They're Here! Gabbi X Faroa
The much anticipated Gabbi X Faroa Litter was born on February 20th, 2026. It wasn't the way we expected, and certainly wasn't the way we wanted it to go. It was a rollercoaster. Mentally, physically, and emotionally. This one really tested us.
On Wednesday, we were prepared. The whelping box was ready to go, and our supply shelves were stocked and ready. We had everything except Gabbi's cooperation. Thursday, Gabbi's temperature dropped, and I was sure puppies were coming soon. They didn't. By nighttime, I decided I would have to stay up because I was convinced she would have them overnight. She didn't, and I would be awake for 43 hours. Gabbi had puppy number 1 at 9:53 am on Friday, February 20th. She had puppies 2-7 at pretty good intervals. She did really well, but it was clear she was exhausted. We gave her plenty of assistance. We tried to keep her energy up, keep her hydrated, and comfortable. Unfortunately, three of the puppies she delivered were underdeveloped and stillborn. Not uncommon in large litters. There was a pause between 7 and 8. Not necessarily too long, but I was feeling a little uneasy and started communicating with our vet at that time in case we needed to bring her in quickly later. After puppy number 8, she stalled for longer than I was comfortable with. We made the decision to go to the vet's office and have an X-ray done to confirm she still needed to deliver more. It took longer than I wanted to load up in the car. Gabbi was not interested in getting in, so that was a major struggle. We did get her in, and we left for the vet. Puppies in the front with my daughter and Gabbi in the backseat. Once we were well on our way, we called to let the vet know we were coming and found out they had just had 2 emergencies come in and not enough Doctors to take a third. The next possible place to go was 40 minutes in the opposite direction. Talk about stressful. I was trying to keep my cool so I could think on no sleep, puppies were screaming next to me, and Gabbi wanted to be in the front with us now. The next 5-mile stretch of interstate was pretty scary. Gabbi was dead set on squeezing in between the front seats to get to her puppies. We pulled over at the first opportunity, and my daughter got in the back with the puppies. I can't explain why I didn't think of that when we left. Another 20 minutes down the road, we were getting close to our destination. Gabbi stood up in the backseat, turned to face away from my daughter, and had puppy number 9 practically on her lap. So it turned out I could get more stressed than I already was. Thanks to my sky-high stress level, I missed a turn and got completely lost. I really don't remember the period of time it took to find where we were going. But somehow we got there. The X-ray showed 4 puppies still waiting. Gabbi was just too tired, and she had already been through a marathon, so the decision was made to do an emergency C-section. The last of the litter was born at 5:24 pm. We were all worn out by that time, but we would bring Gabbi and 10 new puppies home at 8:00 that night. We had changed out all the whelping pads and sanitized the whelping box while Gabbi was in surgery, but the rest of the whelping area looked like open-heart surgery had recently been performed there. Surgical utensils, exam gloves, and rags were thrown everywhere. After getting Gabbi and all her puppies settled and warm, we cleaned all that up. It was about midnight when we got done, and Gabbi was ready for a potty break. I think we were all looking forward to going to bed after that. Gabbi took a few steps out of the whelping box and started stumbling sideways. She fell against my daughter's legs and passed out. She went down pretty hard, and although I was able to catch her right at the floor, she still fell right after having major surgery. She was also spayed during the C-section procedure. She was not unconscious for long, but long enough to scare us to death. She didn't have any use of her back legs, and she couldn't get up. She was breathing heavily and trying to go to sleep. I started calling the office where she had the surgery, but they didn't take after-hours calls. They provided a number for a 24/7 service that would set you up for a virtual veterinary visit, so I left a message with them and called our vet's emergency line. They suggested we go to a 24-hour animal hospital, but the closest one is hours away, and I wasn't sure we had that long. Thankfully, I got a call from the virtual vet service, and we got on FaceTime with a vet. We were able to do a pretty thorough exam for doing it over the phone, and we were able to figure out it was a combination of a delayed reaction to the anesthesia and hypoglycemia. We could treat that from home. We got Gabbi what she needed and slowly inched her closer to the whelping box. Once she was right up to the doorway, she pulled all her strength together and got up and walked in to lie down with her puppies. My daughter set the cot up right next to Gabbi. I went to the couch, and we finally got to get some sleep at around 4:00 am Saturday. I fell asleep watching the camera in the whelping area on my iPad and woke up to live video of Gabbi standing over my sleeping daughter, tail wagging, willing her to wake up. She has been happy and healthy and a wonderful mother ever since. We've got 7 sweet little girls and 3 adorable boys, and I'm so thankful that experience didn't have a different ending.
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