The stage is set . . . .

When I wake up tomorrow, there will be one week until Victory's "63 days after ovulation" due date.  I can hardly believe it!  It has seemed as though whelping day would never come, and I've watched and worried and watched and felt and second-guessed myself and worried . . . well, you get the picture.  And yet now, here it is -- almost upon us!

In the middle of the night (a bitterly cold night after a day of solid snowfall) I lay awake for over an hour imagining ways to ensure the puppies will be warm enough in their whelping box.  I even considered setting up my tent in the living room but abandoned the idea when I concluded that the ceiling wasn't high enough.  (Darn . . . seemed like such a great plan at first!)  All this despite the fact that I have a lovely whelping box with solid sides and an insulated bottom, a furnace, a heating pad . . . .  My point is only that when you're waiting for a litter to hit the stage, there never seems to be any shortage of things to worry about.  And I know that I won't stop worrying when they arrive; the worry will just change shape a little.

I was watching some TV in bed last night, and Victory was lying on the end of the bed, on her back (her preferred position).  The belly was very obvious, so I laid my hand gently on it and just waited.  And suddenly there they were:  the dancers, practicing their high kicks!  It was amazing -- like feeling a pregnant woman's baby kicking in her belly, only a lot smaller.  I'd seen her belly move a few days before, and that was really exciting, too.  This has been an incredible part of her pregnancy, in much the same way as it was an incredible part of my own pregnancies:  the moment when the babies assert themselves as individual little beings. 

Today was a great day -- very cold outside, so the perfect day to spend time putting a nursery together.  Victory and I are fortunate enough to have been loaned a beautiful Jonart whelping box, and today I assembled it.  What a wonderful design, and so easy to put together.  As you might imagine, Victory (who believes she is entitled to the very best in everything) has given it her seal of approval:

The nursery, ready for the tiny dancers.

The day was also devoted to the washing of many, many towels, ready to be tucked away until they're needed on whelping day.

So now things are almost ready.  Tomorrow I will start taking her temperature, watching for the drop that signals that her command performance is imminent.  And later this week, we'll learn by means of an X-ray just how large the company will be.  I can hardly believe it.