becoming more confident that Taki was indeed pregnant, but Dona was another story.
Dona’s only major shift so far seemed to be her mood. She was becoming a bit snappy with the other dogs at certain times, especially with Oso (which is funny to think about now knowing that he is the father). Her nipples were slightly more engorged, but other than that we didn’t notice any other changes to her body. Dona is naturally a very skinny dog, so if she was pregnant I felt it would be quite noticeable on her.
Nonetheless, we felt it was time to get them checked. We were hoping to take them after church, but unfortunately vet offices seem to be closed on Sundays. The following day, I called first thing in the morning, and we were able to schedule something for later in the afternoon.
The Vet Appointment
As we were putting their leashes on them to get ready to go, we gave them one more look-over. At this point, I was almost 100% certain Taki was pregnant. With Dona, I was a little more on the fence, but ultimately leaning towards no. Like I said before, she still wasn’t really showing any obvious signs, at least not like Taki was. And also, what were the chances that they would both get pregnant on the first try, right?
When we got to the vet office, they started asking us questions about the possible conception date. We knew it was at least a good four weeks back because that was when we noticed Taki and Dona were both in heat at the same time. I’m not sure how long that had been a thing because it was never quite so obvious before. You see, this was their first heat cycle with Oso, our new male Cavatzu, in the mix. None of them had ever been bred before.
Everyone at the vet’s was shocked that we thought both of our pups could be pregnant at the same time. I mean, I could hardly believe it myself. When the doc finally came in, she told us that it was too early to do an x-ray, but if they were far enough along she could perform abdominal palpation, which is just a fancy way of saying she could feel around their stomachs for fluid-filled sacks. Apparently, at this stage of the pregnancy, the puppies feel like little grapes surrounding the fetus. To her amazement, she could feel the sacks in both of our pups. Because of this, she determined that both were indeed pregnant! 🎉
What’s Next?
From here, we still need to verify the puppy count for each litter. We won’t know the official count until our pups are far enough along to get x-rays done. We’re shooting for the second week of April for this appointment. Until then, we are going to work on getting interested parties on the waitlist and provide you all with health updates as the pups get further along. We never thought our first foray into breeding would happen quite like this, but we are very excited to be embarking on this journey as a family! Stay tuned!
Much love,
❤️ The Villanueva Family
