Funny how differently various sleddog bitches react to the whole idea of motherhood. Lizaveta of Seppala is now one week from whelping. I have never seen a poor little first-time broodbitch look so terribly serious in the run-up to a whelping. I can understand why she perhaps feels uncomfortable. Her normal weight is around 40-41 pounds and she now weighs 50 pounds even though she has been eating rather sparingly. But oh my, the expression on her face! She looks as though she has the burdens of all the world on her little shoulders.
She should be a great mother. Her dam Kolyma of Seppala is without question our best broodbitch, a dependable, trouble-free mother. Her grandam River View's Sprite was probably just as good. And the great-grandam Powder of Markovo produced litter after litter for Carolyn Ritter and Doug Willett, definitely a major broodbitch. Lizzy's little sister Lara of Seppala had her first litter a year and a half ago and (after she got over the shock of squeezing out what she must have though was a "critter") was an absolutely fanatical mother who grew her four pups super-fast with an abundant milk supply, and threatened any other bitch who got too close with mayhem! (We had to keep the wire door of her nesting cubby under the bed firmly closed, for the safety of the other inhabitants of my shack!)
So Lizzy's got all the credentials to become a super-mom in her turn. I don't know what she's got to be worried about.