Two ALMOST Down

Emy and Boon's first two pups to leave will be with their families early tomorrow. The male, Reindeer, and female, Dino, went to the vet yesterday and the groomer today. To make a long story short, car sickness is pretty common in puppies! Dino got sick just before we got home yesterday and again when we went out this morning and Reindeer got sick as we were pulling up the drive to the house today. Towels and newspaper are essential supplies for all those drives home!
Reindeer went from 9-1/2 to 12.13 pounds in 14 days and Dino from 8-1/2 to 11.
Esther went from 5 pounds to 7, so she is growing at the same rate as her cousins.

In an effort to keep Reindeer and Dino looking like they did when I picked them up from the groomer, I put them in Esther's pen with her. Now, she usually goes in with The Nine in THEIR area and was a little surprised when they came calling. But she adjusted quickly and had a great time being the hostess. I've decided since Esther and Peri are still SO attached, that each of the pups will come to stay with E once it's been to the groomer and Peri is NOT going to be allowed in the pen with them. She can stay in the bedroom, but that's it. Esther is 9 weeks old and still nursing! Next week, after Gray Unicorn goes home, I'll put Esther permanently in with The Nine which will be The Four by then. And Peri can like it or lump it. If she chooses the latter, she'll go board at the vet's for 5-7 days to give her some time to think about it.

Unlike almost all of my previous pups, The Nine have not been particularly interested in adult food. They'll eat it, but much prefer the puppy kibble. On the other hand, Esther just picks at the puppy kibble. She's eating enough to not be losing any ground... Peri's milk, if there IS any  milk, is not much nourishment at all. But yesterday, when E was in with The Nine, there was some Pedigree in their bowls. You would have thought she had found manna from heaven. She consumed quite a lot of it... well, what is quite a lot for a pup her size and age... so I am going to offer her a bowlful every day. Youngsters, regardless of species, are all alike!

I did say "kiss of death"
Di had a really strange reaction both times she was bred with Boon (Thursday and Sunday) and has the vets stymied. We have two possible causes, one of them will stop her breeding career right now and the other is only slightly better. Both are rather "interesting," in the vets' opinions. For me, it's a "what next?" situation. IF she is pregnant... and I'll do an ultrasound at 4-5 weeks... we'll have to decide midterm what our course of action will be. My first concern is ALWAYS my girls. Di is feeling and acting great. She is not sick or in any discomfort and is driving ALL the guys nuts because she is still in standing heat. Stay tuned!

Keogh
is continuing on the eye ointment for another week although Jane feels HER problem was just a minor infection. We want to be absolutely sure it is nothing more. Needless to say, I'm in a much better frame of mind about her situation.

When It Rains

Had a sick dog yesterday. My 9 year old Goldendoodle, Keogh. Over the weekend, she started walking into things and by Sunday night, she was unwilling to move around on her own. I cleaned her eyes and examined them but couldn't see anything... she has one eye with a lot of scaring from dry eye, but neither was matted or mucousy. Could NOT get into my vet Monday... couldn't even get through on the phone until just before noon. The next appointment was for the 17th. So yesterday morning, once I got everyone situated, I took Keogh over as a "walk-in." Usually that means you sit and wait for a couple hours, longer if you want to see a specific vet. But, to my surprise, the parking lot was practically empty which stopped being a surprise when I walked in the door to a very dark waiting room. Our early morning severe storms had left them without power. They vets were taking care of whatever they could in just natural daylight, with no electrical equipment. So we got in right away. Jane couldn't see much wrong with Ke's eyes except for a slight infection in the eye itself. Usually she's really upbeat and just gives me a general list of possible bad to worse scenarios. But yesterday she was really not encouraging. She ruled out lepto because I put the dogs back on the vaccine a couple years ago. Her real concern was a fungus we have IN the ground in this area which is deadly and hard to diagnose. Keogh is a digger... she goes after the groundhogs and moles with a vengeance. A friend of mine lost a dog to this fungus a few years ago and it was a long, painful process before they even figured out what was wrong with him and put him down. I've been depressed ever since hearing one of the symptoms is eye infections. So, we're treating the eyes for the infection and Keogh is back to going outside without bumping into the door, but it's a waiting game to see if the treatments produce a long lasting effect or just help the symptoms.

So now, Keogh is being treated with 3 different meds...one three times a day and the other two, twice a day. Add that to what I'm doing with the pups and I feel like I'm Nurse Betty!

Speaking of rain

In less than 24 hours we made up most of our nearly 5 inch shortfall for the year. And it has continued to rain off and on all yesterday and today. Much of it came down in buckets. Luckily for me, I'm part way up the hill which is part way up another hill so I don't worry about flash flooding. Most of my immediate area is hills on hills and the drainage always (knock on wood!) seems to spread out before reaching bottom. I've never heard of anyone around here having a flood problem. HOWEVER! My car is one of those with automatic locks once the transmission is in drive and the wheels start rolling. I don't know how fast you have to be moving before the doors lock... no more than a couple miles at most. And yet, my road is so bad... and I'm not just whistling Dixie here... I am down my drive and off the hill, almost to the blacktop before the locks click. What's that? ONE mile an hour? Two? And even then, I'm still banging the undercarriage. Besides the enormous ruts, there are bricks and half bricks scattered all over along with small chunks of old pavement. At one time, the road was brick all the way to the top and at another it was paved. The hill is so steep, none of that has lasted and it has all washed down. It gets covered over with dirt and gravel over time, until heavy downpours wash it away and expose the rest. The road hasn't been graded in a while... my "neighbor" at the top of the hill who has a tractor and used to grade it occasionally has either moved or... I don't know what. It is so bad right now the teenagers who live above me have slowed to what THEY consider a crawl!

The good thing about the rain, besides ending the drought (at least temporarily,) is temps are down to normal... mid 80s... at least until the weekend. I can function again!

Some Updates

The ultimate backseat driver!


These Whoodles think they can do anything! Coco's mom writes:
Hi Sherry! Hope all is well with you. Wanted to give you an
update on coco. She is doing great and she is a very loved part
of the family!! She is so stinkin' cute and so smart. Anyone who
meets her can't believe how calm she is, and if someone holds her
they always say she hugs you like a human baby. It's true! I
think we're creating a whoodle buzz here and I hope it brings you
some future business. They go crazy for her at the vet and i know
she gets extra special attention. I talked my way into getting a
real fence and it went up Friday. Coco loves the running and the
freedom!! Needless to say, she slept very well last night and I
expect the same tonight. She's actually become a very good
nighttime sleeper and is back downstairs in the crate without a
peep at night. She whimpered the first few times in the car and
now enjoys going bye bye and hangs over the seat because she has
to be part of the action. She discovered her bark about 6 weeks ago
and loves to be the 20 pound watchdog!! I think she is very happy
here and she seems attached to us. She is simply the best dog and
we feel so lucky that she is so loving and so smart!!! Thank you!!!!

Coco is from Cotton and Brogue and lives in NC.

Pregnancies
First, in the Thoroughbred world... just hear that Queen Z (Zenyatta) has absorbed the foal, which is sad. I've thought about that baby quite a lot... was hoping for a filly (where everyone else probably wanted a colt.) Hope the second pregnancy goes better. And I still would like to see a gitl!

Cotton... 3 weeks tomorrow, if she took. A few little positive signs, but way too early for any certainty.

Same with Keogh, who may be 4 weeks along as of yesterday. She is REALLY lazy, but she's a pretty laidback gal anyway.

We'll just have to wait and see.

Notes

Some of you may have noticed I've changed the email address above from my regular address BACK to the yahoo one. With all my complaining about yahoo, I failed to give them credit for the area in which they excel... the one of preventing or at least, extremely limiting, spam. Yahoo seems to do it automatically but fastmail (like most others) needs to be set up for it and I'm not very good at following those instructions. One week with my regular address and my inbox was... let's say busy. With new pups coming, I need all the room I can get for REAL email, so back to yahoo for everything else!

Keogh
The results from Keogh's last progesterone test are... exactly the same as the previous week! She's still at 1.4. We don't have any real idea what is going on with her. Until yesterday, the guys were all still VERY interested even though she was in her 3rd week. But yesterday, Cotton replaced her in everyone's affections. It is possible Keogh's thyroid is not functioning properly and that is a very easy and CHEAP fix. But, for some reason, I'm not interested in pursuing it. Guess my heart and soul have been taken over by whoodle-mania and there is no real desire to change.
So I'll talk with Bill again on Monday and decide then what to do about Ke... however, the miniature Goldendoodles, followed by Double Doodles are definitely a passing fancy. The only real problem is what to do about Ost who I bought SPECIFICALLY as a stud for Keogh. I've been thinking about it and will most likely commit to finding him a great home. He is a terrific puppy, much more mature in many ways than any 5 months old pup I've been around, so easy to live with! It is really hard to let him go.

Good News Bad News One More Time

Let's start with the bad and that is Keogh and the Mini G'doodles AND the Doubles. We've done 3 progesterone tests on her and the level is going down. Now, this is, to say the least, unusual because a bitch's p-level rises throughout her heat cycle and the 2 months afterwards whether she is bred or not. (That is why "skipping" a bitch... not breeding her every heat... is of no benefit to her.) So, Keogh's level should NOT be less now that it was earlier in her cycle... if it were staying the same, okay, we'd just say she's not moving through the cycle very quickly or even normally, but diminishing is a bad thing. She had a very strange heat cycle the last time as well. So unless things have changed dramatically with the next p-test, scheduled for Monday/results on Tuesday, there is NOT going to be a litter of Goldendoodles and most likely I'll decide to spay her which means there won't be any DoodleDoodles either. The whole reason I was interested in the Doubles is Keogh... she is SUCH a great dog! But maybe that is supposed to be enough.

Now the good news
Cotton is in heat! Finally, after almost one year to the day! Right now, Brogue is too interested in her roommate... Keogh... to have noticed (although the other boys have) but in a week or so, he'll be back in the Whoodle program!

Emy and Cotton pups just a few weeks apart... fingers crossed, knock on wood and if the creek don't rise... good thing I laid in a big supply of microchips!

More Pictures

Lulu who lives in DUMBO New York... no lie! I love the name of that NYC neighborhood! Lulu is a Goldendoodle.

Patch who lives in the Atlanta area, sporting his nice (?) new trim. Mom (and grandma) not totally thrilled. Patch is a Whoodle.

Actually, the two are related... Shadow is Lulu's grandfather and Patch's dad... and the parti-coloring does NOT come from him.

Good News/Bad News

For me, anyway. Because of the breeding I want to do this Fall with my Goldendoodle, Keogh (Lulu's mom,) I took Brogue to the vet to see if he could be "collected" for artificial insemination. The answer was a resounding "NO! and get away from me with that cup!" That's the bad news and pretty much terminates my hope of ever having a Who-Doo litter. The next option for Keogh is my miniature Poodle Sparky. So HE went to the vet yesterday for the same procedure. And he performed like a champ. That's the good news. BUT it raises the question of whether or not I truly want to put all the money it would take to produce a mini Goldendoodle litter (probably over a thousand dollars with progesterone testing and the surgical implantation) when I know a number of breeders who have beautiful, healthy Goldendoodle pups begging for homes. Needless to say, I'm still batting this one around. I have opened a waiting list for G'dood pups with the idea that if I get enough homes lined up I'll do the breeding. And if not, I'll breed Emy and Shadow again when she comes in next month rather than waiting for her next cycle. Feel free to weigh in on this. Opinions always welcome!