Suspicions Confirmed
Seeing the pups being placed one by one on the blanket, you’ll notice that none of them are standing up at all. They were simply squirming on the ground. This further confirms our suspicions that they were newly birthed.
Newborns, because they can’t support their weight yet, would move by crawling on their bellies as they build their legs’ strength in the following weeks. The firefighter fishing out the litter likely noticed this, too, and was rightfully extra careful in handling them. With the number of squiggling bodies dwindling, the mission was nearly done.