1 Week Old Today

You can see how much they have grown and how much they are lightening up already!

The pups have crossed a big threshhold in the last 24 hours. They are no longer sleeping in one big pile. but are spreading out in small groups and sometimes one will be off by itself.

And I'm not sure when their sense of smell is supposed to kick in (so much for knowing everything! ) but now when Emy has been gone from the pen for a period of time... say a half hour... the pups wake up when she returns before she steps into the nest and noses them.

Moving right along!

Big Step... and It's Early

Ms Emy is feeling secure enough that she is already napping outside the nest! And the pups are not complaining about it... well, they stop complaining quickly after she gets up and leaves them all alone by themselves. They complain just as loudly when she comes back and wakes them up! In general, they are so quiet that the other dogs seem to forget they are there. If a pup squeals during the night, EVERYONE in the bedroom wakes up barking. The minor murmuring and whimpering does not seem to bother them... I think I hear it more than the dogs do.

Prayer and good thoughts requests
Please continue to remember Chomper, lost in Pennsylvania.
And, if you will, add Jay and Laura to the list because of a serious illness in the family.

A week until the Derby
There are a couple colts I'm interested in, but I'm waiting until post positions are picked next week. Twenty
3 years old horses making a mad dash for the rail does not bode well for the colts on the inside. So many things can go so terribly wrong in the first couple seconds, I'm surprised there isn't a greater outcry to limit the field. Especially as none of this year's contenders seem to be particularly outstanding. So far, they've all been pretty equal. Perhaps it's time for Thoroughbred breeders to take a long look at what they produce... or do NOT produce... year after year.

Several Non-Puppy Things

To start... have you seen the reports of the loose puppy at La Guardia? Marna told me about it and I "asked." A Rhodesian Ridgeback pup got out of its crate while being loaded on a plane. Since animals are the last loaded, the plane was already full of people, including the pup's owners. It took 10 minutes... and the pup's human mom coming after it... to catch Byrdie. The reports all say she weighs 30 pounds but the photos show a much larger dog. Rhodies are NOT small dogs! Now, MY question... why was the gate to her crate not secured with plastic ties like they have to be when an animal is shipped? The pups WAS traveling with her owners, but she was going as excess baggage because of her size and that means the same cargo rules. Happily, she is safe and sound and no human was hurt in the process.

Moving blog
I am NOT a google fan. In fact, I'm the opposite. But until recently, I was not unhappy with the blog which is hosted by google. However, after switching... updating... to the new format, I am ready to pull my hair out. Sorry, but I do not think any of these so called "improvements" that google (and yahoo) are prone to add to anyone's internet experience. It takes MINUTES for the blog to load whenever I want to post something and adding photos has become a minor nightmare. So I'm researching other blog hosts. It will be a slow process because I may have to copy and paste all the previous posts... and I think there are more than 500 of them. If that proves too tedious, I might have to just abandon the old stuff, but we'll see. After all, what else do I have to do?

Well!

I had to run out to the store this afternoon so I locked up (crated or penned) all the dogs just to make sure there was no trouble with Em and the pups. (Sometimes, like children as soon as Mom's back is turned, the dogs will stick their tongues out or twitched their noses at other dogs when I'm not right there to call them on it.) I was gone just about a half hour. When I got home, Emy was out of her pen and running around the bedroom, which is gated to keep those in in and the ones out out. I could tell she needed to go outside because as soon as I opened the gate she made a beeline to the front door. BUT by the time I got to the door, she had already run back to the bedroom. She wanted back in with the pups. So we played that game a couple times before I wised up enough to open the door and leave it open. Duh! as I'm always saying, the trick is to be smarter than the dog! It took her just a minute or two to take care of her outside business, but by that time I had closed the door and gone to the bedroom to check on and rearrange the pups. That means I removed and replaced all the newspapers in the nest and the pen and put the pups on a clean blanket. Not that the other one was dirty... it's too early for them to make a mess... but Emy digs in it and pulls it from one side of the pool to the other (and then moves the pups to the side with no blanket.) I got a very dirty look from Mama when I opened the door and let her back in the house. Then she kind of stomped around the bedroom until I got there and opened the puppy pen for her. She practically jumped into the nest, sniffed everyone and then went to her food and water bowls for a few minutes.

She's really a great mom, always, and has enough experience to know what needs to be done from minute to minute, pup to pup. Unfortunately, I think she also has an active imagination and thinks of all the things that could go wrong when the babies are out of her sight and hearing for more than a minute or two.

Yesterday afternoon, temperatures outside back in the 60s and the house warming up nicely, I put all nine pups in the nest with Emy and they've been there ever since with hardly a peep. Forty-eight hours seems to be the magic time period for newborns to adjust to life outside the womb. They have already grown A LOT! Nine pups completely fill up the space between Em's front and rear legs when she's lying on her side... and usually there are a couple stacked two deep plus one under her chin and another under her tail! I'll get another photo or two in the next few days.

By the way, I put a couple of yesterday's pictures on the website. The lighting is different which shows a lot of color. However, to the naked eye, the first (darker) shots are closer to what the pups look like right now in person. But the new pictures show there are no real black pups in this litter.

Peace and Quiet

Thirty-six hours old! Emy with 5 of the girls. There is nothing like a litter of newborn pups that is sound asleep and stays that way for a couple hours!

What I've noticed about Emy... she is comfortable with me dividing the litter, leaving half with her and taking half away. Her internal clock lets her know when it's time to switch. She gets antsy, moves around a lot, disturbing the pups nestled against her which makes them cry which lets me know (or wakes me up) it is time for the ones with me to eat.

What I've noticed about the pups... they are perfectly comfortable with me dividing the litter. The ones with Emy nurse, get their bottoms cleaned, fall asleep and then repeat until I switch them. THEN as soon as I put them in the drawer, they crawl to the end closest to my bed and fall into a deep sleep before I even get the cover pulled over them. And they stay that way until I wake them up to make the exchange. The interesting thing is, they don't fall asleep where I put them, but always move to the other side of the dresser. The ones with their mom are always noisier than the ones with me.

Peri
What a difference a week makes! Peri LOOKS pregnant. Her ribs have sprung, she has a real belly, her breasts are enlarged and her nipples swollen. Last week, when I would pick her up, she felt empty. Not any more! And her attitude toward the other dogs is changing... Crockett (the Crested) has always been her best bud. She is suddenly not interested in romping with him 23 hours a day and when she is lying down, she wants him to LEAVE HER ALONE!

Her reservation list is closed.

Em Pup Pix

Five of the six girls

The sixth girl and the three boys

And nothing's changed... I still need a new camera! Same photos are going on the website, so you don't have to go there if you don't feel like it.

PUPPIES!

Emy spent yesterday evening presenting nine... yep, NINE... beautiful babies to the world. The first appeared at 5:50 PM and the last at 10. Three are boys and the others are, as luck would have it, not. (Yes, I know. GENERALLY there are 2-3 males per female, but not this time. Actually, it was almost even with Boon's first litter too, with the lead going to the boys by just one. Since the sire determines the sex, maybe Boon is going to have about fifty/fifty.) Two of the pups (one of each) appear to be black while the rest are "wheaten red." Which means they are dark mahogany color right now but WILL lighten up to some shade of blond. They're really quite pretty!

After a rather long night, mom and puppies are all doing well. Of course, last night was the coldest of the year; after a winter when we had only a couple nights below freezing, this spring has already seen lower temps! Didn't have snow at my level, but at slightly higher ones, they had 1-3 inches. So it was pretty noisy around here since I have the heat off and Emy just could not get herself curled around that many pups at one time. Early this morning, I finally... duh!... put half the litter on a hot water bottle in a dresser drawer while she got the rest of them tucked up nice and close to her belly. Peace reigns! We're rotating every 1-1/2 to 2 hours and everyone's happy. Em has figured out that she'll get the others back, in trade, and they are safe out of her sight. But she really gives the ones returning from the drawer the once over!


More than anything, puppies have to be warm. Which is reasonable since they're coming from an environment that is 100 degrees!

So, now that everyone knows the good news, I'm going to take a nap.
Photos later.

Nope

Nothing yet from Emy. If I haven't said so before, THIS is the part of puppies I dislike the most. Even more than wet newspapers 8 weeks from now!

Nothing New on Pups

Emy is being very lazy, but she is still eating small amounts of food every couple hours. I think I mentioned that girls generally stop eating 12-48 hours before labor, well, before noticible labor.

Email inquiry
I received an inquiry from a family in the "metro NYC" area and sent it on to a couple people in NY/NJ/PA. (Yes, even though I was stationed for a couple years at Ft Monmouth, I've forgot what is considered "metro NYC.") Anyway, anyone who feels like responding to the email, please contact the folks. If you live in that area and did not receive an email from me, fear not. I just pulled the addresses of a few people I'd heard from most recently. If you want to participate, let me know and I'll send you their contact information. THANKS!

Emy and Peri

Emerald first
Nothing new to report. She is still "with pup." Since she is eating (many small meals all day long,) she is not going to deliver any time real soon. The other dogs are getting as impatient as I am. They keep going over and looking in the pen, especially when Emy is out of it, as if searching for the babies. Then they walk away looking puzzled.

Peridot
Something new with her. She is actually, FINALLY, starting to look pregnant. She's developed a little belly which is visible when she's lying on her side and just looks thicker or more substantial around the middle when she is standing up. And that's all of today's news!

Update

Emy got more sleep last night than the night before. Maybe she was so uncomfortable because the pups are shifting around, getting into position for the birthing process.

AND Crockett got his rabies shot almost 24 hours ago and has not had a seizure. So I guess my vet was right when she said it was just coincidence his seizures started last year the same day he got his first rabies.

Good news all around!

A funny
Sent to me by Marcy who is getting one of the Peri/Sparky pups

Peri

Little MS Peri had her ultrasound and, drum roll, is pregnant.
Her reservation list is open.
So far, everyone who has been waiting for her list wants a female so I think by tomorrow, spots will be available for MALES only.

When I checked in at the vet, they ask what she needed an ultrasound for. Usually, if it is for pregnancy, it is apparent, if not obvious, to the experienced eye. Peri is still small and has no belly. I said it was for pregnancy but I didn't think she was. The girls all agreed with me. As did the tech who came up to get her. Nobody in the back, including the vet, thought she was pregnant. The ultrasound proved us all wrong. HAPPILY wrong. The report was "a FEW pups in there" as in QUITE a few. They are on the small side, so they are either going to BE small or she didn't get pregnant on either day she was bred. We'll see in a little over a month.

One scary thing happened when I was turning her over to the tech. I took her collar/lead off and the tech was putting theirs on when Peri pulled away from both of us and headed for the door. A family was coming in, dad and kids already inside, mom coming through the door. The tech and I both yelled and the dumb woman saw the dog coming toward her and backed up, holding the door open! Luckily, the tech was hot on Peri's tail and lassoed her. I've had several nightmares about it, especially after her being missing for two weeks last September. I am just not prepared to go through that agony again. Ever.

Emy and a Puppy Pix

No, not Emy's puppies. But she is so big and "pointed" I've already got her set up in the whelping pen in my bedroom. According to the calendar, she has about a week to go. Something I've noticed over the years... dogs don't ever look at calendars!

Ciscos Kids
Chase ("pony") and pal
Chase weighs 31 pounds at 5 months. As usual, the pups have done something I wasn't expecting... after their tremendous growth between 8 and 12 weeks, they slowed way down. It is going to be interesting to see how big they end up at maturity.

To those of you with Maggie/Cisco pups, I would appreciate hearing from you once they turn 6 months. I am really interested in how big they are. And if you've had any problems, especially if they are unresolved, or interesting behaviors, I'd like to know about those as well.

Kentucky Derby
The prep races leading up to the Derby on May 5th are over and once again the field is wide open. A has beaten B who ran all over C who then beat A by a head. The horse who won at 109-1 odds a couple weeks ago ran yesterday and came in last. At this point, I don't have a pick. I've checked out everyone's pedigree back 5 generations and they are all kissing cousins if not more closely related. And none of them stands out as a superstar. I would love to see a Triple Crown winner again, but doubt it will be this year.

An Emy/Boon Puppy Picture

Sheana
This little girl IS little... she's just 18 pounds! Once again, genetics proves it doesn't pay any attention to MY predictions! How simple it would all be if there was a formula that accurately gave the results of gene match up!

A Couple of Things

If you've been on the website, you probably noticed I switched to a Spring theme. And once I did that, I thought it was time to update the blog's look as well. I think I'm done now.

Peri
I am REALLY uncertain about her pregnancy or lack thereof. She doesn't have the normal little baby bump that comes in the 3-4 week stage and her ribs haven't sprung at all. She does have a couple other signs... one of which is affectionate licking of my hands, neck, feet, whatever she's closest to that isn't covered by cloth. I really dislike being licked so I discourage it in all my dogs. Right now, she doesn't seem to care about MY rules. This is going to be a long week!

More Pictures

From Maggie and Cisco

John and Joel's Lula

Letters, I Get Letters!

My normal... as in "no puppies available"... email usually amounts to about a half dozen a day, give or take depending on the day of the week. When I have unspoken for puppies or a litter on the way, that doubles or triples or quadruples. Usually, if I don't hear back from an inquirer within a week to 10 days, I delete the emails from/to. Over the last 2 months, for some reason, I went back and forth several times with a number of different people and then they seemed to move to the moon. I figured they had found something else and deleted all that correspondence. And THEN, weeks later, they came back. Now here's the thing, as long as my "trash file" hasn't gotten too large, those deleted emails will still be there, BUT it means looking through hundreds of missives to locate them. Which does not put me in the best of moods! I know most people don't think there is a lot of work involved with breeding and selling puppies. Heck, every weekend, you can pick them up for free outside Walmart. And you can find any number of breeders on the internet who don't put a lot of time into answering questions, screening prospective homes, making as sure as possible that things will work out well for everyone involved. I've never been one of those breeders. But today I decided enough was enough... I PERAMNENTLY deleted over 300 emails from my inbox AND the trash file. It's gone. Bye bye. Soooo, anybody who wrote more than a week ago is gone. Bye-bye. Starting over from the beginning is still an option. I won't remember who inquired before anyway!

Talk about long odds
One of this weekend's Derby prep races, the Louisiana Derby, had an unexpected winner. Hero of Order went off at 109-1. That means he paid over $200 for a $2 bet. Not bad for an afternoon at the track! Oh, he is not nominated for the Kentucky Derby and his people say they're not interested.

Pictures, Day 3

First, a complaint. How come no one let me know I had posted the same photo two days in a row? Considering my age, you'd think people would be watching out for me!

So, here's the picture that was supposed to be posted yesterday...
Tucker and SeamusTucker (the blond) is from Cotton and Brogue
while Seamus is from Emy and Boon

From Maggie and Cisco
Millie and her pal, Porter
Millie is still the smallest in that litter, around 25 pounds.

A heads up
In less than a week, two different people have let me know their dogs are being treated for giardia... one on the East Coast and one out West. Considering the extremely warm winter we've just had, environmental viruses and bacteria are going to be bad this year, as are fleas and ticks. This means we're going to have to be more vigilant. If your dog shows any signs of illness or distress for more than a day, a trip to the vet is called for. Better safe than sorry.

Emy and Peri updates
Em is getting really big... with almost 3 weeks to go. Poor girl!
Peri is showing some minor pregnancy signs... or maybe she's just in one of those moods girls go through. We'll know in 2 weeks.

Pictures, day 2

Another from Emy and Boon's first litter Scout


And from Maggie and CiscoAugie (black) and Reilly

I think that brings me up to date, at least it's all I can download!