12: 00 Puppy number 7 was welcomed into this world. Tears of happiness appeared again in my mother’s eyes. I was getting tired and wondered, “how many more am I going to have”?
1: 15 p.m. Dad’s prediction was about to become reality! Puppy number 8 was born and I was able to sense that she was the last one. After 10 hours of labor I was exhausted!
The final count 8 beautiful puppies, 4 blacks, 4 fawns; 4 females and 4 males, two of each color. My “husband” Apache heard the goods news, and he attempted to come and see us. However I was not ready to have him around me yet. Yeah, another female thing that perhaps only women can understand, after all, us females of all types go through the same experience: not tolerating our husbands once we get pregnant. Why? Let them find out for themselves!
A month later…Motherhood has brought more wisdom and generosity into my life. I am not selfish Fila anymore. These puppies have changed our lives. Dad is cooking more delicious Italian specialties for the babies and me. Mama had to learn how to “change diapers” and although she enjoys sleeping late, she does not mind getting up several times at night to help me feed the pups. Apache seems to be a good father although he gets a little crabby when the children, who are getting big very fast, bother him while he is lying down on his favorite couch.
Two months later…There is an Ecuadorian saying that goes; “there is not a more powerful and tender pain than giving birth, a pain that females easily forget.”
My children are gone and I have started to forget that pain. The big question now is: would I do it again? I am not sure. However, my husband, Apache is ready and willing.
Xena.
(by Mireya Denigris)
Evening of the 62nd day: In spite of what many people say, I ate normally. However, I could sense that my babies were ready to join our world. My breathing was accelerating and my tummy bigger than ever. I could hardly turn around to see my tail.
63rd day: 3:15 am. The first puppy was born and I was very confused and scared. I did not know what was happening, I even thought that I had an accident, my human dad assisted me, and helped me to stay calm, looking into my eyes he said: “ it’s O.K. little girl, you just had your first puppy”. At that very moment, I felt a rush from my nose to the last inch of my tail. My maternal instincts suddenly kicked in and I only had to sniff my baby to understand that little Xena had become mommy Xena.
I began cleaning my puppy when my human mother joined me in the room that was especially set up for my delivery. An amazing communication developed between us and together we shared all those mixed emotions that a delivery implies: happiness, pain, tenderness, fear…
6: 15 a.m. the second puppy resisted coming out, maybe he was so comfortable in his warm room that he had to think twice before deciding to leave it. His delay however increased my pain and concern, as well as my mother’s, but finally after three hours and 15 minutes of anguish, we happily received the arrival of a big boy.
6:45 am. Puppy number 3 arrived very easily, no complications. It was the first girl of the litter!
7:15 a.m. Puppy number 4 was born. I was very relaxed and I took it easy, by now I was an expert on cleaning and nursing my babies and mommy had called her boss to take the day- off of work and stay home with me.
9:30 a.m. mom is happy with the birth of 4 beautiful puppies; she was thinking that 4 were it! Nevertheless, dad insisted: “wait, she is going to have more, she is going to have 8”!
10: 15 am I did not feel good. I felt like I had to go to the bathroom so bad. I kept going by the door, but my dad would not let me out. I insisted, and my mom, against my father’s wishes let me go out. Big error! I made a typical beginner’s mistake. Mom was screaming and daddy ran after me when we realized that puppy number 5 was born on the white snow of our back yard.
Daddy picked up the puppy in his hand and brought it inside. Still confused and scared I realized my error and started cleaning my boy, a beautiful black boy that for some strange contradiction of life was born on the white cloak of Chicago snow.
(a pup from our second litter)
is a proud member of a large
Fila family owned by Karl and Shawn
a Wilson of Ft. Wayne, IN.
the latest Fila
addition to the Kuznieski family
in Midlothian, IL.