The Safest Baby on the Block

When Grendel and Calle were just puppies, I read in a dog behavior book about how best to deal with dogs and pregnancy. The book taught me that, contrary to what most people think, dogs understand pregnancy in their own doggie way. In fact, your dogs probably know you're pregnant even before you do! Because dogs are pack animals, they will embrace the new "puppy" as long as you, the human, don't screw it up by trying to exclude them from baby preparations, which only confuses them, as they naturally want to be a part of the process.

Due to this information, I have assumed throughout my pregnancy that the dogs "get it." They know we will have a new puppy soon to take care of. I have assumed that they have long ago sniffed out my crazy hormonal fluctuations and now they are just waiting for my litter to come in. But here is something interesting...Calle, known also as the-dog-who-is-so-smart-it-is-scary, has recently figured out where the puppy lives. It started a few weeks ago when he became oddly obssessed with my belly button, sniffing at it constantly as though he was expecting a cookie to come flying out. Strange, I thought. But then it got even stranger. My genius dog, who normally wants nothing to do with cuddles, has started guarding my belly. He does this by climbing right on top of me whenever I am in repose and curling himself around my stomach, resting his head right on my belly button, where he will stay until I force him to move.

Twitch does not like this at all, and she will inevitably start pounding away at whatever spot Calle is lying on. Calle's head pops up each time he gets whacked, and he gives me a martyred look as if to say, "See the sacrifices I make?" But then he just resumes his position, much to Twitch's chagrin. It is a very interesting sibling relationship. To illustrate, here are some pictures Ian took this morning while I was enjoying my post-yard sales nap:

Although my nap was rudely interrupted by the unpleasant sensation of Twitch doing her best to beat the crap out of her big brother (imagine the dialogue:
--"Moooom, Calle's sitting on me!"
--"Mother, please inform my sister that I am only keeping her safe."
--"Will you both keep quiet so I can nap!"), it still pleases me to know that Twitch will be well-cared for by her entire pack. She is a very lucky puppy.