God’s Eye Is on the Sparrow…and on the Pups

God’s Eye Is on the Sparrow…and on the Pups

My hubby and I are on puppy duty, since my in-laws are doing missionary work in India. One of their cocker spaniel females, Emma, was scheduled to give birth this week, so we started watching her for any signs of labor.

Finally, on Friday, she gave birth to a small white pup. She seemed no worse for the wear and even beat her tail happily against the wall of her whelping pen when I went to check on her (dogs must rebound faster than humans).

But then an hour passed, and there were no more puppies. I, of course, Googled how often dogs are supposed to give birth once they start rolling, and it said every thirty minutes.

I texted my husband, “Do you think I should call the vet?”

He called me, and we discussed it. I decided I’d give her a little more time, but then my husband must’ve had second thoughts because he was on the way to the vet’s when he called me again.

You must understand, my mountain man husband is not really a pet person. He absolutely loves nature and being outdoors, but he thinks animals should be in the wild and not all decked out with sweaters and collars and made to walk on leashes and given pesky things, which hinders their survival instincts, like water and food.

But there he went, to the vet, with a cumbersome crate holding a laboring cocker spaniel and a small white pup. He said that the office was crowded with these animal lovers, who all just oohed and ahhed over the mama and her new pup. Meanwhile, the vet asked, “What’s her name?”

My husband didn’t know.

“Who is she bred to?”

My husband didn’t know.

He knew she’d had complications giving birth before, which is why he was there, but he wasn’t quite sure what those complications were. The vet explained that a mother dog can labor up to a day in between pups, and that he was not concerned.

And then the office erupted in another chorus of oohs and ahhs. My husband turned toward the crate and saw that the mother had popped out a second pup like it was the easiest thing in the world.

So he brought her back home and put her—and her spanking new babies—in the whelping pen.

We checked her repeatedly that evening, but there still were no more pups. Hubby added some logs to the furnace, which would then warm the kennel, and we went back up to the apartment above my in-laws’ house.

I turned my phone to airplane mode before I went to sleep, and my husband had turned his phone down, so neither of us heard the phone call from my sister-in-law (and our neighbor) at 10:30 p.m.

She was currently in the whelping pen, and the third pup was frozen but still alive. She wrapped the pup in her fleece and carried it out to her warm car. She then got a hold of my father-in-law in India and found the light, which would work as a heat lamp. By this point, the mother had given birth to the fourth puppy.

When I came out in the morning, still oblivious to the ordeal my sister-in-law had gone through during the night, a canine manger scene greeted me: the heat lamp cast a warm glow in the kennel, and the mother and her four pups were all nestled together in the corner of the whelping pen.

I thought to myself, “Well, that was sure easy.”

Earlier in the week, my mother-in-law had had a dream that the mother dog had four pups, and everything was all right, even though this would be a VBAC for the dog (vaginal birth after caesarean). Therefore, seeing those little pups in the kennel, all perfectly healthy and whole, I felt this faith well up inside me.

To be honest, my faith’s been pretty dry over the past few months. It feels like our family, for half a year, at least, has been in a period of transition, and I kind of doubt that is going to change any time soon.

Then I saw those pups and was reminded of the sparrow. If God could reassure us through a dream that all was going to be well with a dog’s birth, why couldn’t He answer other—larger—prayers?

So cling to His promises, regardless if you’re in a state of transition or frustrated with the predictability of life. God’s eye is on the sparrow…and on the pups. 😉