Happy 2 week birthday to the 9 cutest little pupsters around!
Oh my goodness, how are these adorable little pupsters 2 weeks old already? And how do they just keep getting cuter? They are sweet nuzzly little black bundles of adorableness.
Monday night (I think it was Monday but I’ve lost all track of time), I was talking about how much 15 ccs can be when you are trying to get it down a puppy and this afternoon, they all sucked it down in well under a minute each. (I think this is the first litter that I’ve gotten to drink the leftover formula. I usually have to put the first batch on the MamaDog’s food). It now takes longer to make the bottle than it does for them to suck it down. Even little Strata cooperated (not fully at first but then he caught on and was guzzling it down. He didn’t want to be done when it was gone either. Good puppy, good sign). They are eating almost as well as their Mama ;-).
Speaking of which, it’s time to up her calories again. Poor little miss has to eat and eat. It’s not doing great things for her digestive system or our air quality but it keeps the pupsters growing so it’s worth it ;-)
Little peepers aren’t just outside these days. There are 9 little pairs making more of an appearance all of the time. I can’t wait until they start recognizing me by sight in addition to scent.
Good little pupsters aren’t quite going into the potty area when they need to go but they do usually lumber away from the rest of the pile so I can often put them the rest of the way myself. Not bad for 2 weeks old. Maybe they’ll be like their daddy and be extremely fastidious (he wouldn’t walk through it and he’d guide me around it as well.)
More milestones are being reached: they can pretty much all nurse while the MaterGator sits. She doesn’t start off that way but she often sits up partway through and the ones that aren’t asleep keep right on drinking. I guess that shouldn’t surprise me given how they drink the bottle.
Aunt Colleen is coming tomorrow for their 2 week photoshoot. I have actually planned out the weekly photo shoots now (I didn’t do it until today so there’s a propr for a later shoot that I should’ve gotten before but I may be able to jury rig (yes, I now know that the expression was Gerry rig but people ‘round here have accents and when I was little, I didn’t know the WW history or that Germans were Gerries but I HAD heard of rigging juries so it’s stuck that way. It might be easier just to switch than to type all of the explanation but I’d have to listen to carefully to the backspaing letters so it’s not really. If you can think backwards by letter audibly, you could use a screen reader more easily than I can) that one.
This was a day/week for planning. We’ve scheduled all kinds of important things (there are backup dates for the first swim in the pond because we have priorities you know) and purchased some really pretty purple binders for the puppy books. The new owners might not care as much but I do and having different color binders for each litter makes it easier for me to know which is which without having to scan each one.
Another milestone, while they nurse their little tails stick straight out and sometimes wag. We are working our way through scents to the point that I am having trouble thinking up new ones to do each day. I’m not terribly creative in that department - or I’m trying to make it too unadulterated (and beyond things for the dogs, we don’t do a whole lot of truly fresh food. It’s that whole not driving/blindchick thing again). Today I used mud since it is in abundances around here these days. LOTS of rain. We kind of had storms last night but not much thunder. Just as well because I don’t think they are old enough to appreciate a storm. We could do with a little less rain until the puppies are old enough to need exposure to that. ;-)
They don’t sing in their sleep as constantly these days and I haven’t heard them sound like a swarm of bees lately. I miss that one but they do make sounds more like real little dogs.
The weight watcher’s meeting was a total bust tonight. They all topple the container right off of the scale before it can announce how much they weigh. I’ll have the MSU watch tomorrow if they won’t cooperate. He can see what numbers it is dancing around while they wriggle in the container. I figure we’ll be on to the bathroom scale soon anyway. I almost bought a bluetooth baby scale but if it doesn’t work any better than the thermometer (we tried to use it to monitor Caly’s pre-whelp temperature and it was wildly inaccurate and really SLOW so the aunts went out and bought a regular digital thermometer and assisted in the temp takings every time), I’m glad I didn’t.
There’s a good chance that while I was typing this, there was a puppy sleeping on me. There’s probably a good chance that the same is occurring while you are reading it too. They may have mastered cuddling already. They mastered being adorable long ago but they do strive to conitnue to improve on that. And, somehow, they manage.
I think we’ll say nighty nighty nighty and cuddle amongst ourselves until the 2 am feeding of the mamadog (and the other 2 girls because that’s only fair). I’ll try to cuddle enough for everyone to live vicariously through me. (I find it amusing that Nanny McPhoebe seems to know and accept when there is a puppy in ‘her’ spot but if a big dog is there, she’s a major space invader. Puppy breath to all!
Friday, March 30, 2018
Thursday, March 29, 2018
03/29/18 Pupdate
03/29/18 Pupdate
All of the pupsters are opening their little eyes. It’s exciting (and a little nerve wracking, as every stage of development is while I wonder if they are meeting benchmarks) as they are also becoming more mobile. The mobility isn’t really a function of the eyes opening, they are just developing on that side as well.
Shortly after Aunt Cindi arrived today, a puppy went over the wall of the pool unassisted. I could wait no longer, eyes opened or not, I can’t lie awake at night wonder if someone is out all alone . (In reality, I’m pretty certain that one of the ‘grownups’ would tell me but that doesn’t help my brain shut off for sleep.) After Caly fed them, we put them back in the pool. (Caly is also a little cramped in the pool these days so I let her nurse them on a fleecy mat a few of times today. She could lie flat (with her head in my lap, of course) so it was easier for all 9 of them to eat at once.
I’m sure I’ll have to tweak it a few times (I’ve already remembered a few things) but the puppies are now out of the pool. They have access to what will some day officially be their potty area and a big fluffy fleecy mat. I have the short little ferret ex pen on the front and side so it’s easier for the big dogs and the humans to step in and out.. Eventually, the puppies will be able to go over that and I’ll have to put up real pen, there too. But that’s probably a week and a half or so away.
A nice little side benefit of the new area is that I can get into the pen with them instead of just having my head and shoulders in with them. And when I get into the pen, if they are awake, they come swarming over me. They know the difference between me, Nanny McPhoebe, Grammie Sammie, and the MaterGator but seem happy to greet all of us. The grown girls all had showers today but the pupsters still seemed to recognize them. I had to take the linens out of one of the totes and put them in it to take them into the laundry room where I could monitor them while I bathed the big dogs. They come out of the beverage tub immediately now if they aren’t sleepy.
LeAnne posted some of the interesting numbers from the nearly 2 weeks of weight watchers meetings today so you are all caught up on that, too ;-). I guess that’s about all we have to report today, other than the ubiquitous toenail growth and clipping.
We’re going to do some more cuddling, then Puppy Yoga, and say Nighty Nighty Nighty. Puppy breath to all
All of the pupsters are opening their little eyes. It’s exciting (and a little nerve wracking, as every stage of development is while I wonder if they are meeting benchmarks) as they are also becoming more mobile. The mobility isn’t really a function of the eyes opening, they are just developing on that side as well.
Shortly after Aunt Cindi arrived today, a puppy went over the wall of the pool unassisted. I could wait no longer, eyes opened or not, I can’t lie awake at night wonder if someone is out all alone . (In reality, I’m pretty certain that one of the ‘grownups’ would tell me but that doesn’t help my brain shut off for sleep.) After Caly fed them, we put them back in the pool. (Caly is also a little cramped in the pool these days so I let her nurse them on a fleecy mat a few of times today. She could lie flat (with her head in my lap, of course) so it was easier for all 9 of them to eat at once.
I’m sure I’ll have to tweak it a few times (I’ve already remembered a few things) but the puppies are now out of the pool. They have access to what will some day officially be their potty area and a big fluffy fleecy mat. I have the short little ferret ex pen on the front and side so it’s easier for the big dogs and the humans to step in and out.. Eventually, the puppies will be able to go over that and I’ll have to put up real pen, there too. But that’s probably a week and a half or so away.
A nice little side benefit of the new area is that I can get into the pen with them instead of just having my head and shoulders in with them. And when I get into the pen, if they are awake, they come swarming over me. They know the difference between me, Nanny McPhoebe, Grammie Sammie, and the MaterGator but seem happy to greet all of us. The grown girls all had showers today but the pupsters still seemed to recognize them. I had to take the linens out of one of the totes and put them in it to take them into the laundry room where I could monitor them while I bathed the big dogs. They come out of the beverage tub immediately now if they aren’t sleepy.
LeAnne posted some of the interesting numbers from the nearly 2 weeks of weight watchers meetings today so you are all caught up on that, too ;-). I guess that’s about all we have to report today, other than the ubiquitous toenail growth and clipping.
We’re going to do some more cuddling, then Puppy Yoga, and say Nighty Nighty Nighty. Puppy breath to all
Fun With Figures
Those of you who are not interested in numbers will just have to bear with us. Cristi was an accountant and I was an engineer so we are really into numbers! Here are some fun facts and figures:
- The total birth weight of the litter was 5.0 pounds and today their total weight was 13.3 pounds. No wonder Caly is so hungry all the time!
- Their average increase was 170%, or about 1.5 times their birth weight.
- The biggest puppy at birth was GS and he is still the big boy of the batch.
- Scone has had the biggest increase at 204%, or about twice his birth weight. And he was the smallest at birth!
- Kolache also had a big increase, up 197%!
- Only one puppy still weighs less than 20 ounces.
- Girls edged out boys for an average 173% increase vs. a "paltry" 167% for the boys.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
03/28/18 Pupdate
03/28/18 Pupdate
We had a good night here so the scent for the day today will NOT be desperation like it was a couple of days ago. It’s a good thing I set an alarm to get up and give the 2 am feeding to the Mama and other girls because I barely woke up to check the puppies otherwise. I’m still a little tired so I’m probably going to have my nap while LeAnne is here watching over the pupsters.
Since 3 of the puppies so far are willing to take a bottle, my new DAYTIME schedule is to take those 3 out of the pool when it’s feeding time and let the other puppies get started while I give them each a bottle with about half of the formula they’d need per session and then put those 3 back in with general population to finish off. If the session would happen to end earlier than I would’ve t liked, I’ll just give them a little more from the bottle.
They are starting to get more mobile, up on their feet and moving about rather like iguana’s. I guess I cold let them borrow my white cane but they’ll probably have vision before they’d master those skills ;-)
They recognize the MaterGator from more distance now. They do it in the pool and they also do it in the little potty area. Since she usually comes by to supervise while I’m helping the others go potty, they get to practice these skills more oten. And especially when they are in there, they remind me of kids in a playground hearing the ice cream truck the way the all motor over to the ‘fence’ ;-). It’s usally right before feeding time so they are especially motivated.
When the MSU was getting ready to leave this morning and we were ‘watching’/listening to the puppies over the camera, Caly started fussing at me. We could tell that the puppies were in the pool and quietly resting but she kept doing it. So I came back to the rubber room with her and when I sat down to cuddle by the puppies, she went outside. Apparently, she just wanted to go out and check on her potential outside accommodations in case I put them out of doors.
Weight watchers meeting was pretty successful today but LeAnne is the scribe so they are in her computer. The scale announces the weight, I repeat it like the Sigourney Weaver character on Galaxy Quest, and she reports how much they’ve gained since the last weighing. I (or she) will need to check but I think several (maybe most) have double their birth weights. Good little puppies, growing, growing, growing.
As are their toenails (I only did the front ones today) and their hair. Thei hair on their feet is obscuring their long toenails ;-)
LeAnne and her mom came to see the puppies today (and watch me sleep). They helped with distracting Caly so I could give the 3 supplemental bottles and then let them back in General Population where they proceeded to demonstrate why I separate them out for the first few minutes (well, that and they WILL take a bottle.)
We are starting to get EYES. They’ve been working on eyelids and eyelashes for a few days but tonight, actual eyes started appearing. Of course, I will worry every minute until all of them open and are developing normally. I’ve never had PES and don’t know of an increased risk in these puppies (it didn’t occur in Jack’s first litter) but I always worry about EVERYTHING. But for the rest of you normal people - EYES are opening. Yay!
The scent of the day was birch (I think, it smelled a lot like licorice to me). It was from Nanny McPhoebe’s nosework kit so she was very interested in it, too.
I’m going to have to set the alarm for midnight feeding again lie here with my arm in the puppy pool until then. And probably most of the rest of the night. It’s what I do (we made the ottobenbed that height exactly for a reason). Puppy breath to all (they almost all will yawn pretty quickly when I rub their cheek so I can get a hit). Nighty nighty, nighty
We had a good night here so the scent for the day today will NOT be desperation like it was a couple of days ago. It’s a good thing I set an alarm to get up and give the 2 am feeding to the Mama and other girls because I barely woke up to check the puppies otherwise. I’m still a little tired so I’m probably going to have my nap while LeAnne is here watching over the pupsters.
Since 3 of the puppies so far are willing to take a bottle, my new DAYTIME schedule is to take those 3 out of the pool when it’s feeding time and let the other puppies get started while I give them each a bottle with about half of the formula they’d need per session and then put those 3 back in with general population to finish off. If the session would happen to end earlier than I would’ve t liked, I’ll just give them a little more from the bottle.
They are starting to get more mobile, up on their feet and moving about rather like iguana’s. I guess I cold let them borrow my white cane but they’ll probably have vision before they’d master those skills ;-)
They recognize the MaterGator from more distance now. They do it in the pool and they also do it in the little potty area. Since she usually comes by to supervise while I’m helping the others go potty, they get to practice these skills more oten. And especially when they are in there, they remind me of kids in a playground hearing the ice cream truck the way the all motor over to the ‘fence’ ;-). It’s usally right before feeding time so they are especially motivated.
When the MSU was getting ready to leave this morning and we were ‘watching’/listening to the puppies over the camera, Caly started fussing at me. We could tell that the puppies were in the pool and quietly resting but she kept doing it. So I came back to the rubber room with her and when I sat down to cuddle by the puppies, she went outside. Apparently, she just wanted to go out and check on her potential outside accommodations in case I put them out of doors.
Weight watchers meeting was pretty successful today but LeAnne is the scribe so they are in her computer. The scale announces the weight, I repeat it like the Sigourney Weaver character on Galaxy Quest, and she reports how much they’ve gained since the last weighing. I (or she) will need to check but I think several (maybe most) have double their birth weights. Good little puppies, growing, growing, growing.
As are their toenails (I only did the front ones today) and their hair. Thei hair on their feet is obscuring their long toenails ;-)
LeAnne and her mom came to see the puppies today (and watch me sleep). They helped with distracting Caly so I could give the 3 supplemental bottles and then let them back in General Population where they proceeded to demonstrate why I separate them out for the first few minutes (well, that and they WILL take a bottle.)
We are starting to get EYES. They’ve been working on eyelids and eyelashes for a few days but tonight, actual eyes started appearing. Of course, I will worry every minute until all of them open and are developing normally. I’ve never had PES and don’t know of an increased risk in these puppies (it didn’t occur in Jack’s first litter) but I always worry about EVERYTHING. But for the rest of you normal people - EYES are opening. Yay!
The scent of the day was birch (I think, it smelled a lot like licorice to me). It was from Nanny McPhoebe’s nosework kit so she was very interested in it, too.
I’m going to have to set the alarm for midnight feeding again lie here with my arm in the puppy pool until then. And probably most of the rest of the night. It’s what I do (we made the ottobenbed that height exactly for a reason). Puppy breath to all (they almost all will yawn pretty quickly when I rub their cheek so I can get a hit). Nighty nighty, nighty
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
03/27/28
The poop crisis seems to be over and tragedy averted. I hope never to encounter white puppy poop again! The puppies hope never to be expected to consume the ‘elemental formula’ again.
Every 4 hours, we had a battle of the wills that left all of us resembling the particpants of the food fight in Animal House (ok, I’ve never actually seen that movie but WE. WERE. STICKY!). The puppies fought me gum and claw (they don’t yet have teeth but they DO have claws, and I need to cut them. Again) every time. They did not want it in a syringe with the miracle nipple, they did not want it in the puppy bottle, they did not want it from a sponge. I never realized how much 16ml was until I tried to get it into a puppy against his/her will. I’m glad we can train big dogs in cooperative care because I wouldn’t want to live like that.
I stayed up all night last night so although I did things (separate out puppies who were resting their guts distract the big girls from me doing stuff with the puppies to which the puppies objected vociferously, I can’t remember much of it.
I carried puppies around and gave them sponge baths (they were very good for it, maybe they don’t like being covered in poop. Yeah Right! Although, their Daddy did NOT roll in poop (or walk in it). I cuddled puppies a lot (mostly after the sponge baths)
I waited for the vet and she came to make sure everyone was ok. I texted her at 2 am while I was discussing the elemental fluid thing with a puppy. House calls are REALLY convenient especially since the MSU isn’t home all of the time.
I’d better post before I fall asleep. Puppy breath to you all. Nighty nighty nighty
Every 4 hours, we had a battle of the wills that left all of us resembling the particpants of the food fight in Animal House (ok, I’ve never actually seen that movie but WE. WERE. STICKY!). The puppies fought me gum and claw (they don’t yet have teeth but they DO have claws, and I need to cut them. Again) every time. They did not want it in a syringe with the miracle nipple, they did not want it in the puppy bottle, they did not want it from a sponge. I never realized how much 16ml was until I tried to get it into a puppy against his/her will. I’m glad we can train big dogs in cooperative care because I wouldn’t want to live like that.
I stayed up all night last night so although I did things (separate out puppies who were resting their guts distract the big girls from me doing stuff with the puppies to which the puppies objected vociferously, I can’t remember much of it.
I carried puppies around and gave them sponge baths (they were very good for it, maybe they don’t like being covered in poop. Yeah Right! Although, their Daddy did NOT roll in poop (or walk in it). I cuddled puppies a lot (mostly after the sponge baths)
I waited for the vet and she came to make sure everyone was ok. I texted her at 2 am while I was discussing the elemental fluid thing with a puppy. House calls are REALLY convenient especially since the MSU isn’t home all of the time.
I’d better post before I fall asleep. Puppy breath to you all. Nighty nighty nighty
03/26/18 Pupdate
The whelping pool resembles the aftermath of a Bon Voyage party. Several of the crocheted ribbon collars have come off/been removed and are strewn about like confetti. And there are a bunch of little drunken revelers sleeping it off in there.
Cindi and LeAnne came today to visit and help with puppies. I set up a little ‘potty spot’ for them because it’s difficult to get all 9 of them pottied in time. So now I can put them in there and it they go, it will be easier to clean up and maybe it won’t be all over another puppy. A girl can dream.
And it’s a good thing I started that earlier because I’m now obsessed with potentially unwell puppies.
I’m glad I took a little nap while they were here because I’m going to be up all night. One of the puppies had some pretty liquid poop while they were here. Several of them have not great poop but it’s pretty much all the kind they get from being overfed. This puppy hadn’t gained any weight over the day before I was worried about dehydration (no evidence of it but puppies can go downhill quickly so I was monitoring closely and giving some paste for diarrhea. Then after the next feeding frenzy, had a little decent poop that turned into white, milklike poop. That’s NOT good so we are doing the elemental diet to rest the gut. 2 of them have the white poop.
Unfortunately, they are NOT cooperative with any bottle or sponge and they are way too lively to tube feed by myself. It took me over an hour and we have quite a bit on us but at least part of the concoction made it’s way inside the puppies. I texted the vet at 2am hoping she can come by in the am to check on them. I’ll be anxious to hear from her.
Now I’m kind of glad that she didn’t do a great job cleaning the puppies when she first came home with them or I might not have known about the bad white poop.
1 of the 2 have pooped again and it is better but still not ok. Maybe the protocol is helping. I certainly hope so.
They still have puppy breath and they say nighty, nighty, nighty. I’m going to be obsessing over poop.
Sunday, March 25, 2018
03/25/18 Pupdate
I just realized that 3 times a day, I check to see what today’s date is and then I will still have to check for those same 3 things tomorrow. One of them is when I begin the blog post ;-)
All of the pupsters are streaking which makes it difficult for the MSU to tell which puppy is which. To further confuse him, I’ve already given them nicknames - some of which have changed. It makes for some ‘Who’s on first kind’ of conversations.
I should’ve started notes earlier today but it seems like I’ve stayed busy all day. I did nap by the pool (I think that this pool rivals a traditional pool) a little this evening. For some reason, during that nap CalyGator decided that she needed to lie right on top of me and wash my face. Maybe she thought I looked like a sleeping puppy. I spend enough time wallering with them that I might smell like one (I don’t have puppy breath though.)
We did all of the usual puppy things that are a lot more fun to experience than to read about but I’ll write it anyway. The pupsters continue to grow those toenails so I continue to cut them every chance I get. I file them on occasion but since Phoebe can’t resist the nail files (Jack couldn’t resist chewing them either), I have to remember to keep close track of them. If the MaterGator comes by to see what is going on, it is much more difficult to finish the nails because they want to EAT when they smell her.
They are growing their little whiskers and their hair is growing more and more. Is it time to put them in a lion trim yet? Just kidding, we’ll wait a few more weeks (longer on the muzzles because I do love their little whiskers - as tiny puppies. I like clean muzzles on them forever after since there is no way to shave the muzzle and keep the whiskers).
I took the thin ribbon and did a little crochet stitch to make their collars more visible but hopefully still soft enough. I haven’t perfected tieing them on, especially when the older girls are ‘helping’. That makes puppies extra wriggly.
They all seem to be eating well and we managed to have a well attended weight watchers meeting tonight. Every puppy weighs over a pound. Some of the weights may be a little low because Nanny McPhoebe supervised that so, again, wriggly puppies. They are more fun to snuggle when they are sleepy but they show more of their development when they are wriggling around so I am fully entertained pretty much all day.
It is amazing how quiet it seems when they are all asleep at once. They often hum - there were LLamas in the yard next to the potty spot at the hotel, I wonder if these puppies somehow inherited their humming like Phoebe got inherited rubbing her own tummy with a person’s foot from her mother’s cousin Penny (she’s a spayed Boston Terrier at my sister’s where we stayed while making that litter). I suspect that it’s going to get a LOT noisier later with 9 of them of running around. That’ll be fun- as long as we can avoid the needle teeth. I’m always anxious for them to get their teeth and then anxious for them to learn not to use them on me.
Their little ears continue to do all kinds of funny things, several of them had their ears flopped back while they nursed and I find them like that a lot when they are lying on their sides.
I’m going to get back to cuddling puppies now, y’all will just have to imagine what kinds of fun things we are doing (FYI, nobody will fit into the pocket of my scrub top). Puppy breath to all (they definitely have puppy breath now) Nighty, nighty, nighty
03/24/18 Pupdate
Today’s scent is Banana, courtesy of Cindi.
Lots of twitching going on in the whelping pool today. I’ve heard that means they are growing and they are distinctly larger than they were a week ago. I can’t tell much difference in their eyes yet but their ears are doing funny little ‘working on opening’ positions.
Their Uncle James Bond had another fun day in Reno, NV today with his humama Chris running agility at the National Agility Championships. Cousin Quinn is there, too cheering him on.
Go Chris and Uncel James!
I made the mistake of trying to give them their probiotic paste after we did the ‘try to potty before you eat’ thing. The MaterGator and Nanny McPhoebe get involved whenever I do the attempted potty (or whenever the pupsters fuss) so they were NOT so cooperative about waiting to get to the bar.
The MSU did puppywatch a few times today so I could bathe, wash my hair AND my face and apply lotion -ALLYN the same day ;-). I FINALLY used up the last of the wipes I made with the badly cut version of Bounty so I cleaned up the paper towel snow for the last time (it’s much more fun when PWDs make the paper towels into confetti). I’ve never been so happy to use the last of a roll of paper towels in my life.
Caly has developed quite the appetite in the last few days. It’s a good thing because she needs a lot of calories now and more in the coming weeks. She’s been eating a lot and often but she’s been somewhat selective about it. (One day, I had to tear her chicken apart for her to eat it and I had to mix the yogurt in with chicken breast like a doggie chicken salad.) This evening, she ate some kibble (I was just offering it as a reward). We are switching her to include some small breed puppy formula to keep her nutrtition up. 9 puppies are going to be quite a load. Her being willing to eat kibble will also make the 2 am feeding easier for me.
I’m wondering whether these puppies are going to wait for their eyes to open before they go over the wall of the pool. I have the things for the pen version on standby for whenever the first one goes over the wall. At least for a while, we’ll be able to contain them with the ferret ex pens so its easier for the rest of us to reach them. I’m excited about their possibilities. (Now I have a childhood song about being a promise and a possibility going through my head. I may have to find it on the internet to hear the whole thing again when I have a few minutes. I need to hire someone to sleep for me - I dont want to give up the time with the puppies.)
I find the puppies arranged into a line almost as often as in a clump these days. The lone brown girl doesn’t segregrate herself like they seem to do when there are more than one brown puppy (they do it before their eyes open, too)
This evening, they were lined up 5 on one side and 4 on the other with a gap in the center. I’m not certain what was going on there but since we know who was in which horn of the uterus, I know it wasn’t based on that. Maybe someone told them they weren’t doing the scrum just right so they are trying other options.
I haven’t been up as much in the middle of the night the last couple of nights but last night I woke up as the MaterGator was rearranging in the pool. I was feeling around to make sure I could find 9 unsquished puppies and I apparently offended her so much that she go out and settled down beside the pool using the side as a pillow. She got back in again later and they seemed sated while she was out so I’m not going to worry (much, I worry about EVERYTHING but if you’ve ever read this, you already know that)
Every morning, while I take care of the puppies linens, etc. Caly faithfully watches to be sure I don’t lose anyone, then when I have it all situated and she has everyone fed; she goes and remakes all of her ‘alternate’ sites for a puppy nest should this one become somehow untenable. She carries her Alligator ‘puppy’ around with her. I was a little concerned that she and Phoebe were going to have an issue about that alligator baby so I snuck it out of the nest and put it up on a shelf while they were outside pottying. It didn’t take vey long before she was sniffing around, trying to reach it. She doesn’t normally climb up on things like that so LeAnne wondered what she was after. She’s been very happy to have it back and they still haven’t been snarky about it so I guess I’ll just let it go. I wonder if the real babies will shred it when they get their real teeth and it remains defenseless.
I think I’m going to give weighing a trial when they drift off to sleep and see if I can get enough information to reassure myself that they are growing, growing, growing. I can tell they are, I just like quantifiable sufficient competent evidentiary matter on which to base my opinion ;-). After that and after I finish yet another chorus or 2 of “I am a promise,” I’ll sing them the 3 songs and have a last sniff of puppy breath for tonight. And then we’ll say Nighty, nighty, nighty...
Lots of twitching going on in the whelping pool today. I’ve heard that means they are growing and they are distinctly larger than they were a week ago. I can’t tell much difference in their eyes yet but their ears are doing funny little ‘working on opening’ positions.
Their Uncle James Bond had another fun day in Reno, NV today with his humama Chris running agility at the National Agility Championships. Cousin Quinn is there, too cheering him on.
Go Chris and Uncel James!
I made the mistake of trying to give them their probiotic paste after we did the ‘try to potty before you eat’ thing. The MaterGator and Nanny McPhoebe get involved whenever I do the attempted potty (or whenever the pupsters fuss) so they were NOT so cooperative about waiting to get to the bar.
The MSU did puppywatch a few times today so I could bathe, wash my hair AND my face and apply lotion -ALLYN the same day ;-). I FINALLY used up the last of the wipes I made with the badly cut version of Bounty so I cleaned up the paper towel snow for the last time (it’s much more fun when PWDs make the paper towels into confetti). I’ve never been so happy to use the last of a roll of paper towels in my life.
Caly has developed quite the appetite in the last few days. It’s a good thing because she needs a lot of calories now and more in the coming weeks. She’s been eating a lot and often but she’s been somewhat selective about it. (One day, I had to tear her chicken apart for her to eat it and I had to mix the yogurt in with chicken breast like a doggie chicken salad.) This evening, she ate some kibble (I was just offering it as a reward). We are switching her to include some small breed puppy formula to keep her nutrtition up. 9 puppies are going to be quite a load. Her being willing to eat kibble will also make the 2 am feeding easier for me.
I’m wondering whether these puppies are going to wait for their eyes to open before they go over the wall of the pool. I have the things for the pen version on standby for whenever the first one goes over the wall. At least for a while, we’ll be able to contain them with the ferret ex pens so its easier for the rest of us to reach them. I’m excited about their possibilities. (Now I have a childhood song about being a promise and a possibility going through my head. I may have to find it on the internet to hear the whole thing again when I have a few minutes. I need to hire someone to sleep for me - I dont want to give up the time with the puppies.)
I find the puppies arranged into a line almost as often as in a clump these days. The lone brown girl doesn’t segregrate herself like they seem to do when there are more than one brown puppy (they do it before their eyes open, too)
This evening, they were lined up 5 on one side and 4 on the other with a gap in the center. I’m not certain what was going on there but since we know who was in which horn of the uterus, I know it wasn’t based on that. Maybe someone told them they weren’t doing the scrum just right so they are trying other options.
I haven’t been up as much in the middle of the night the last couple of nights but last night I woke up as the MaterGator was rearranging in the pool. I was feeling around to make sure I could find 9 unsquished puppies and I apparently offended her so much that she go out and settled down beside the pool using the side as a pillow. She got back in again later and they seemed sated while she was out so I’m not going to worry (much, I worry about EVERYTHING but if you’ve ever read this, you already know that)
Every morning, while I take care of the puppies linens, etc. Caly faithfully watches to be sure I don’t lose anyone, then when I have it all situated and she has everyone fed; she goes and remakes all of her ‘alternate’ sites for a puppy nest should this one become somehow untenable. She carries her Alligator ‘puppy’ around with her. I was a little concerned that she and Phoebe were going to have an issue about that alligator baby so I snuck it out of the nest and put it up on a shelf while they were outside pottying. It didn’t take vey long before she was sniffing around, trying to reach it. She doesn’t normally climb up on things like that so LeAnne wondered what she was after. She’s been very happy to have it back and they still haven’t been snarky about it so I guess I’ll just let it go. I wonder if the real babies will shred it when they get their real teeth and it remains defenseless.
I think I’m going to give weighing a trial when they drift off to sleep and see if I can get enough information to reassure myself that they are growing, growing, growing. I can tell they are, I just like quantifiable sufficient competent evidentiary matter on which to base my opinion ;-). After that and after I finish yet another chorus or 2 of “I am a promise,” I’ll sing them the 3 songs and have a last sniff of puppy breath for tonight. And then we’ll say Nighty, nighty, nighty...
Saturday, March 24, 2018
Pictures, etc
At the moment, I can’t figure out how to update the sidebar to post the link to the pictures without changing the template and I am not up to trying that tonight.
So, if anyone is interested, the pictures are on Facebook on a page called Allyn Jack&Caly Litter.
If that doesn’t work, someone please let me know
So, if anyone is interested, the pictures are on Facebook on a page called Allyn Jack&Caly Litter.
If that doesn’t work, someone please let me know
Friday, March 23, 2018
3/23/18 One Week Old!
A couple of the puppies were going to be on ‘make sure they get extra feedings’ today based on the weight watchers meeting last night. They were still vigorous and felt like they had fat little tummies, the increase in weight just didn’t seem high enough compared to other puppies/days. This morning I got the scale out and it while it would say ‘it’s ready’, it never told me any weight. I switched to attempting to weigh a stationary object (I should’ve used paper then it would’ve been a stationery, stationary object) and it still didn’t announce a weight. Eventually, I replaced the batteries and it works again. And those puppies had much better numbers.
We’re changing collars AGAIN. I think the others are rubbing their skin and a couple of colors are just not working for me so that is changing as well. Apparently, I can no longer tell orange from red. Neither are amongst my favorite colors (I only like blaze orange as their Uncle Armada’s color and it DOES look good against the brown hair) so I don’t recall if the issue has come up. When we’ve used orange, it’s been on a brown puppy. Hot Chocolate with Cassata Cream (I’ve been calling her Cassata. I like a little hot chocolate with my whipped cream but this cream was EVEN better. So good that I’m considering changing MY name too) is so dark that I really have to study hard to pick her out from the black ones. So red and orange collar colors isn’t helping that. I think she is getting a dark brown collar and Red Velvet Cupcake will probably keep red. Everyone is changing over to TINY thin ribbon. They didn’t find everything in perfect colors but I got out my massive assortment of permanent markers for puppy stuff and made brown. I also fixed the lighter blue for Cream Puff. It’s too close to white and since I can’t quite make a tan that I can tell from brown, little tan Kolache Cookie is going to wear white and we’ll call it tan until it gets a little dirty. Shhh, don’t tell her she’s breaking the rules of fashion and wearing white after Labor Day. I think all that is left is making the magnets match (I have the hook and loop collars on the ex pen but I’ve been doing a lot with these puppies all over the room so a small portable magnet board is helpful. Cindi and LeAnne used it today for the probiotic. Just one of the many things I learned from the MSU’s job through the years ;-)
Aunt LeAnne has written a post for today as well. I promise I had pottied the puppies right before they arrived but the MaterGater insisted upon giving them yet another little topoff so they ended up going again. She’ll make them start and clean some of it up while they are nursing but if they go when she isn’t in the pool, she’s all for sweeping it under the rug. Since she doesn’t have a broom (or rug), she tries to cover it up with her nose. I prefer to take a more proactive approach (as it’s easier to clean). Since she’s decided to do that complete 180 and become supermom, they are having the ‘too well fed’ poops. Hopefully, a little more probiotic will help with that.
Nanny McPhoebe monitors very closely when I am doing the pottying but she doesn’t quite help. She also supervised the photoshoot. (And then she wanted to take the toys from the picture tote). Today we used the card (for perspective) and tennis balls for their DaddyJack. We also did the traditional all of the puppies in the box photo. It’s a lot harder with 9 puppies but we did it. (And then I freaked Cindi out by picking up 3 at a time to put them back into the pool.)
The weight watchers meeting this afternoon made it apparent that yesterday’s weights were suspect. Cream Puff had achieved Pounder status though. I might try to weigh them again tonight. I may just go with the heft method. I almost always use the ‘braille method’ with the big dogs so
Aunt Cindi brought a few new scents for them to enjoy. It might be difficult to share a couple of them with the puppies without the big dogs eating them though. Maybe they’ll eat the banana for me ;-). Jack ate bananas like a human if someone held it for him. I miss him. I hope to recognize him in these puppies, maybe not hear the demand barking though (but I actually miss him talking to me so maybe a little)
I THINK we are starting to get eyes beginning to open. Cindi and LeAnne said the little slits are starting. Their ears are doing the funny little positions they do as they begin to open as well. Everything happens so quickly in puppies. Especially laundry ;-)
A word to the wise: if you ever make your own baby wipes (I like to KNOW what’s in there and avoid a lot of chemicals), do NOT cut the whole roll of paper towels with a serrated knife as recommended on the internet. It’s like they were chewed apart by mice! Every time I put more in the liquid (water and coconut oil), it snows Bounty. Like I needed more mess but fortunately it does vacuum up but I don’t much enjoy running the sweeper.
Speaking of snow, we are allegedly getting real snow with real accumulation tomorrow. I hope not but we aren’t planning visits form the Auntie’s tomorrow just in case the driveway is bad. They probably need at least a day to recover from the great poopathon of 2018.
The puppies are quieting down now but a few different times today, they’ve somehow managed to sound like a whole hive of bees. A couple of nights ago, one of them was meowing like a cat. Repeatedly. If it happens again, I’m hope I think to record it. Nighty, nighty nighty and puppy breath to all.
We’re changing collars AGAIN. I think the others are rubbing their skin and a couple of colors are just not working for me so that is changing as well. Apparently, I can no longer tell orange from red. Neither are amongst my favorite colors (I only like blaze orange as their Uncle Armada’s color and it DOES look good against the brown hair) so I don’t recall if the issue has come up. When we’ve used orange, it’s been on a brown puppy. Hot Chocolate with Cassata Cream (I’ve been calling her Cassata. I like a little hot chocolate with my whipped cream but this cream was EVEN better. So good that I’m considering changing MY name too) is so dark that I really have to study hard to pick her out from the black ones. So red and orange collar colors isn’t helping that. I think she is getting a dark brown collar and Red Velvet Cupcake will probably keep red. Everyone is changing over to TINY thin ribbon. They didn’t find everything in perfect colors but I got out my massive assortment of permanent markers for puppy stuff and made brown. I also fixed the lighter blue for Cream Puff. It’s too close to white and since I can’t quite make a tan that I can tell from brown, little tan Kolache Cookie is going to wear white and we’ll call it tan until it gets a little dirty. Shhh, don’t tell her she’s breaking the rules of fashion and wearing white after Labor Day. I think all that is left is making the magnets match (I have the hook and loop collars on the ex pen but I’ve been doing a lot with these puppies all over the room so a small portable magnet board is helpful. Cindi and LeAnne used it today for the probiotic. Just one of the many things I learned from the MSU’s job through the years ;-)
Aunt LeAnne has written a post for today as well. I promise I had pottied the puppies right before they arrived but the MaterGater insisted upon giving them yet another little topoff so they ended up going again. She’ll make them start and clean some of it up while they are nursing but if they go when she isn’t in the pool, she’s all for sweeping it under the rug. Since she doesn’t have a broom (or rug), she tries to cover it up with her nose. I prefer to take a more proactive approach (as it’s easier to clean). Since she’s decided to do that complete 180 and become supermom, they are having the ‘too well fed’ poops. Hopefully, a little more probiotic will help with that.
Nanny McPhoebe monitors very closely when I am doing the pottying but she doesn’t quite help. She also supervised the photoshoot. (And then she wanted to take the toys from the picture tote). Today we used the card (for perspective) and tennis balls for their DaddyJack. We also did the traditional all of the puppies in the box photo. It’s a lot harder with 9 puppies but we did it. (And then I freaked Cindi out by picking up 3 at a time to put them back into the pool.)
The weight watchers meeting this afternoon made it apparent that yesterday’s weights were suspect. Cream Puff had achieved Pounder status though. I might try to weigh them again tonight. I may just go with the heft method. I almost always use the ‘braille method’ with the big dogs so
Aunt Cindi brought a few new scents for them to enjoy. It might be difficult to share a couple of them with the puppies without the big dogs eating them though. Maybe they’ll eat the banana for me ;-). Jack ate bananas like a human if someone held it for him. I miss him. I hope to recognize him in these puppies, maybe not hear the demand barking though (but I actually miss him talking to me so maybe a little)
I THINK we are starting to get eyes beginning to open. Cindi and LeAnne said the little slits are starting. Their ears are doing the funny little positions they do as they begin to open as well. Everything happens so quickly in puppies. Especially laundry ;-)
A word to the wise: if you ever make your own baby wipes (I like to KNOW what’s in there and avoid a lot of chemicals), do NOT cut the whole roll of paper towels with a serrated knife as recommended on the internet. It’s like they were chewed apart by mice! Every time I put more in the liquid (water and coconut oil), it snows Bounty. Like I needed more mess but fortunately it does vacuum up but I don’t much enjoy running the sweeper.
Speaking of snow, we are allegedly getting real snow with real accumulation tomorrow. I hope not but we aren’t planning visits form the Auntie’s tomorrow just in case the driveway is bad. They probably need at least a day to recover from the great poopathon of 2018.
The puppies are quieting down now but a few different times today, they’ve somehow managed to sound like a whole hive of bees. A couple of nights ago, one of them was meowing like a cat. Repeatedly. If it happens again, I’m hope I think to record it. Nighty, nighty nighty and puppy breath to all.
3/23/18 - The Aunties Visit (aka poop-a-looza!)
Holy Puppy Crap Batman! We were shat upon! Repeatedly! Aunt Cindi decided to clip their toe nails. Big mistake. Shortly after that a poop fest started. Multiple puppies extruded yellow brown slime in their bed faster than we could clean it up. Then they all wallered in it. Ewww. Being the good aunts that we are, we started picking them up to clean them off and the poop extrusion continued. On us. Sigh. Good thing they’re cute.
After the s**t storm, Aunt Mamma and all 4 legged critters napped. (The aunts ate some WELL DESERVED chocolate.) After nap it was time for the one week photo shoot and a Weight Watcher meeting. Exhausted, the aunts left. But no rest for the wicked. These babies needed new clothes due to several wardrobe malfunctions and Aunt Mamma’s vision issue. So off to Michael's for ribbon for new collars. Bye for now babies!
After the s**t storm, Aunt Mamma and all 4 legged critters napped. (The aunts ate some WELL DESERVED chocolate.) After nap it was time for the one week photo shoot and a Weight Watcher meeting. Exhausted, the aunts left. But no rest for the wicked. These babies needed new clothes due to several wardrobe malfunctions and Aunt Mamma’s vision issue. So off to Michael's for ribbon for new collars. Bye for now babies!
Thursday, March 22, 2018
03/22/18 Pupdate
We’ve had another very busy day of eating and sleeping and singing and growing. We’ve done some pottying too but that’s usually only interesting to dog people and we are too little for it to really mean much. I’m getting really sleepy so I’ll let Aunt Mama finish.
Another day of Caly settling in to being a stay at home (first home/Aunt Mama’s) mother. We’ve had another good day after a good night so I got a little more sleep, too.
Caly’s doing well enough that I had the MSU watch them on the camera while I took a shower and got dressed this morning. It’s a good thing I got a BIG haircut before we went to Cleveland to wait for puppies because I haven’t had much time to do anything with it.
After we got him off to work, I changed out the puppy linens and straightened up in the rubber room. I doubt you can tell since the ground is so wet from all of the rain and snow that 3 sets of dog paws bring in some dirt. I know it was cleaner though.
We have started giving the puppies their litter nicknames. Since they are such sweet treats, we are starting with names based on things at their Aunt Tootsie’s Bakery (ok, her daddy does all of the work but what PWD doesn’t own everything she surveys?). LeAnne and I went there multiple times when we were waiting for the perfect days to do the breedings; we went again when we went up for the ultrasound with Colleen; and with CIndi when we were on PuppyWatch. I don’t yet have an official theme for their registered names.
The pupsters have been working on mastering thei puppy version of a rugby scrum when the MaterGator (we decided that here in WV, that pronunciation works) leaves the pool when they are awake.
Today, Caly joined in the defense of the home action against a cat going up the driveway. Auntie Phoebe saw it and called the alert, GrammieSammie concurred and then Caly actually joined them to run outside barking! Caly doesn’t bark at things, She doesn’t consider it her job to defend the house but apparently puppies are another story. (No cats were harmed in the incident, the driveway is outside the fence.)
Tonight’s weight watcher’s meeting had a puppy go over the 1 lb mark. Cream puff (the light blue boy) is 1lb 1.3 oz. 3 more are closing in at over 15 oz. Nobody has quite doubled their birth weight yet but that’s on the agenda.
Today’s scent of the day was grapes. Not the good smelling fake gum grape but real grapes. We don’t have much fresh fruit in this house so I used what I could find. Dog Cindi is supposed to bring a banana and her nosework kit tomorrow so we can use those each day as well. Maybe I’ll do the scent of the day while they are here so they can take or eat the banana with them. I’m certainly not going to eat it!
Toenails continue to grow and be cut or filed and their hair is starting to grow noticeably. I forget what a wonder every little thing with them is, it just all happens so quickly. They’ll be real little dogs before long.
I’m going to get some cuddling in before I go nighty nighty nighty. I’m going to hope that I won’t have to be up long in the night tonight since I didn’t have to do anything but give the big dogs a midnight snack (and reach my hand over to check the puppies when Caly changed positions but that’s not waking enough to write a blog post)
Another day of Caly settling in to being a stay at home (first home/Aunt Mama’s) mother. We’ve had another good day after a good night so I got a little more sleep, too.
Caly’s doing well enough that I had the MSU watch them on the camera while I took a shower and got dressed this morning. It’s a good thing I got a BIG haircut before we went to Cleveland to wait for puppies because I haven’t had much time to do anything with it.
After we got him off to work, I changed out the puppy linens and straightened up in the rubber room. I doubt you can tell since the ground is so wet from all of the rain and snow that 3 sets of dog paws bring in some dirt. I know it was cleaner though.
We have started giving the puppies their litter nicknames. Since they are such sweet treats, we are starting with names based on things at their Aunt Tootsie’s Bakery (ok, her daddy does all of the work but what PWD doesn’t own everything she surveys?). LeAnne and I went there multiple times when we were waiting for the perfect days to do the breedings; we went again when we went up for the ultrasound with Colleen; and with CIndi when we were on PuppyWatch. I don’t yet have an official theme for their registered names.
The pupsters have been working on mastering thei puppy version of a rugby scrum when the MaterGator (we decided that here in WV, that pronunciation works) leaves the pool when they are awake.
Today, Caly joined in the defense of the home action against a cat going up the driveway. Auntie Phoebe saw it and called the alert, GrammieSammie concurred and then Caly actually joined them to run outside barking! Caly doesn’t bark at things, She doesn’t consider it her job to defend the house but apparently puppies are another story. (No cats were harmed in the incident, the driveway is outside the fence.)
Tonight’s weight watcher’s meeting had a puppy go over the 1 lb mark. Cream puff (the light blue boy) is 1lb 1.3 oz. 3 more are closing in at over 15 oz. Nobody has quite doubled their birth weight yet but that’s on the agenda.
Today’s scent of the day was grapes. Not the good smelling fake gum grape but real grapes. We don’t have much fresh fruit in this house so I used what I could find. Dog Cindi is supposed to bring a banana and her nosework kit tomorrow so we can use those each day as well. Maybe I’ll do the scent of the day while they are here so they can take or eat the banana with them. I’m certainly not going to eat it!
Toenails continue to grow and be cut or filed and their hair is starting to grow noticeably. I forget what a wonder every little thing with them is, it just all happens so quickly. They’ll be real little dogs before long.
I’m going to get some cuddling in before I go nighty nighty nighty. I’m going to hope that I won’t have to be up long in the night tonight since I didn’t have to do anything but give the big dogs a midnight snack (and reach my hand over to check the puppies when Caly changed positions but that’s not waking enough to write a blog post)
03/22/18 Pupdate schedule posting test
I am testing scheduling a post. Hopefully, this won’t count as today’s post.
We had a really good night here. Caly spent the whole night in the box but she got up to reposition a few times and, being me, I always felt the need to count puppies. That’s me, not her. She’s never been close to squishing one but if I don’t check, I think what if THIS is the time someone is being squished. I’ve done that with all of the litters but only the golden retriever Grammie Sammie and I nannied ever came close.
I think Caly has all of her supplemental nesting spots ready just in case I turn her out of doors. When FauxBee will let her, she takes the alligatorpuppy with her into whichever spot she is testing. FauxB wants to play tug with it when Caly carries it around.
I have puppies to snuggle so I’ll get back to that.
We had a really good night here. Caly spent the whole night in the box but she got up to reposition a few times and, being me, I always felt the need to count puppies. That’s me, not her. She’s never been close to squishing one but if I don’t check, I think what if THIS is the time someone is being squished. I’ve done that with all of the litters but only the golden retriever Grammie Sammie and I nannied ever came close.
I think Caly has all of her supplemental nesting spots ready just in case I turn her out of doors. When FauxBee will let her, she takes the alligatorpuppy with her into whichever spot she is testing. FauxB wants to play tug with it when Caly carries it around.
I have puppies to snuggle so I’ll get back to that.
03/21/18 Pupdate
The puppies aren’t doing much to celebrate the first snowfall of Spring. In fact, they haven’t seemed to even notice it and it didn’t accumulate enough to even come inside on any of the big girls’so I don’t think this is going to count as an exposure to snow ;-)
I recall hearing as a child that kids will make a liar out of you every time. Caly has decided to do a pretty complete about face today and seems to have gotten her sea legs on this motherhood thing. She is officially beating the alarm, getting in and feeding them herself. I’m still monitoring them to make sure my rotation happens because she didn’t always stay in the pool with them afterward but she is doing it more.
These are from texts beginning at 2:47am today (with minor edits/corrections)
***I sent a picture (hopefully of Caly in one of the whelping pool with puppies):***
The rest are words (pictures aren’t as big in my world, that whole blindchick thing):
In THEIR pool.
One of them was pitching a hissy - he about came out of the pool- so she came to check and I talked her into it. I don’t even have the squirty cheese.
7:03am She just got in their box and laid down to try to nurse them twice while I was doing their cleanup. After I finished I got her to let me move her to the other box so we can get everybody on but she’s been such a good girl
7:3ish am (There was a picture hopefully of the pools side by side right beside the ottobenbed. Caly is in one with fleece, puppies are in the one they’ve been using to nurse)
Now she’s just Labradoodling with me ;-). This is AFTER everybody ate and I was changing the linen and going back to sleep. She got in and dug up pool while I was putting laundry in, then got in again after I fixed it and dragged the other over.
I put the last 2 from that feeding in to see if she’d go but she’s just lying there being a good mama. She just likes making me change my systems.
8ish Nobody in this house is following my schedule I missed my late evening nap then puppies decided to eat again at 2:45. At 5:30 Phoebe woke me up to tell me that the puppies needed Something (more than her toy and licking.) And now this. I don’t know whether to move the rest or leave it. Maybe she wants 2 pools. Girls vs boys?
I put all of them in with her. She readjusted position to accomodate ;-)
She may’ve gotten me back on schedule for the day (their schedule at least)
Caly moved out of box but lying beside using it as a pillow ;-)
2something pm: She’s doing it on her own! (And Phoebe made a nursing puppy potty and then cleaned it up!). She likes the pool out where she can walk all around it and enter without stepping on a puppy.
***Back to what passes for writing on this blog***
The whole rest of the day, she’s been in and out and lying around with them just like she’s supposed to be. She still likes company/adoration but she is The Chosen One after all ;-)
Phoebe has decided that she has until she has puppies of her own, she’s going to be a lactation consultant. She IS a working dog after all and at 3 years old, she’s decided she needs a career. I told her that she wouldn’t have a lot of chances to practice that career around here but she’s pretty sure we’ll keep feeding her and providing her health care so she can ‘find her passion and live her dream’
Colleen came over this evening to meet the pupsters and brought “The Kid” as Uncle Armada calls him. The girls were on alert until they recognized them and then they were happy to see them. Caly spent most of their visit in with her puppies (and her back to the humans) while FauxB and GrammieSammie alternated between soliciting affection and making sure they were being careful enough with the puppies. SDB doesn’t trust just everyone else’s judgement with puppies. She still watches over (judges) LeAnne ;-)
We finished changing collars out AGAIN. I made adjustable collars out of paracord because we noticed yesterday that the Hot Pink velcro collar was rubbing. I’ve never had that happen before but have heard of it with other people so I nipped it in the bud. She’s been streaking and LeAnne and I changed the others to rickrack and ribbons but Tan girl’s kept coming off and that was 2 black streaking girls so something had to be done. Colleen pointed out that what I was using as red was closer to orange and the one I had as orange was closer to red so we switched those. Since Orange is the brown girl, it doesn’t matter so much. And for now, the Tan girl has a white collar because I didn’t have any tan paracord. Maybe I’ll dip some white in coffee or something since Cindi couldn’t find any in local stores today.
I wonder if I should count burning nylon paracord ends as the Scent of the Day...
We held a conference call Weight Watcher’s meeting before Colleen arrived today. I know they all gained nicely again and I THINK that she said we have a 40ouncer more puppy than when they were born. (I’m not taking the time to look up what kind of drink comes in a 40 ounce bottle but I am pretty sure I remember a pop culture reference to 40 ouncers. Just pretend it’s witty and go along as if I am making numbers fun for anyone more than me)
I think they all are pretty trained to opening their mouths when I rub their cheek to put the probiotic paste on their tongues. It’ll be interesting to see how well that carries over to someone else trying it. They weren’t as cooperative when Cindi did it the other day but they were much younger then.
I’m going to go sneak some cuddles in and TRY to get my 2 hour sleep/nap. My prime sleeping time is just before the midnightish feeding and after the 4am ish one. If I try to sleep but wake up between 4 and daylight, I am up for the rest of the day and I do NOT feel as well as if I get the same amount of sleep but awaken in daylight. (I feel about the same if I don’t sleep at all) Not that you need to know that but it may help make sense of why I post between 2 and 4 am ;-). I’m staying awake so I can theoretically sleep better later. The dogs and the puppies have no such issues ;-)
It seems like there was something else to say but I’m certain you can tell it wouldn’t have been earth shattering news so I’ll say Nighty Nighty Nighty to all.
I recall hearing as a child that kids will make a liar out of you every time. Caly has decided to do a pretty complete about face today and seems to have gotten her sea legs on this motherhood thing. She is officially beating the alarm, getting in and feeding them herself. I’m still monitoring them to make sure my rotation happens because she didn’t always stay in the pool with them afterward but she is doing it more.
These are from texts beginning at 2:47am today (with minor edits/corrections)
***I sent a picture (hopefully of Caly in one of the whelping pool with puppies):***
The rest are words (pictures aren’t as big in my world, that whole blindchick thing):
In THEIR pool.
One of them was pitching a hissy - he about came out of the pool- so she came to check and I talked her into it. I don’t even have the squirty cheese.
7:03am She just got in their box and laid down to try to nurse them twice while I was doing their cleanup. After I finished I got her to let me move her to the other box so we can get everybody on but she’s been such a good girl
7:3ish am (There was a picture hopefully of the pools side by side right beside the ottobenbed. Caly is in one with fleece, puppies are in the one they’ve been using to nurse)
Now she’s just Labradoodling with me ;-). This is AFTER everybody ate and I was changing the linen and going back to sleep. She got in and dug up pool while I was putting laundry in, then got in again after I fixed it and dragged the other over.
I put the last 2 from that feeding in to see if she’d go but she’s just lying there being a good mama. She just likes making me change my systems.
8ish Nobody in this house is following my schedule I missed my late evening nap then puppies decided to eat again at 2:45. At 5:30 Phoebe woke me up to tell me that the puppies needed Something (more than her toy and licking.) And now this. I don’t know whether to move the rest or leave it. Maybe she wants 2 pools. Girls vs boys?
I put all of them in with her. She readjusted position to accomodate ;-)
She may’ve gotten me back on schedule for the day (their schedule at least)
Caly moved out of box but lying beside using it as a pillow ;-)
2something pm: She’s doing it on her own! (And Phoebe made a nursing puppy potty and then cleaned it up!). She likes the pool out where she can walk all around it and enter without stepping on a puppy.
***Back to what passes for writing on this blog***
The whole rest of the day, she’s been in and out and lying around with them just like she’s supposed to be. She still likes company/adoration but she is The Chosen One after all ;-)
Phoebe has decided that she has until she has puppies of her own, she’s going to be a lactation consultant. She IS a working dog after all and at 3 years old, she’s decided she needs a career. I told her that she wouldn’t have a lot of chances to practice that career around here but she’s pretty sure we’ll keep feeding her and providing her health care so she can ‘find her passion and live her dream’
Colleen came over this evening to meet the pupsters and brought “The Kid” as Uncle Armada calls him. The girls were on alert until they recognized them and then they were happy to see them. Caly spent most of their visit in with her puppies (and her back to the humans) while FauxB and GrammieSammie alternated between soliciting affection and making sure they were being careful enough with the puppies. SDB doesn’t trust just everyone else’s judgement with puppies. She still watches over (judges) LeAnne ;-)
We finished changing collars out AGAIN. I made adjustable collars out of paracord because we noticed yesterday that the Hot Pink velcro collar was rubbing. I’ve never had that happen before but have heard of it with other people so I nipped it in the bud. She’s been streaking and LeAnne and I changed the others to rickrack and ribbons but Tan girl’s kept coming off and that was 2 black streaking girls so something had to be done. Colleen pointed out that what I was using as red was closer to orange and the one I had as orange was closer to red so we switched those. Since Orange is the brown girl, it doesn’t matter so much. And for now, the Tan girl has a white collar because I didn’t have any tan paracord. Maybe I’ll dip some white in coffee or something since Cindi couldn’t find any in local stores today.
I wonder if I should count burning nylon paracord ends as the Scent of the Day...
We held a conference call Weight Watcher’s meeting before Colleen arrived today. I know they all gained nicely again and I THINK that she said we have a 40ouncer more puppy than when they were born. (I’m not taking the time to look up what kind of drink comes in a 40 ounce bottle but I am pretty sure I remember a pop culture reference to 40 ouncers. Just pretend it’s witty and go along as if I am making numbers fun for anyone more than me)
I think they all are pretty trained to opening their mouths when I rub their cheek to put the probiotic paste on their tongues. It’ll be interesting to see how well that carries over to someone else trying it. They weren’t as cooperative when Cindi did it the other day but they were much younger then.
I’m going to go sneak some cuddles in and TRY to get my 2 hour sleep/nap. My prime sleeping time is just before the midnightish feeding and after the 4am ish one. If I try to sleep but wake up between 4 and daylight, I am up for the rest of the day and I do NOT feel as well as if I get the same amount of sleep but awaken in daylight. (I feel about the same if I don’t sleep at all) Not that you need to know that but it may help make sense of why I post between 2 and 4 am ;-). I’m staying awake so I can theoretically sleep better later. The dogs and the puppies have no such issues ;-)
It seems like there was something else to say but I’m certain you can tell it wouldn’t have been earth shattering news so I’ll say Nighty Nighty Nighty to all.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
03/20/18 Pupdate
These puppies are certainly cute. And they are quite active as well. I’d been putting them in smaller container than the whelping pool at times (during cleanup or moving from the sleeping pool to the nursing pool) but a couple of them have decided to show me that they are no longer going to cooperate for that.
They especially do it when Gator the Mater decides to come by and rile them up as I’m in the middle of doing something with them but they’ve also done it when Phoebe was checking in and once just because they could. It’s a good thing I had it inside one of the other pools most of the times and on a fleece pad the others. It was certainly convenient while it lasted. They aren’t even making a pyramid and going over, they just stretch up and hoist their little dog selves right over and motor where they think they want to go. Their eyes and ears aren’t open yet for Pete’s sake, where do they think they are going to go? They are generally amenable to a little cuddle when I pick them up though, even if they’ve been on walkabout.
MaterGator (that doesn’t actually work if one uses the correct pronunciation of Mater but I’m still searching for just the right blognomer for Caly) has really gotten into licking the puppies since the 4am feeding. She still prefers to get in position in the nursing pool and then have the puppies added over trying to join them and we’ve worked out a pretty good routine with that. It does make it a little easier for me to keep track of which puppy is eating, especially since I’ve now scheduled it out. Jill (the Mama’sMama), SammieDoodlebug (GrammieSammie now), and even Bela stayed in with the puppies almost all of the time for a long time but Caly doesn’t choose to emulate that style. Now that I’m getting a little rest, I can appreciate some things about her style (but life was a lot easier the other way. Or I was sleep deprived enough not to have created accurate memories of that time. I suspect some combination thereof but ultimately nostalgia wins the day on this one ;-)
Caly and the puppies have pretty clear signals when it’s time for them to eat. I suspect they’d be willing to have some between meal snacks but so far, she doesn’t offer that often. She must’ve heard about the obesity epidemic in children. She does check on them frequently, as do Phoebe and GrammieSammie. And she adds face washing and occasional inspections of their nether regions.
Today, Caly adopted an alligator toy that the girls appropriated from Cooper’s visit. (Either he or they took them out of his packed bag when he was going home. We had just made the babies so Caly was here, too). I’ve been letting Caly decide where she wants to nurse the puppies: in either pool (they have different beddings: one has a warmer fleece the other has just a blanket for good traction) or on a couple of different surfaces on the floor EXCEPT I draw the line at nursing them on the couch. So she got her alligator puppy and very very gently carried it to where she wanted to have it on the couch and positioned it. We had it in the pool for feeding time but fortunately it didn’t eat much.
Phoebe knows the difference between toys and puppies and she wanted to play with the alligator.
Speaking of which Phoebe seems to understand that she is a mother’s helper (although at times I think she’s starting to think she’s the understudy and could be called upon to take Caly’s role) and knows to take her cues from SDB. When I was encouraging Caly to stop worrying about the puppies and start licking them, I was giving squirty cheese for letting puppies at her front legs (before that, I was giving Caly a combination pillow/puppy blocker) and when she was actually putting her muzzle really close to the puppy, I put a little cheese on it. No dice on that one. The puppies were finished eating so when Caly got up to leave, I offered the cheese on the puppy to Phoebe. If she’d had an opposable thumb, she’d have called the men in the white coats to come get me. Her whole attitude was very reproachful. I could hear her: “we don’t eat puppies. That’s not food.” So I called GrammieSammie over to clean the puppy for me. As soon as Phoebe saw that, she was all about licking that puppy clean. She’s been licking the puppies since then, mostly faces but she’s cleaned the occasional pee, too.
And last night after I’d brought the sleeping pool back over to the more secluded, protected spot by the ottobenbed; Phoebe got into the nursing pool and slept. I didn’t offer her a puppy though.
We held our weight watcher’s meeting while LeAnne was here today. I don’t have the spreadsheet yet but I do know that each puppy gained nicely again. We’ll start playing fun with numbers again soon. (I intend to look up how to let LeAnne post to the blog, too but I have quite the list of things to accomplish so that hasn’t happened just yet).
During Puppy yoga tonight, they didn’t bolt right off of the cold cloth. The other days, they’ve been off before I get to the count of 2.
I think that’s all. I have plans to compile blog fodder throughout the day tomorrow but there isn’t much time left after all of my puppy cuddling duties. Puppy breath to all and Nighty nighty nighty for now
They especially do it when Gator the Mater decides to come by and rile them up as I’m in the middle of doing something with them but they’ve also done it when Phoebe was checking in and once just because they could. It’s a good thing I had it inside one of the other pools most of the times and on a fleece pad the others. It was certainly convenient while it lasted. They aren’t even making a pyramid and going over, they just stretch up and hoist their little dog selves right over and motor where they think they want to go. Their eyes and ears aren’t open yet for Pete’s sake, where do they think they are going to go? They are generally amenable to a little cuddle when I pick them up though, even if they’ve been on walkabout.
MaterGator (that doesn’t actually work if one uses the correct pronunciation of Mater but I’m still searching for just the right blognomer for Caly) has really gotten into licking the puppies since the 4am feeding. She still prefers to get in position in the nursing pool and then have the puppies added over trying to join them and we’ve worked out a pretty good routine with that. It does make it a little easier for me to keep track of which puppy is eating, especially since I’ve now scheduled it out. Jill (the Mama’sMama), SammieDoodlebug (GrammieSammie now), and even Bela stayed in with the puppies almost all of the time for a long time but Caly doesn’t choose to emulate that style. Now that I’m getting a little rest, I can appreciate some things about her style (but life was a lot easier the other way. Or I was sleep deprived enough not to have created accurate memories of that time. I suspect some combination thereof but ultimately nostalgia wins the day on this one ;-)
Caly and the puppies have pretty clear signals when it’s time for them to eat. I suspect they’d be willing to have some between meal snacks but so far, she doesn’t offer that often. She must’ve heard about the obesity epidemic in children. She does check on them frequently, as do Phoebe and GrammieSammie. And she adds face washing and occasional inspections of their nether regions.
Today, Caly adopted an alligator toy that the girls appropriated from Cooper’s visit. (Either he or they took them out of his packed bag when he was going home. We had just made the babies so Caly was here, too). I’ve been letting Caly decide where she wants to nurse the puppies: in either pool (they have different beddings: one has a warmer fleece the other has just a blanket for good traction) or on a couple of different surfaces on the floor EXCEPT I draw the line at nursing them on the couch. So she got her alligator puppy and very very gently carried it to where she wanted to have it on the couch and positioned it. We had it in the pool for feeding time but fortunately it didn’t eat much.
Phoebe knows the difference between toys and puppies and she wanted to play with the alligator.
Speaking of which Phoebe seems to understand that she is a mother’s helper (although at times I think she’s starting to think she’s the understudy and could be called upon to take Caly’s role) and knows to take her cues from SDB. When I was encouraging Caly to stop worrying about the puppies and start licking them, I was giving squirty cheese for letting puppies at her front legs (before that, I was giving Caly a combination pillow/puppy blocker) and when she was actually putting her muzzle really close to the puppy, I put a little cheese on it. No dice on that one. The puppies were finished eating so when Caly got up to leave, I offered the cheese on the puppy to Phoebe. If she’d had an opposable thumb, she’d have called the men in the white coats to come get me. Her whole attitude was very reproachful. I could hear her: “we don’t eat puppies. That’s not food.” So I called GrammieSammie over to clean the puppy for me. As soon as Phoebe saw that, she was all about licking that puppy clean. She’s been licking the puppies since then, mostly faces but she’s cleaned the occasional pee, too.
And last night after I’d brought the sleeping pool back over to the more secluded, protected spot by the ottobenbed; Phoebe got into the nursing pool and slept. I didn’t offer her a puppy though.
We held our weight watcher’s meeting while LeAnne was here today. I don’t have the spreadsheet yet but I do know that each puppy gained nicely again. We’ll start playing fun with numbers again soon. (I intend to look up how to let LeAnne post to the blog, too but I have quite the list of things to accomplish so that hasn’t happened just yet).
During Puppy yoga tonight, they didn’t bolt right off of the cold cloth. The other days, they’ve been off before I get to the count of 2.
I think that’s all. I have plans to compile blog fodder throughout the day tomorrow but there isn’t much time left after all of my puppy cuddling duties. Puppy breath to all and Nighty nighty nighty for now
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Pupdate Catchup: 3/20/18
Let’s see if This Lady can help me catch you up on what we’ve been up to since Friday.
We decided that we didn’t really want to be St Patrick’s Day puppies so we told MamaCaly that we were going to come a day early. Pretty sure we heard This Lady say that we weren’t going to be after our due date (our Mama says that she did all kinds of testing to make sure that we had the best chance of conception so she knew when we were due. And since there were 9 of us, it wasn’t likely wed go late either). If we’d been a day earlier, Uncle Dr Brian (he lives with our great uncle Bagby so he is related to us in addition to doing all of the making of us) would’ve delivered us too but we weren’t quite ready (they checked because That Lady is like that). It was ok, that other lady knew what she was doing and they talked to That Lady while we were being born so she’d know what was going on. (She gets antsy when no one is giving her words but she tries to be patient when the people are busy doing other stuff, like taking care of us.)
Fortunately, although there was a LOT of activity -there were 9 of us after all - That Lady (excuse me, she just told me that she prefers to be called Mama by me and Aunt Mama by my siblings/other relatives) was kept pretty well informed. They didn’t manage to keep perfect track of our birth order but since it was all pretty fast, it doesn’t really matter. Here’s the important information: There are 9 of us. 5 are girls, 4 are boys. We are all wavy and one of the girls is brown (our MamaGator wanted to let everyone know she carries brown, they already knew our Daddy Jack did). And, to their relief, we have minimal white. A few of us have some white feet and white spots on our chests and several have a milk chin but most of that will fade.
We all had nice strong heartbeats; our cords tied off/clotted nicely; we were breathing well but one of us didn’t want to holler much at first. Aunt Mama (I’ll call her that until we come up with a good way for y’all to follow who are the humans and who are canines) said that she couldn’t believe that a puppy of our Daddy’s would be quiet (apparently, one of his nicknames was Sir Barksalot because he sometimes had to tell people what to do). They put us in a warm, moist box to wait for MamaGator to finish getting ready for us. It was ok though because Aunt Mama had brought a tennis ball for us. We created our own version of treiball/football/soccer and motored all over each other, the ball and the thermometer/hygrometer in there. We didn’t break anything though.
Someone called Aunt Debbie (she has our MamaGator’s little sister Tootsie and lives nearby where we were made and born) came to make sure everybody was ok. She’s so sweet, we hope we all get to see her more (I know I will since Aunt Mama and I will see her when I play water work)
When the MamaGator was waking up, we got to start eating. We were all very good at that. She was pretty sleepy but had made plenty of something called colostrum for us. Apparently, it’s very good for puppies so we were good little bite havers and filled our tummies until they were round. Then we all got gathered up and went for something called a ride. This one took a long time so part of the time, we had snacks (more colostrum) and part of the time Aunt Mama held us so MamaCaly could rest without worrying about squishing us (we may be small but there are a lot of us and we were in the little pool for riding in the van). When we got home, we got to meet Uncle Daddy (who was very sick and couldn’t stay up to keep us company that night), GrammieSammie (she’s MamaCaly’s Mama) and Mama’s cousin Phoebe who has been keeping GrammieSammie company a lot since our Daddy went to the Rainbow Bridge. (I need to stop talking about that because is makes Aunt Mama cry, she’s already been telling us a lot of stories abut what a good dog he was). Apparently, GrammieSammie didn’t care for being an only dog so Phoebe’s been keeping her company and learning how to behave ‘like she has some dignity about her’. We think she’s going to be a lot of fun!
Since then, we’ve been eating and sleeping and growing. We had long nails when we were born and although she cuts them a lot, they grow really fast.
When we were 3 days old, Aunt Mama started doing something we call Puppy Yoga but is also known as early neurological stimulation. We also get something she calls a scent of the day but it’s never the same thing so she must be mistaken about that.
We’ve been getting visits from Aunt LeAnne (she’s MamaCaly’s mama) and Aunt Cindi so Aunt Mama can nap. We make sure we are on our best behavior (unless they try to cut our toenails, we don’t always cooperate for that).
I think it’s time for the milk bar to open so I’m going to get in line. We don’t stand on courtesy when it’s drinking time!
We decided that we didn’t really want to be St Patrick’s Day puppies so we told MamaCaly that we were going to come a day early. Pretty sure we heard This Lady say that we weren’t going to be after our due date (our Mama says that she did all kinds of testing to make sure that we had the best chance of conception so she knew when we were due. And since there were 9 of us, it wasn’t likely wed go late either). If we’d been a day earlier, Uncle Dr Brian (he lives with our great uncle Bagby so he is related to us in addition to doing all of the making of us) would’ve delivered us too but we weren’t quite ready (they checked because That Lady is like that). It was ok, that other lady knew what she was doing and they talked to That Lady while we were being born so she’d know what was going on. (She gets antsy when no one is giving her words but she tries to be patient when the people are busy doing other stuff, like taking care of us.)
Fortunately, although there was a LOT of activity -there were 9 of us after all - That Lady (excuse me, she just told me that she prefers to be called Mama by me and Aunt Mama by my siblings/other relatives) was kept pretty well informed. They didn’t manage to keep perfect track of our birth order but since it was all pretty fast, it doesn’t really matter. Here’s the important information: There are 9 of us. 5 are girls, 4 are boys. We are all wavy and one of the girls is brown (our MamaGator wanted to let everyone know she carries brown, they already knew our Daddy Jack did). And, to their relief, we have minimal white. A few of us have some white feet and white spots on our chests and several have a milk chin but most of that will fade.
We all had nice strong heartbeats; our cords tied off/clotted nicely; we were breathing well but one of us didn’t want to holler much at first. Aunt Mama (I’ll call her that until we come up with a good way for y’all to follow who are the humans and who are canines) said that she couldn’t believe that a puppy of our Daddy’s would be quiet (apparently, one of his nicknames was Sir Barksalot because he sometimes had to tell people what to do). They put us in a warm, moist box to wait for MamaGator to finish getting ready for us. It was ok though because Aunt Mama had brought a tennis ball for us. We created our own version of treiball/football/soccer and motored all over each other, the ball and the thermometer/hygrometer in there. We didn’t break anything though.
Someone called Aunt Debbie (she has our MamaGator’s little sister Tootsie and lives nearby where we were made and born) came to make sure everybody was ok. She’s so sweet, we hope we all get to see her more (I know I will since Aunt Mama and I will see her when I play water work)
When the MamaGator was waking up, we got to start eating. We were all very good at that. She was pretty sleepy but had made plenty of something called colostrum for us. Apparently, it’s very good for puppies so we were good little bite havers and filled our tummies until they were round. Then we all got gathered up and went for something called a ride. This one took a long time so part of the time, we had snacks (more colostrum) and part of the time Aunt Mama held us so MamaCaly could rest without worrying about squishing us (we may be small but there are a lot of us and we were in the little pool for riding in the van). When we got home, we got to meet Uncle Daddy (who was very sick and couldn’t stay up to keep us company that night), GrammieSammie (she’s MamaCaly’s Mama) and Mama’s cousin Phoebe who has been keeping GrammieSammie company a lot since our Daddy went to the Rainbow Bridge. (I need to stop talking about that because is makes Aunt Mama cry, she’s already been telling us a lot of stories abut what a good dog he was). Apparently, GrammieSammie didn’t care for being an only dog so Phoebe’s been keeping her company and learning how to behave ‘like she has some dignity about her’. We think she’s going to be a lot of fun!
Since then, we’ve been eating and sleeping and growing. We had long nails when we were born and although she cuts them a lot, they grow really fast.
When we were 3 days old, Aunt Mama started doing something we call Puppy Yoga but is also known as early neurological stimulation. We also get something she calls a scent of the day but it’s never the same thing so she must be mistaken about that.
We’ve been getting visits from Aunt LeAnne (she’s MamaCaly’s mama) and Aunt Cindi so Aunt Mama can nap. We make sure we are on our best behavior (unless they try to cut our toenails, we don’t always cooperate for that).
I think it’s time for the milk bar to open so I’m going to get in line. We don’t stand on courtesy when it’s drinking time!
Jack and Caly Puppies!
It has come to my notice that I began blogging again in medias res. (I very very quickly typed the last post into a note on my ipad while I was waiting for Caly’s latest batch of chicken to cook and before their next meal.) I hope to update the blog better now that A: I remember how to log in/send posts and B:I start sleeping a little more. I THINK we are getting into a routine; it will no doubt change multiple times as the pupsters grow and develop but maybe I have things closer to under control (feel free to laugh uproariously here).
Anyway- after much much planning, hoping and MANY sets of Hurry Up and Wait: We have our latest litter of Allyn Portuguese Water Dogs! These puppies were conceived with 12 year old frozen semen from my first PWD and service dog guide, Jack (5/23/2002- 6/28/2017) in January and we’ve been waiting with minnow or wormy breath (sorry the weird word “humor” comes out more when I am lacking sleep). I have extremely high hopes that my next service dog guide will come from this litter. (He’s had a name and an official color for a while now.). The dam is Caly from the TEN litter (SammieDoodlebug and Triton’s first litter)
All of the health tests are up to date and in the HLL and on the OFFA website. I would be happy to provide copies of the information/results as well.
You can read about Jack in previous enries - he’s been honorary Uncle to all of our puppies, I may slip into calling him that in this set of entries as well - and I’m sure you’ll read more about him if you contimue to read posts.
Trying to compose this post in the blooger site reminds me why I compose them in a word processing program and then paste or email to blogger - the earlier post today couldn’t ‘go’ because Blogger kept insisting I use a different login that it knows from another program. Technology is not always a friend of the sleepless and with PUPPIES, I have more fun things to do! Puppy breath to all (they are starting to get puppies breath! Yay!!!)
Anyway- after much much planning, hoping and MANY sets of Hurry Up and Wait: We have our latest litter of Allyn Portuguese Water Dogs! These puppies were conceived with 12 year old frozen semen from my first PWD and service dog guide, Jack (5/23/2002- 6/28/2017) in January and we’ve been waiting with minnow or wormy breath (sorry the weird word “humor” comes out more when I am lacking sleep). I have extremely high hopes that my next service dog guide will come from this litter. (He’s had a name and an official color for a while now.). The dam is Caly from the TEN litter (SammieDoodlebug and Triton’s first litter)
All of the health tests are up to date and in the HLL and on the OFFA website. I would be happy to provide copies of the information/results as well.
You can read about Jack in previous enries - he’s been honorary Uncle to all of our puppies, I may slip into calling him that in this set of entries as well - and I’m sure you’ll read more about him if you contimue to read posts.
Trying to compose this post in the blooger site reminds me why I compose them in a word processing program and then paste or email to blogger - the earlier post today couldn’t ‘go’ because Blogger kept insisting I use a different login that it knows from another program. Technology is not always a friend of the sleepless and with PUPPIES, I have more fun things to do! Puppy breath to all (they are starting to get puppies breath! Yay!!!)
Puppies born 3/15/18
We have puppies! Actually, we’ve had puppies since Friday afternoon but I haven’t had a moment to type - not that I really have a moment now but this is one of the things going through my head while I don’t sleep.
Normally, the MSU does the night shift when we first bring puppies home so I can get some sleep but he has a nasty respiratory infection (the p-word has been mentioned) so he couldn’t do it.
In honor of their daddy Jack, we took a tennis ball to the c-section and put it in the incubator with them. Those little puppies were all over it (they also kept knocking over the temperature/humidity monitor. They were quite vigorous.)
The puppies and Caly are catching on to what’s they are supposed to be doing. She’s wants as much of an audience as possible whenever she is interacting with the puppies. She’s not quite the mama her Mama and Granddam have been but she’s happy to have SDB (and Phoebe to help). She’s concerned with not stepping or or lying on any of them so we’ve worked out our system of the humans - mostly me but Cindi and LeAnne have come to help too. You know they are good friends when they come to your house so you can go to sleep - rounding up all of the puppies while she gets into position. She soaks up the attention while the puppies eat. At least she got the diva part of her matrilineal heritage in spades ;-).
Oh, and she has convinced us to keep the whelping pool in the middle of the floor. I was a little slow to figure it out (blame the lack of sleep) but she would get into the second set of pools (the one I had just cleaned that was still in the floor) and lie down and fuss at me. Since we left them in that one after the last feeding, she’s gone in to check on them and given them a few kisses.
Cousin Phoebe is being very good with them. She’s absolutely fascinated and, oddly enough, Caly is happy to have her and GrammieSammie right there (preferably licking her and the puppies - she really does want ALL of the attention). Phoebe’s been leaving offerings of toys for them each time she checks on them. I keep having to move piles of toys from around the whelping box. She hasn’t started dropping toys on their heads yet like Jack used to do but she has placed her piece of noodle in with them, given a few kisses and then picked it up to go on her way. I think she’ll be happy when they are big enough to play with her - at least until they get those little needle teeth.
Normally, the MSU does the night shift when we first bring puppies home so I can get some sleep but he has a nasty respiratory infection (the p-word has been mentioned) so he couldn’t do it.
In honor of their daddy Jack, we took a tennis ball to the c-section and put it in the incubator with them. Those little puppies were all over it (they also kept knocking over the temperature/humidity monitor. They were quite vigorous.)
The puppies and Caly are catching on to what’s they are supposed to be doing. She’s wants as much of an audience as possible whenever she is interacting with the puppies. She’s not quite the mama her Mama and Granddam have been but she’s happy to have SDB (and Phoebe to help). She’s concerned with not stepping or or lying on any of them so we’ve worked out our system of the humans - mostly me but Cindi and LeAnne have come to help too. You know they are good friends when they come to your house so you can go to sleep - rounding up all of the puppies while she gets into position. She soaks up the attention while the puppies eat. At least she got the diva part of her matrilineal heritage in spades ;-).
Oh, and she has convinced us to keep the whelping pool in the middle of the floor. I was a little slow to figure it out (blame the lack of sleep) but she would get into the second set of pools (the one I had just cleaned that was still in the floor) and lie down and fuss at me. Since we left them in that one after the last feeding, she’s gone in to check on them and given them a few kisses.
Cousin Phoebe is being very good with them. She’s absolutely fascinated and, oddly enough, Caly is happy to have her and GrammieSammie right there (preferably licking her and the puppies - she really does want ALL of the attention). Phoebe’s been leaving offerings of toys for them each time she checks on them. I keep having to move piles of toys from around the whelping box. She hasn’t started dropping toys on their heads yet like Jack used to do but she has placed her piece of noodle in with them, given a few kisses and then picked it up to go on her way. I think she’ll be happy when they are big enough to play with her - at least until they get those little needle teeth.
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