01/21/25 Pupdate

Uhhhmmm, well this is awkward. 

Remember that this blog is being written by the Blindchick (my vision may not be all black but the name’s not hyperbole.)

Also bear in mind that Carmela is a helicopter dam - I can’t do anything with a puppy without her ‘helping’. Today, I was in the whelping pool (par for the course) and Carmela insisted on nosing in and licking the Red Collar puppy I’m holding.  And scares me half to death because I realize she is licking this puppy’s navel as the puppy is peeing.  Through her belly button.  Things must be VERY VERY wrong and I’m going to need to find a vet pdq because this is scary as all get out.

I felt to make sure Carmela hasn’t accidentally opened something while cleaning the puppy or chewed too much as the umbilical stump came off and hurt her.  (I don’t feel around on their little tummies until that is all healed up because I don’t want to inadvertently damage them).  Hmmm, that’s odd.  There’s a good sized bump there.  Did she give her an umbilical hernia?  It’s not bleeding, pretty sure it’s actually urine. And Carnela’s still happily cleaning the puppy.

Anyone see (I guess pun intended) where this is going? Apparently, there was a little miscommunication at the whelping.  We didn’t have someone documenting birth order, color, coat type, etc. into a spreadsheet and I was trying to listen for the puppies to grt noisy and the machine that goes ping to make sure Carmela was still ok, etc.  The red collar puppy is not potentially dangerously deformed.  She’s a male.

So we actually have 4 girls and 3 boys.  (And I now need to be sedated. )

I have checked each and every puppy very carefully since AND I sent photos of what was supposed to be the pertinent areas (but with Carmela interfering it wasn’t clear on several of them) to the aunties for verification.

I’m sure we did other things today but not much is worth typing about after THAT!  Nighty, nighty, nighty.  Puppy breath to all 

01/20/25 One week old!

The pupsters are a week old today!  Little brown puppy now weighs almost as much as his biggest sisters did at birth.  And that is hard won information because Carmela is still not on board for the puppies being weighed.  Or doing anything that involves them not being in the pool but she firmly believes the more the merrier IN the pool.  

Photo shoots must take place in the pool.   I still take a lot of pictures even though my phone keeps telling me all kinds of stuff that I haven’t researched yet.  (With our earlier litters, digital cameras took forever to even take the picture and while I’d gotten kind of used to my phone telling me if there was enough light, it’s trying to tell me all kinds of stuff now while I just wildly press the button to force it to hurry up and take the pictures before Carmela either photo bombs it or the puppy gets focused on her.  

I haven’t figured out where to put the pictures I take yet but don’t get your hopes up.   It’s not like they will be carefully staged, chosen, or edited.  I THINK the phone usually does a good job of catching a recognizable image but I make no promises.

Little nails continue to need clipping daily and collars have to be adjusted at least once a day.  I’m about to have to change most of them out for larger pieces of ribbon.  Carmela is eating more frequently and higher calories but she turns it all into calories for the babies but fortunately, she isn’t being too picky.  They are doing their part to make sure she doesn’t get mastitis, such helpful little puppies.

Puppy breath to all, Nighty nighty nighty 

01/19/25 Pupdate

 The puppies were introduced to snow today!  Secondhand but their mama had to go out to potty, it was snowing hard enough that some came in on her hair and she was not about to wait to get back in with her babies.  I, of course, was paranoid but they were not wet or cold so they didn’t need me to towel them and she was plenty warm enough that she did not want to be covered either.  Just what we needed, more snow and extremely cold temperatures.  It actually shouldn’t affect me and the puppies too much but it might make it hard to receive packages or visitors.  At this age, it’s not so important that they meet new people but it is important to people to get to meet THEM.  They are very cute, you know.

The puppies are becoming more and more agile and occasionally perform feats of strength.  Or perhaps it is parent/sibling/whelping box Parkour?  The puppy version of Cirque du Soleil?  Whatever it is, they are very cute when they do it.  Even when they occasionally go rolling off of one another.  A couple of them really like to go Mamaneering which doesn’t bother Carmela like it does me.  On the other hand, maybe she likes puppies snuggling all over her as much as I do.

They fuss and protest and sing and spend a fair amount of time making tribble noises as well as smacking sounds.  She seems to know who needs her help and who is ok at the moment but maybe she’s raising GenX puppies ;-)

A couple of times today, she actually came to cuddle with me for almost a minute before she decided that she needed to check on the puppies.  So I make it easier for her by being right by the pool and petting her and the puppies.  Deja is never far from me either but he doesn’t usually do much with the puppies.

I didn’t attempt another weight watcher’s today, I think Carmela was watching me pretty closely lest I attempt puppynapping again. I did have to loosen collars again on most everyone so they are growing, growing, growing.  That is their job right now and they seem to be doing it well.

I think I am going to give sleeping by the pool a try now that she is settling into her routine.  Up to now, I’ve been waiting for the MSU to take over before I go sleep for a little while.  Of course, this morning, I kept hearing puppies in my sleep and couldn’t find them in the bed.  Good because they are supposed to be in the whleping pool with her not upstairs in our bed but I wasn’t sleeping soundly since I was listening for puppies.  We might all get more rest if I sleep here and now is as good a time as any to give it a try so Nighty, nighty, nighty and puppy breath to all

01/18/25 Pupdate

We had company today!  Carmela’s humama and Aunt CIndi came to meet the puppies.  Carmela was happy to show off her babies and get some extra pets and scratches, too.

Having company did not mean she relaxed her standards though.  I managed to let Lana hold a couple of different puppies but only snuck one to Cindi.  Cindi did get to hold hers longer because Carmela was distracted by Lana’s various puppies.  We did get the collars back onto the 3 streaking puppies and adjust the ones that were tight again.

As always, everyone is welcome to join the puppies IN the pool by Carmela. She’s a good hostess but very much a helicopter mom at this stage.  My grand plans of getting to hold a weight watchers meeting while we had extra hands/distractions was pretty much an epic fail.  For one thing, Carmela is still very interested in the scale (I’ve tried weighing random objects like spoons in case she was worried about it in relation to puppies but she’s still obsessed). It’s hard enough to get the puppies to hold still-ish long enough for the scale to announce the weight but with her nosing around there’s not a chance.

Eventually, we attempted to distract Carmela with squirty cheese (Grandpaw Deja got to share in that bounty) as I snagged puppies one at a time and took them inside to weigh them.  That worked ok for the first 3 but since I couldn’t get them back without Carmela noticing, she’d caught onto the game and was not fooled.  She let me have another but was not thrilled with that so I had to wait a little while for her to relax again.  Eventually, she had to go out to potty and I grabbed the last 2 and hurried them inside together. For those of you wjp realized that was only 6 puppies, I decided to use the weight I’d gotten on LBP earlier when I checked to see if he needed topped off.  (He did not - he’s up to 8 oz.)

The girls are fairly closely matched in size: the pounders are Pink (16.5 oz) and Red (16.3 oz); closely followed by green (15.8 oz); Purple (15.2) and Yellow (14.9). Turquoise boy (11.4oz) has been gaining well but the girls started off much larger and are not giving up on their advantage yet. Over 6 lbs of puppy sweetness, I guess Carmela knows what she’s doing so we’ll keep (mostly) following her lead.

Another milestone last night, they started holding up their little tails while nursing last night.  Those little wagging tails are awfully cute but that seems to be par for the course with them.

We’’ve come to a detente on puppy yoga - as long as I do it right beside the pool and let her nuzzle the puppy before and after, she doesn’t interfere overmuch.  Deja also has to lie next to me in case one of them make a break for it, i guess.  I see no reason to stress her out by overriding her parenting decisions since she’s doing such a good job.  A good dam is worth her weight in gold (at the very least.)

Puppy breath to all, Nighty nighty nighty 

01/17/2025 Pupdate

We’ve had a good day in the puppy pool today and there was even some bright sunshine, not that the puppies or I went outside.  Carmela still limited her potty trips but she did spend more time today trying to make her alternate arrangements in case this location becomes untenable ;-). At least she isn;t digging a huge new spot out in the iced snow which will become mud before it freezes again.

We have the crate doors open and the alternate pools in strategic places for her.  She really wanted to go behind the couches so we’ve compromised with me putting ex pens and blankets over it so she can dig in a more private location.

The little brown boy continues to improve and is nursing well.  He was doing well enough that I felt comfortable going up to sleep a while after the MSU took over puppy duties this morning.  He’d even gained some on his own while I slept so I’m not tubing him as frequently.  

Carmela is slightly more cooperative about me doing things with the puppies (puppy yoga and a little cuddling) as long as I keep them very close.  I sat at the edge with my feet in the pool a little this evening and we took turns nuzzling the puppies one at a time so she wasn’t as concerned I was going to take off with them.  I’ve had an easier time getting the brown boy away for his kitchen raids but she does still at least meet me at the door to make sure I’m bringing him back to the right place.

It’s so interesting to me how quickly they’ve become more adept and motoring across the pool when Carmela lies down.  Their little noses seem to function well and their legs are also becoming stronger.  They still move around like drunken sailors but they do it faster now ;-)

We had our first real scrum today!  Those are always so cute but I never know where they are trying to go.  It ends with them cuddled all together sound asleep in a big clump of cuteness.  Frequently, the brown boy will burrow in under the others if they don’t just waller on top of him.  He like to be in under his mama’s hair and he tends to blend in pretty well,  i wonder it that;s his version of segregating by coat color since she’s the only one like him. (For those of you who haven’t experienced it,  there appears to be a phenomenon amongst PWD puppies where they divide up into like colors before their eyes ever open.  Since nobody else matches him, he might be matching up with her hair)

The noises are becoming more varied and even more adorable.  Most of them are contented but occasionally one will be frustrated because they are bound and determined to crawl around the Mama’s back but she’s lying against the wall of the pool and they can’t force their way into that space.  Other times, she will lie hunched up so they can be uder her but she’s not lying on them.  i don’t care for that (and it can’t be comfortable for her, either) so I move them.    I do let her hover over them like a chicken for a few minutes when she wants but not fpr very long.  And not only beciase I don’t like birds ;-). Frequently, the puppy noises are accompanied by Carmela’s light snoring.  Motherhood is hard work so she needs her beauty sleep.

MAYBE tomorrow we can actually have a weight watchers meeting and a photo shoot.  FIngers crossed that the driveway is more clear.  There have been an awful lot of huge thuds as clumps of icy snow fell and hit the lower sections of roof, deck or ground.  Fortunately, it startles me more than the dogs.  There are actually some patches of gound that are no longer snow covered (oh goody, mud said no dog person ever). But for now we are going to say Nighty, nighty, nighty.  Puppy breath to all (although it’s not completely available on cue yet, we’re getting there,) 

01/16/25 Pupdate

Have I mentioned that these puppies are adorable?  I’m sure it’s a surprise to no one that I think so.  But I certainly do.

Carmela is taking her responsibilities very seriously but she has actually gotten a toy to greet us twice today.  Both times she dropped it in the pool when she hurried back to her babies.

I haven’t managed to conivnce her to let me hold a full weight watchers meeting, she thinks we should not judge them based on a number on the scale.  For the most part, i haven’t fought her on that but it’s partly because we’ve been worried about the little brown boy.

He was significantly smaller than the other and has not been closing the gap.  It’s not too unusual for puppies not to gain a lot of weight as the transition from colostrum to milk occurs but he was expending a lot of energy nursing.  And we were expending a lot of energy getting him a prime location and helping him maintain it but that wasn’t the worry. 

Last night, I tried really hard several times to get him to take supplement via every nipple we’ve ever had on syringes, bottles or the sponge wedge method.  He expended more energy fighting that - I don’t think I’ve ever had a puppy willing to participate in that and we have all of the kinds “just in case”.   I’ve never truly felt like it was needed before, it just would’ve made me feel a little better using the formula I’ve mixed up but I end up giving it to the dam.  I was starting to really worry about him.  

He was still peeing and pooping and nursing but he was NOT growing.  So I pulled the tube feeding supplies out of the box.  I’ve had them forever but not used them even though I technically knew how.  Now I’m not sure WHY I was so worried about it, it was SO much easier than any of the syringe nursing options!

I couldn’t get him to make any noise when I pinched his toes (to make certain it was in his esophagus and not his airway) the first time this am so I did the end in water to check for bubbles version.  Pretty much as soon as I started pressing the plunger, he started singing his eating song ;-). He’s still nursing so I’m supplementing but it made a huge difference after the first time.  And again every time after that.    I managed to sneak him away from Carmela the first couple of times but she could tell I had him when I brought him back and SHE wanted HER baby back.  So he’d get cleaned up and topped off again ;-). As the day progressed (I started at 2 hour intervals but a couple of times ended up being 3 hours this evening). He’s gone from 5.5oz at 9:30am to 6.4 before his 10:30ish pm feeding.  And he’s eaten a couple of times since then.  I don’t think I’ll ever fool with the other options again.  I’ll keep it up with him until I’m sure he has turned the corner, too.  Just don’t tell his mother, she’s figured out what’s going on even when I sneak him inside while she’s out pottying and protests at the door to the kitchen.

` We continue with puppy yoga in spite of their mother’s attempts to thwart me. ;-). She is definitely not neglectful.  Even when she really obviously wants to greet us with a parade, she hurries right back to the puppies.  At this point, I’m lucky she’ll go outside to potty ;-). (She does it as quickly as she possibly can.  And I doubut it’s helpful that I sneak the little brown boy in for a snack most times she goes out.)

I had to clip everyone’s nails today, those little things were sharp.  I can do that in the pool though so Carmela doesn’t mind.  So far, I haven’t quicked any but I barely take the shapr points off for a long time so that is pretty rare.

i think we are getting settled in pretty nicely so I might try for a little nap beside the puppy pool after the next tubing.  It’s hard to sleep, I might miss something adorable they do (spoiler alert: everything they do is adorable!). It shouldn’t be too much longer before they yawn on cue so I can sbiff the puppy breath, we’re working on it.  Nighty, nighty, nighty

01/15/25. Pupdate

        While Carmela has not consented nor cooperated with us holding a weight watcher’s meeting, I’ve had to loosen the collars on the 5 puppies that are not streaking.  the little brown boy had wardrobe malfunctions repeatedly from the jump but he’s easy to tell from the others.  Yellow (tblack wavy girl) was the next to ditch hers but she wasn’t too difficult to tell from the other streaker since he is brown.  Today, the MSU removed the other boy’s collar because Carmela was doing something with it,  We’re going to have to get this under control before I can’t tell which puppy is which ;-)

The all have some white but not extreme amounts and I don’t have a description of each of them yet (not that I can tell  that much about them visually anyway). I can mostly tell by their sizes,  Currently, the red collar girl is the largest and she eats like she means to hold on to that distinction ;-). 

Carmela comtinues to be a devoted mother and spends almost all of her time in with the puppies,  Tonight, she decided that she will be taking her meals and refreshments in the pool.  I guess she heard me reminding the MSU that her great GrammieSammie did that and decided to give it a try 

We have not yet come to an agreement on a mutually acceptable dig site.  I brought the small ‘traveling pool’ in and put some bedding in it but so far she prefres the couch.  Maybe I’ll put seat covers on the couch to limit damage while we negotiate.

We began puppy yoga today.  As I expected, Carmela was not too thrilled with that turn of events.  I managed to keep her from interfering too much but she still wasn’t entirely sure if she was going to let me keep doing that.  I may have to do it with the puppies in the pool.  She’s perfectly fine with me being in there with her and the puppies.  But she will frequently hover over them like a chicken if she thinks we are taking too many liberties with HER babies.  Or if she thinks we might ;-)

01/14/25 Pupdate (and a side quest)

It’s been an adventure already!  Carmela is settling in to motherhood very nicely.  She is very clear about exactly who is THE Mama.  She’s ok with us looking at them and touching them but is not on board with us taking them out of the pool.

As you can imagine this makes holding our weight watchers meetings more difficult.  It’s already fun trying to weigh wriggly puppies when one has to wait for the talking scale to get around to telling the weight but with her ‘helping,’ it’s quite difficult.  It’s a combination of her wanting her puppy back where it belongs and being nosy.  (I weighed a spoon and she was checking to see what was going on with that but wasn’t insistent on taking it)

She is eating well and has a pretty good handle on feeding and cleaning the puppies (whether they like it or not.). I’m glad she’s cleaning them up and I’ll let her take care of that as long as she chooses.  I do NOT let her give me kisses right now though.

While we were gone, a Dalmatian appeared on the cameras going all around the house whining at the doors.  It was very cold so I worried about her but there wasn’t anything I could do about it.  I thought I heard her Monday night but it was dark so I didn’t go searching.  This morning, when the MSU was on puppy duty after my nap, I went looking for her.  She was hanging out up by the pond and was VERY hungry.  I fed her, gave her some bedding in her chosen spot and more in one of the crates up there that I also covered because it was quite cold and getting colder. I also took pictures and videos and enlisted one of our neighbors to help find her people.  She was wearing a collar but I wasn’t sure she was going to let me check the tag (tirns out she ‘smiles’ but I wasn’t sure she wasn’t snarling although she did also wag her tail) so I gave her a little while to decide if she wanted to go into the crate. The MSU got the number on her tag and determined she wasn’t snarling so I also took the fleece dog coat I bought many years ago for Jack (he wore it once and was obviously too hot in it so it wasn’t worn) and put it on her (she was skin and bones and it is cold so I needed her to have more than the blankets and bedding)

Her dad found out through the facebook postings about the time the mom got the messages we’d left on her phone and they came to get her.  She was obviously in pain from her injury (she must’ve been hit by a car because she was going down the driveway fine Monday morning but came back up limping not very much later) so I helped her walk a little supporting her rear and then I just carried her down the driveway to meet them.

The MSU hung out with the puppies and Carmela during that and I took back over after I changed clothes and washed any potential germs away.  The puppies tooj it all in stride although Carmela is quick to jump up and greet us any time we come back into the room.  We are trying to convince her that we’ll come to her and she’s waiting for us on occasion now.

She’s also started the digging phase but only wants to dig in the pool, the couch or the chair.  None of those are really ideal for us but we’re working on alternatives that suit all of us.

The puppies attended their first dog training club meeting with me via Zoom and were mostly well behaved.  They did some singing and lip smacking but not too much squalling.

I’m still rearranging the rubber room nursery.  Having been sidetracked somewhat by the new ankle, I didn’t get everything set up before hand.  Plus, it’s been 4 years since we’ve had puppies and there have been some additions to the room.  I’m still working on getting the waves out of the blue vinyl coin flooring but I have a while before the puppies start escaping from the pool!

Nighty, nighty nighty while we work on sharing puppy breath on cue

01/13/25 We have PUPPIES!

         I can’t believe it’s been 4 years and yet it seems like this litter took more than 4 years to get on the ground.  Carmela decided to come into season on the 4 month plan (she does have a double dose of JillyBean after all) so we had daily blood draws for lh testing and period progesterone testing.

The girl is an ABSOLUTE statue for blood draws (especially the jugular ones).  It’s rather amazing how excited she was to get on the table at the vet each day.   She was however NOT particularly cooperative when we had to get the cytology swabs.  After a few fake outs on the lh tests (we’ve only ever had a faint positive live when we then had the real positive the next day)

We’d all just about decided that she was going to do a split cycle (her progesterone stayed at less than 0.2 for 12 days - and we’d had to get more cytology slide to make sure it all indicated she was taking her time much to her displeasure) and I ordered more lh tests.  Much like the best way to get a bitch to come into season is to enter her in a non-refundable event that she can’t participate in if she’s in season; apparently buying a lot of fairly expensive, not returnable test kits that will expire before you will be ready to use them the next breeding is the way to get her to ovulate.

Of course, the (real positive) lh surge was on a Saturday evening so we had to get our ducks all in a row for arranging the breeding.  As we were arranging for out trip to North Ridgeville, I noticed that the vet that would be collecting and shipping Eddie’s contribution was 15 minutes from my sister’s house.  So we went south instead and visited in GA.  Apparently, we do that with the brown girls because we also did it with Carmela’s Grand dam Bela

The MSU (aka not the Mama by the dogs) had a total ankle replacement in early December so that threw off our schedule for getting the ultrasound.  The Villagers were also recovering, having grand skin puppies or otherwise occupied so I enlisted my niece (technically, she’s my cousin’s daughter but since our mothers are twins, we are genetically siblings so  niece it is drove Carmela and I to North Ridgeville and back to hear/see puppies on the ultrasound.

Just to keep things interesting, my “birthday snow” this year was a massive event with lots of snow and some ice (any ice is too much) followed by more snow and a lot of very cold temperatures so that it didn’t melt,  We managed to pre treat the driveway so we eventually had the driveway cleared enough to let another round of snow cover it Friday night.  One of us can’t see and one of us was in a walking boot from that total ankle replacement so it was a an adventure getting off the hill and to North Rdigeville for the xray and a progesterone test on Saturday.

Sunday, we met Tootsie with Debbie Totten at Scott’s bakery for a nice visit and some goodies before heading over to have another progesterone test and an ultrasound to decide whether the puppies were likely to hold off until the next day.

And, fortuntely for us, they DID!  The best part of them waiting for me was on Monday, “Uncle Dr Brian” as he is known by us (I have no idea ig he knows that’s how we refer to him but I guess he definitely will if he reads this 😀) was working abnd brought Bagby to visit us while we were there.  Bagby is from our second litter (Jill X Boo) and it was great so nice to visit with him (and give him lots of treats).  Debbie Totten met us at the clinic so the MSU could rest with his ankle up before the long drive home.  We both really appreciated her help!  She even took Carmela for her second poop of the day while I got the pool set up for the long long ride home!

We got home and even made it up the driveway after a few tries.  Mama and puppies are all settled in; now the humans will work on getting into soem sort of routine.  GrandPaw Deja says he is available to assist when needed, too.

Nighty nighty nighty from the 7 newest Allyn PWDs: 5 black wavy girls, 1 black wavy boy and 1 brown wavy/soft curly boy