We first stumbled across some impressive nanny skills many years ago after Callie's first litter. We were whelping a lab litter for someone about one month after Callie's puppies had flown the coop, so to speak. Bailey wasn't terribly interested in cleaning the puppies, so Callie stepped in full time. She absolutely went nuts over the puppy squeaks and sounds and I was failing miserably at trying to keep these puppies clean. I figured "What the heck?" She would clean them several times daily and Bailey would nurse them. This was the first of several litters to be raised by more than one mom. My apologies for the poor video quality, this was from an old cell phone, but it does get the point across!
Callie was always in the habit of checking the puppies out and would let me know quickly if they required her skills (though I already had an idea, since I handle them constantly from the start).
We even had a couple of times when she would help nurse, if she happened to have had her own litter (or she'd just let them try). You can see the tandem milk stations above with Gamine's litter from 2010. This was just after her last litter of twelve had weaned, but she still had milk. It has always been pretty standard to have the village of goldens all participating in puppy raising here in the house. It's hard to see, but one of the puppies nursing on Callie (she's on the left) is JJ, who has taken over the Sutter Bay nanny job.
The same Gamine litter learning the value of fireside naps in the winter.
If they squeaked and made puppy noises, Callie was all over them (she treated human babies the same way...that could get awkward!!). No discrimination here! She also would give the puppy alert when a female was going into labor. She would come flying into the bedroom and jump on me if it was the middle of the night...along the lines of "Come quick!!! Timmy's down the well!!" Usually she slept in a crate, though I would keep her loose for this purpose in case we would be too sound asleep.
One of the little guys who simply had a slow start. He was having a difficult time getting enough from Mom, so Callie shared. Dash (Dad) helps to supervise the whole production.
While we miss her greatly, as do so many others, especially at her other job at Evergreen Hospice, we are so happy with the time she was with us. I never knew what a special girl she would be when I whelped my very first litter in August 2004. She's got big paws to fill!
Our tribute to her, the music makes it even more poignant:
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