Emmi's tennis puppies

Mama and babies settled & happy

The plan was to meet Jane for lunch on Friday.  Maybe have a little dog walk.  Bring Tuuli so she and Jaana could have a play together.  Then gather up Emmi and her belongings and make our leisurely way down the M5.

Then the plan was to get Jay to finish setting up the whelping box, clear out the puppy room and find me a box to put the hot water bottle in for the puppies while Emmi was busy with each new one.  I would introduce her to the whelping box and get the last few bits together that I needed to.  After all, there was plenty of time.  Those puppies weren't coming until Sunday at the very earliest.  In fact, as I had to go back to work on Tuesday after 4 days off, I was pretty sure Emmi would wait until after midnight on Monday.

Yup, those were the plans.

Need I say that Emmi had her own ideas.  Right from the beginning she was in a hurry with these puppies.  Her season started unexpectedly early.  Then she mated early in her season.  And sure enough, the puppies came on Friday afternoon - much earlier than I expected.  And far more conveniently than I expected.

Luckily Jane and I had been in contact Thursday night for me to get regular updates on her development.  When I saw a video of her panting away in the dog bed, I thought to myself "stage 1" and waited to hear about digging.  Jane was standing by to let me know when any digging got going or - heaven forbid - if there was water breaking or the grunting that is a tell-tale sign of contractions.  But stage 1 labour can and often does go on for 24 hours or even more before anything more exciting starts to happen, so I wasn't unduly concerned.

When the text arrived at 4:45am to say that digging had been going on intermittently all night, I hopped out of bed, straight into the car and met Jane to collect Emmi at a convenient spot on the M5.  Lucky, lucky, lucky.  If we had stuck to the plan, that first puppy would have been born in the car coming down the motorway.  Or I would have had to bring the whelping box to Jane's.

The next plan was for me to get to watch the 2 Wimbledon men's semi-final matches while Emmi's stage 1 progressed.  I got to see the Djokovic/Gasquet match ok, but as soon as Murray and Federer started, so did Emmi.  Oh, and they finished about the same time too.

It is said that it's best not to pay to much attention to bitches as they are going through their various stages of delivery until the cucial moments.  So it was nice to have something to distract me from what was going on in the whelping box.  However, it's true that I saw a lot more of the whelping than the tennis.

But it's only fitting that these puppies get named for the top 4 men and the top woman in tennis.

Did I mention that the plan was also for 6 puppies, 2 or 3 females and a couple of wolf sables?  Emmi had her own ideas on that score too.  Five puppies, 4 boys and 1 girl, 3 creams, one black and one brown.  Although I think we're blaming this plan on dad.  Salo has produced a handful of gorgeous cream puppies before, but all girls until now.  I'm sure they knew what they were doing, though, because look at what a good job they did!  I'll have to bring a big juicy bone next time I see Liz.  Although I dare say Salo will appreciate the bone more than Liz would.

Novak
Cream male
Birth weight:  259 grams
Time of birth:  4:08 pm

Roger
Cream male
Birth weight:  355 grams
Time of birth:  4:44 pm

Stan
Brown tan & white male
Birth weight:  303 grams
Time of birth:  4:50 pm

Serena
Black, tan & white female
Birth weight:  300 grams
Time of birth:  5:10 pm

Andy
Cream male
Birth weight:  384 grams
Time of birth:  6:25 pm

Did I mention that the plan was also for a Murray/Djokovic Wimbledon final?  Uh huh.



But we can't blame that one on Emmi or Salo.  

to be blue ...

... or not to be blue, that is the question.

And the answer is:  not to be blue, in this instance.

That's not to say that I have given up on the non-brown puppy being a strange, dilute colour.  On the contrary I am now leaning toward thinking she is actually lilac - a colour even rarer than blue.  Dog genetics is complicated, but the Dog Coat Colour Genetics website has some very user-friendly information that doesn't make even me glaze over when they start on the locus and allele stuff.

In the simplest terms, blue occurs when a genetically black dog has a gene that dilutes the colour.  Looking at genetically blue Lapphunds, like the second one on this page, I can see that my puppy is not that slate-grey colour.  In fact, I originally described her as the colour of a Weimaraner - and they are not actually blue, but lilac.  Lilac occurs when the blue dilution gene is present in a brown dog.  And I am now thinking that's what I have.

Frankly it doesn't really matter what colour I think she is, or even what colour she actually is, because although blue and lilac are recognised colours for Finnish Lapphunds in Scandanavia, they are not on the list of UK Kennel Club recognised colours for our breed.  Whatever colour my girl is genetically speaking, she will be registered as brown or brown & tan or brown, tan & white, depending on how her colour develops.  Interestingly, "red" is an acceptable colour for us to use, when in fact "red" Finnish Lapphunds are actually genetically brown or sable.  The Kennel Club - defying logic since 1873.

Anyway, I did say it was complicated, didn't I?  Let us not descend too far into the murky waters of dog coat colour genetics - I would never find my way back out!  So, back to lilac.

Here is a cute row of fat, suckling puppies from their second morning in the world.

You may be wondering why I am so determined that this puppy is not just brown.  Well, the reason is that I have seen a more-than-middling number of brown Lappy puppies in my time, and in every single case, the colour was nothing like this puppy, who has no red in her shade whatsoever. 

Perhaps comparing Kuura's brown mum with his "brown" daughter, you can see why I am determined that she is not brown.  Kuura's mum is one of these puppies on their first day in the world  As you can see, they are very clearly brown, no doubt about it.

Granted, my "brown" Lappies have a great deal of red in the shade.  So I went on the hunt for a photo of a Lappy whose brown is a cooler, less red shade.  One dog springs to mind, TabanyaRuu Impi, who is a rich, dark brown that is rather cooler than the Infindigo reds.   Standing by to see a photo of her as a small puppy.

Perhaps you think that based on all this, I should be more adamant that she is lilac.  But I would expect a lilac puppy to be more silvery, so that is stopping me.  The lilac puppies on this page ("siniparkit") are unmistakable.  But when you look at the older puppies on that page and the adult lilac Finnish Lapphunds at the bottom of this page it's not so clear-cut. 

So I'm just going to see how her colour develops as she grows.  Is there a way to determine absolutely one way or the other whether she is lilac?  Nope.  With blue, the adult dog will always have a blue nose, so that's easy.  But with lilac, the nose connection doesn't work the same way.  Right now her nose is kind of pink, which suggests lilac.  However, 2 of the black boys also have pink noses inherited from their dad, so that doesn't work.  It's worth mentioning, however, that theirs is a pink stripe like Kuura's and hers is not.  At this point I would just like to predict that these two boys will have fabulous snow noses when they grow up!

And here is the contented mum and brood this morning.