Very early this morning, SSD Seifert made his debut! SSD Opal gave birth to a single male puppy at 2:47 a.m.
SSD Seifert is named after Denise Seifert, one of our long-time volunteers who passed away in January. Denise and her husband Steve raised SSD Misty Morning, SSD Peach Pie and SSD Clara. Denise was dedicated to SSD, and her optimism, purpose and boundless energy brought new life and direction to SSD. She was a wonderful friend and volunteer and she will be greatly missed.
Like his namesake, SSD Seifert came into the world full of life and energy. Throughout the day on Monday, SSD Opal was showing some mild signs of beginning labor, but nothing to make Crystal, her breeder caretaker, think that she was going to give birth any time soon. As night fell, Crystal decided to sleep downstairs in the "Mom Cave" where Opal's whelping box was set up. Opal dug around in her whelping box and in her crate, but she wasn't showing any consistent nesting signs to make Crystal think there was any need to call the whelping team.Around 1:15 a.m., Opal began acting like she wanted to go upstairs and began pacing between the stairs and the whelping box. However, because she wasn't showing any consistent signs of labor, Crystal chalked Opal's restlessness up to the fact that she wasn't used to sleeping in the basement, and after a few minutes, Opal did settle in to her whelping box.
Crystal noticed that Opal was licking a lot, so she decided to check on her periodically so she would be ready when Opal really started to show signs of labor. On one of her check-ins, she was surprised to see a puppy moving around in the whelping box!
Opal has settled in wonderfully as a mother to little Seifert. Both mom and pup are doing great!
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