Aine (The Bride)Getting Clean up for D-Day by Anais, one of our visiting grandchild	Gairich(The Groom), resting under Easter's sunshine

...D-Day April 15, 1999, early evening, Linate (Milan) - Italy...
I was coming back that day from the airport, I had been couple of days in Germany, the flight had been delayed ( tell me something new...)and the wheather had turned to a drizzling wet and cold evening, well the perfect setting for a homecoming.
I had flipped the cellular and announced my safe landing to Irene, told her that I'll be home within the next hour (trafic permits...).
So I started the Alfa, on with the safety belt and brazed myself to tackle the rush hour trailing end of the Milan ring road.
Irene had told me that Aine was still "waiting", Well we had time for the birth(s) were not due before Sunday ( according to the text books...)
Switch on my favorit Uilleann Pipes Concert music, and let the car off the airport parking lot into the dusky italian evening...
As I was passing over the "Po" river (South of Pavia), the cellular buzzed;
"Pronto"; I said
"Dad, where are you..."; said my son in a rather exited voice.
I thought: " Hoho, I am tired, my sciatic has been playing me for the past couple days, he is going to ask me to stop by the mall to pick up something,...Why not, I am in the car, they are just confortably home watching TV..." so I said: "Why you're asking?..."
"It's Aine, it has started, the first puppy is out!! Hurry home!" he yelled.
"Be at the gate in 7 minutes,..."; I said then I put my foot down to the floor board.....

Well, talking about doing things by the book...Remember that Aine is a first timer mum, no training just good ol' Mother Nature who flicked the right switch at the right time, expect for one thing, Mother Nature never read any books on how to prepare the future mammy IW, about preparing the right place (nest), about all the preparation (starting two weeks before hand), etc...

Anyway, some two weeks before the due date, we had selected the place for Aine nest, a place she was familiar.
We furnished with unfolded cartboard boxes on the floor, folded papers on the walls and corner and some old sheets and rags.
We had Aine sleeping there and as D-Day approached, we had her in her pen for longer resting period. She was getting really big bad that stage!..
See fig 1 the lay out. You will notice that the reserved area is in fact a vestibule leading to our son's room.

No matter what we tried, Aine kept returning to Paddy's bed.
In the end, we litteraly pulled the bed from under her and left her with the bedclothes, by that time number two was under way...
So the 25 minutes ritual started, number 3,...4,...5,... and so on throughout the evening and well into the night.( reminded me of one of the Simpson's adventure with Santa's little Helper)

Detail view of puppies	Aine resting and feeding, notice the bed's wall panels are still in place!

So thirteen pups later, 3 sets of bedclothes, (one was drying on the line, one in the washing machine, one in use), tired we started the routine of splitting the litter in two shifts.
While one shift is with the mother, the other is in the house under the gentle heat of a mild IR lamp.

Off Duty, under the lamp!	Where's Mummy gone?!

We lost two puppies with 48 hours so we are down to 11 puppies looking and feeling in excellent form.
Today, the April 20, 1999: we have passed the 4-5 days initial danger phase still with 11 heathly puppies.