Happy birthday

Juliette's milk came in on Wednesday and she started doing a little nesting - digging around and sleeping in the plastic crate.  On Thursday, she ate breakfast, and I felt comfortable going to work.  Nancy checked her at noon, and all was well.  She seemed very normal when I got home and ate her dinner, although with much less enthusiasm.  Figured we would have a restless, but uneventful night, and expected puppies on Friday.  Plus small litters often come late.   I was just getting ready to close down the computer and go to bed when I heard Juliette digging furiously in the crate, and then I thought I heard a soft groan, grunt.  I jumped up and went over to check on Juliette and she was having contractions!!  I had just gotten the whelping suite set up Thursday AM and had clipped Juliette's belly hair and rear feathers.  Yikes, that was calling it a bit close.  So I hauled the poor girl out of the crate - she really didn't want to change venues - and coaxed her into the large plastic pool I use for whelping.  Then called my whelper helpers.  Contractions started at 9:40 pm, a 13 oz yellow male pup was delivered at 10:35 pm and a 16 oz yellow female followed at 11:04 pm.  And that was it.  We all think the pups look like Goldens, and the girl is definitely golden in color, but we won't know for sure until around 2 weeks when Golden pups will start growing a fluffy coat.