Holly's First Anatolian Litter

Holly, the Houdini of dogs, is nearly impossible to confine. At 100lbs and even at 7 weeks pregnant, she has been known to scale a 6' fence,. Slip out the top slot in a horse gate, and scooter under a 4" gap under the fence. She can be captured and held in a kennel with 10' sides, and that's where she spent 3 weeks in heat...the first time. Fast forward 2 weeks. By the time a dear friend had observed Sammy and Holly doing what dogs do, I already had another occupant in the heat pen: Rio, our senior buck, was confined in an effort to keep the goats from getting bred. So Holly Houdini went into the goat pen, securely held by 3 bungee cords...until Holly snapped them. All 3. And she was gone. For days. And I prayed she had a false 2nd heat. I prayed she had a false pregnancy. And she grew. And grew. And growled and snapped at the other pups left from the last litter. And she kept on growing. And yesterday the day I had calculated as her due date, I felt and SAW those puppies wiggling in her belly, and her 98.6 temp at 4pm told the story: we were gonna have babies within a day! And of course, it's the coldest night of the year. So after am hour of the year. So up went the heat lamp, the heated buckets all got plugged in, and we waited. And when she was still showing no signs, we went to sleep. Come 7am, one very smiley 10 year old boy bounded into my room squealing, "Holly had her puppies, and they're ALL Sammy's! So we have 8 little white bundles: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. Merry Christmas to all!