Puppies are growing!

Yes, the puppies are gaining an ounce a day. That gets them big pretty quick. Yesterday 5 of them had their eyes open. They were a little bit sloth-like for awhile, but that has changed. As best they can, they are running around the whelping box. They can get their feet underneath themselves but they can't straighten out their legs. However they manage, they are getting good at speeding to mom for lunch. I know Gracie is not going to clean them up for much longer. I don't think they can see much yet, and it appears they can't hear yet, either. It won't be long though and they already make plenty of noise.

Our new stud

Is he cute or what? He should be here in a couple of weeks. He's coming from Colorado from Melissa Scheetz. He's tiny. He weighed 1.5 lbs at 5 weeks. My pups, who are two weeks old today - well, three of them are already about a pound and a half. So this pup will have playmates! They will be just as cute, but they will grow much larger than this cutie pie. I haven't chosen a name for him yet. Any suggestions?

Gracie is being a terrific mom

Yes, Gracie is definitely a very caring and smart mother. She has been staying in the whelping area with her puppies almost all the time. No need (yet anyway) to worry about her abandoning her puppies. I'm very concerned about eclampsia. She had it last year and almost died. We caught it later than I would have liked to. This year I started out giving her calcium right away. However, she had diarrhea and I thought the calcium probably wasn't helping any, so I stopped giving it to her. Instead, I've been giving her all the raw meat and bones she wants. She loves chicken necks and lamb steak and riblets. Maybe I should start giving her calcium again. The second week seems to be the time when eclampsia usually hits. So far she's frisky and strong. Her babies are growing like weeds. Truly. The largest (Purple) is now one pound. Already!! Other than changing the bedding and weighing the puppies, there is nothing much for me to do except to keep Gracie happy. She's actually an amazing mother. One day Gracie was coming through the house to go outside and Punky met her half way. Gracie broadsided her so she couldn't get any closer to the pups. Quite a move by Gracie to stop a dog who is totally fixated on her babies on the computer monitor.

Kiska the Bolonka

I keep forgetting to mention my little girl Kiska. She will be having puppies next year if all goes well. She's full of the devil and she's smart. Which doesn't make a bad combination. Being smart, she isi easy to train. Oh that I had time to do more of that! I'm wondering if I could show her. She walks good on a leash but I don't know how she would do with people coming up and looking at her teeth. Plus, she collapses on the table if she doesn't want to stand up. I don't know. Maybe that could be overcome. On the other hand, maybe I should try that with somebody who will stand up for awhile.

Yes, they are here. On day 63.

Gracie and her babies proved me wrong. I kept saying NO WAY will she go that long. Small dogs don't, and she didn't last time. I kept thinking that those babies were growing by the minute and I just hoped they didn't get too big for her to be able to handle it by herself. Please.

On July 16th at 3:20 a.m. Gracie had her first pup (Red) in a brand new plush dog bed on the floor of our bedroom. I had stayed up until 1:30 waiting. I knew she would be starting labour any minute. But finally I thought I'd better get some sleep in case she had them in the morning. Wouldn't you know. Her next 5 puppies were born in the whelping box. Again, 4 boys and 2 girls. No problems. However, she had some big pups. I suspected she would, but it's another thing to see these guys. The first pup was 5 oz, which is what I would consider a good size. That's just because in my limited experience 6 oz has been the biggest pup we've had, including Gracie's litter from last summer. Here's their weights at birth and today, in ounces:

• Red 5.2/8.4
• Orange 7.3/6.6 - she dropped to 6.3 so at least she's showing a bit of an increase
• Yellow 6.9/8.9
• Blue 5.1/6.3 - that's what she was yesterday. Gotta watch these girls (Orange is a girl too)
• Green 6.8/8.3
• Purple 9.3/10.2

I think the boys are hogging the nipples. I worked at getting Blue in on the action yesterday and she gained. I guess I'd better keep doing that for her and for Orange as well. They don't have to be hogs, just given an opportunity to have what they need.

Of course Punky is now whining in the direction of the house where Gracie is, and she's getting absolutely annoying about wanting to see the puppies on my computer screen. I finally even put a bed on my desk but she won't stay in it. She wants to go back and forth from one screen to the other. This is how kids get spoiled. Give them attention for something 'cute', not thinking that some day that 'cute' behaviour is not going to be so 'cute' anymore. In fact, it's annoying!!

Gracie in waiting

Gracie is in waiting. Yep, all she does is wait. She waits in the whelping box, she waits under the chair in the kitchen, and she waits on the bathroom floor when it gets too hot. She seems to know what the whelping box is for and chooses to go in there now. Her belly is HUGE. The picture shows her from the top and that's pretty big. She looks even more huge in the other direction. Friday is Day 63, which is the average time for canine babies to go from insemination to birth. Smaller dogs often do not go that long. Gracie didn't go that long with her first litter. Her breathing is affected. Her mobility is affected. Should that be effected? I was only trained to be an English teacher but I never could remember which was which except maybe for a few days before a test.

My granddaughter Remi came over for two days to wait for puppies. Now her social life calls so she's gone forever, or at least for awhile. I told her to bring a friend next time. More fun going to the beach and walking through the forest when you have a friend with you. Oh, maybe except when you're a mom and are seeking solitude. You get that in these woods. But you can't rely on that too much because in addition to the deer and racoons and chipmunks, squirrels and such, there is at least one bear. He was sighted recently. Before that he visited my son's place. At night and behind the fence. He thought it was a bear and I told him I didn't think there were any bears around here. I hadn't heard of any. A couple of days later the local paper came around and guess what - there was a report of a bear sighting right in our neighbourhood. Brad's place backs on to the forest, so my guess is he really did hear the bear at his place. Better not let the little white dogs out at night!

At any rate, we are all waiting for the pups. I think Gracie and Punky are the only dogs who know what's happening. Punky is totally convinced. She is still interested in the dog video and dog pictures. However, now she will watch anything. Videos, pictures. Let's face it - she will watch anything that moves. She will follow my cursor. Right now she is up at the monitors and staring at the baby bolognese in the picture on one screen while she turns and noses this message as I type it. I've decided just to give it up and put a dog bed on my desk. Right in front of the monitors. Watching the still pictures - no movement necessary, turns out. Beats listening to all that whining.

Punky watches her favourite video

OK. So Punky not only begs to see her video, she wants to watch just about anything now. I was going to say she wanted to see anything that moves, but that is not entirely accurate. She watches video games, still pictures of dogs, now still pictures of some other things, and she really likes the background on my second monitor. That background is a full screen picture of two of Gracie's pups from last summer and 2 of Zahra's pups. She goes up to that one and puts her nose on it. Pictures above are pictures of Punky watching her favourite video. I tried to upload the video here but it was too big to load. Maybe it will load today with fewer people because lots of people when home for the weekend. Cottage country here, although it's getting less and less that way. Nope, the video is just too big. Won't load.

NOW I remember

Yes, how could I forget? Punky goes crazy when pups are around. Once I thought maybe she just needed to actually see the pups in the flesh. That drove her even more crazy. I very cautiously started to show her a puppy. Let's just say that it's not a good idea to let her in reaching distance of a puppy. She will be totally fixated on the puppies. She will stand outside the door, if she can get to it, and whine. She will whine anywhere else in the house or the yard, too.

What's interesting to me is how I came to remember how Punky is when there puppies in the house. For one thing, she discovered the whelping box where Gracie has started eating her breakfast. She walked the perimeter, or as much of it as she could, and indicated she knew exactly what that is all about. The second thing is that when I was showing someone a video of a different litter of pups - they were probably three months old so there was lots of movement - and Punky started whining and just about ripped the skin off my leg trying to get to the monitor. That was bad enough. Now what she does is beg (by whining) to see the video over and over again. I didn't know what she wanted at first. When I picked her up and she stared at the screen I did get the idea. I'd show you some pictures but I can't figure out how to get them in the body of the text instead of at the top. Next time.

Nesting instinct

Gracie - well, I just hope she makes it to the weekend. Of course she looks like she's going to have those puppies at any minute, but I think I've thought that with every pregnant bitch. So she'll probably make it to next week. Guess who has the nesting instinct thoug. ME!! I really wanted to have a few days of quiet relaxation (right!) before the puppies come. I don't want to have to talk to people about the renovation, I don't want to have to decide about an ad for Todays Parent or Dogs in Canada. But wouldn't you know their deadlines are up and they have given me an extension to get copy to them and my new stud (Bolonka) has not arrived. He was supposed to be here last week. I wanted to get his picture in the DIC ad because it's on the shelves for a year and we will have Bolonka puppies next year. Also, I wanted him as settled as possible before the puppies come and there is hardly any time left now. Oh well. We just take life as it comes. I don't mean to say we are passive. We are actully pretty proactive people. It's just a saying that seemed to fit.

Gracie is hungry all the time now but she doesn't always eat. Maybe it's the heat. It's pretty draining. Seems to me we had some days like this last time she had puppies. Whew! Gracie is getting bigger by the day and doesn't want to do much. Just grow those puppies good! Last time Gracie nearly died from eclampsia, too, as did Zahra. So this time I'm on the watch and Gracie will have Calcium in the first food she eats after she whelps. That will continue clear through the nursing time, too. Also last time, she weaned her pups early. They nursed from Zahra then. But there's no wetnurse here this time!

Today I need to take three dogs to be CERF'd. It's a pretty long drive considering it's in the same city as we are. That's kind of crazy. So again today I will not be grooming dogs. Gracie should be first - she just needs the job finished. I did mot of the grooming on her last week. Already then she wasn't able to stand on three feet, so getting the foot pads and nails was a bit of a problem. She'll probably be even more limited now.

I'm getting excited about the puppies. We're expecting six. I want to know if we are right. That's what she had last time. Plus, she had 4 boys last time. This time we also want more girls!

Preparations for summer litter starts

We are more on schedule than ever before! You'd think we'd learn after not being satisfied with how we handled the last three whelpings. I mean the mother and pups were fine, but the whelping areas - well, let's just say we've learned a lot and we're hoping things go even more smoothly this summer. So we now have a box painted in baby pastels. We will be putting an Xpen around that, or across part of the room, whatever works. It's in the room we call the meditation room, or the second bedroom, or the puppy room - seems to depend on what activity is happening in there. Today it started to be the puppy room. The box is ready for Gracie to get used to. She's not real interested in staying in it for very long right now, but she will get used to it.

Gracie is certainly feeling her hormones! She is begging for attention and anytime you pet her she lays down and shifts a bit so you can rub her belly, which is considerably larger than normal. Her 'due' date is July 16 but I'm predicting July 13. I have an appointment with my doctor that day that I'd like to keep. He's going on holiday the next day, so it woulld be nice to be able to go to the appointment since I'm waiting for results of some tests and I'm sort of interested in hearing what he has to say. So if Gracie doesn't have her pups before then do I leave and chance her going into labour while I'm gone? Or what if she does have her puppies by then? Do I leave when they're just a few hours old? I knew I didn't want that appointment. But it was the only one available before the doctor leaves for awhile. You know I'm probably going to cancel that appointment. Maybe I can just ask that he call me and give me test results. I don't really care about anything else. I don't have time to care about anything else.

Here's Gracie with her puppies last year:

Hang on. I can't find the photo. . . . . oh, got it. I have so many distractions here it's hard to find time to write.