Delivery day!

Just had to share a few pictures of delivery day! This one worked out great as all three families were able to meet me and pick up their pups on the same day.

I always enjoy meeting the families in person and presenting them with their long awaited new furry, family members. Some have waited a long time and some not so long, but all are excited and happy to receive their new baby. Some come from quite a distance and some are local. Of these three families one lives locally, one came from the coast and the other drove from another state to meet me that day!

First little Missy went home. She is going to live with another Pinewood pup, who is also her half brother! Her mom is expecting a baby (human) and her dad had to work so her new "grandparents" were nice enough to drive over and pick her up! Here is a quick note from her new mom; "Molly (her new name) is absolutely precious and we are so happy! Thank you! My parents now want a little cavalier puppy after picking her up. It's hard not to fall in love with them. :)"

Right after little Missy (Molly) left, Kris' mom drove up. She had been wanting a tri-color male Cavalier for a long time and after little Kris (now Cooper) was born the timing was just right! He has two big "siblings" at home, another Cavalier and an older Lab. Hopefully, he won't torment them too much!
She wrote to let me know they got home ok:

"We made it home OK.

Cooper is quite the pup, happy and wiggly and very vocal.

He is happy to be out of the car!

He seems to like his iris pen.

Ruby(Cavalier) has been steering clear cause he pulls her ears.

Hershey (lab) doesn’t know what to think yet."

Then I got another update this morning: "

"Little stinker indeed! He is Baxter(her old dog that just passed) reincarnated. Cooper has a new nickname, “charlie dickens”

He got that one by using his paw to flip over his food bowl and scatter kibble everywhere.....LOL

Hershey likes when he does that!

He finally started eating today, drinking more water.

He ended up sleeping with the pack on the bed last nite, and did really well, and even had his head on Hershey’s back.

I just love him to death.

Thank you so much!"

 

Not to long after Kris (Cooper) left, it was time for Nicholas to be picked up. Nicholas' family as been waiting for months for him! The family has two teenagers that have been wanting a dog for a long time. They decided that the time had finally had come. They were so excited to pick him up! Can't you just see it on her face?! :) And I love this picture of Nick with his little head tilted!

Wishing our Pinewood pups long, happy lives with their new families!

Romeo update..

As some of you might have read earlier in the week, little Romeo got a big, bad boo-boo. We're not sure how it happened. I'm wondering now if it wasn't during the birth and clean-up time. But we'll never know for sure. Anyways, he had a chunk of flesh and pad missing from the bottom of his front foot. I first tried to medicate and bandage it, but Piper promptly took it off. So I had just been using a wound spray on it several times a day. It would look better, than not. Finally, yesterday I decided to have the vet take a look at it. (Bad mom, should have taken him in sooner!)

She said it did look infected :( and gave him an itty-bitty antibiotic shot. Then said she wanted to splint it to keep it immobile. Since it was on a joint, every time he would bend the foot it would just make it worse. I had my doubts that Piper would leave it only (so far, so good though).

So here he is with his itty-bitty splint.

Poor little tyke. He's having a hard time pushing in between his bigger, stronger littermates to nurse with that thing on, so I'm playing mom and supplementing him.

Back with the pack.

Hoping and praying little Romeo heals up ok and can catch up with everyone else!

Sneak peek!

You always wonder with a maiden female (one that's never had pups before) how she will do. Will the delivery be easy or difficult? Will she know what to do during delivery? Will she bond with the puppies or wonder who the little aliens are that just came forth from her body? Will she have enough milk? Will she be nervous or will she cuddle and clean her babies and let them nurse? All these thoughts can go through your mind while waiting for that first expected litter.

And I am so pleased to share how well Fancy is doing with her first litter. She is a  calm, sweet, loving dog to begin with so I'm sure that helps. Her delivery went really well; straight forward, no complications or issues. Delivering seven living, breathing little fur balls in a little over four hours. She cleaned and did everything necessary. I only jumped in a couple times to clamp a cord that was bleeding or cut one that needed to be done sooner than she was getting it done.

The puppies came out strong and vigorous and looking for food! That's what I like to see.

Now they have all settled in, nursing and sleeping as newborns do.

So here's a sneak peek for you all. Seven beautiful Cavapoos, gorgeous colors, boys and girls!

 

It's 2:38 am

It’s 2:38 am. I should be sleeping. I thought tonight I’d get some sleep. Piper’s pups are four days old and doing well. 

I’m still sleeping on the couch to keep an eye on things. Occasionally someone will get stuck behind her or partway under her and cry and cry. So I stay close to rescue pups when needed.

I crashed on the couch about 10:45 tonight (technically last night). It didn’t take long for me to be asleep. Puppy noises woke me up.

Fancy had been a bit restless tonight, but I really didn’t think she’d do anything until tomorrow night. Now how I could tell in my sleepy state that the noises were coming from Fancy’s crate across the room instead of Piper’s crate next to the couch, I’ll never know; “motherly” instincts maybe. ;)

And so the night started. And I wait, because I don’t think she’s done.

Let me just say how pleased I am with Fancy. Granted she did grow to be a bigger Poodle than I had planned. But she has such a wonderful disposition. She’s just a sweet dog! And now to see how well she’s doing as a first time mother, I am thrilled! Her deliveries so far have gone very smoothly. She’s cleaning and taking care of the pups. They all seem very strong and vigorous and it wasn’t long before they were all lined up at the milk counter filling their tummies.

I know I’m being very vague here, giving no details as to how many or what we’ve gotten so far. The first few days after birth can be critical. Occasionally we’ll lose a pup. So it’s easier to wait a few days and make sure everyone is doing well, gaining weight and growing before we share details. Let me just share that we do have both boys and girls and some fabulous colors. I am happy, and tired.

Think maybe I’ll catch a few winks while I wait for more action. Night all! Or should I say, good morning.

The season of mud

Between winter and spring is the season of mud.
When the snow starts to melt and the temperature rises things get a bit sloppy around here. Of course that's when everyone wants to be outside after being indoors so much during the winter months.

Today I decide to go for a walk. The driveway no longer has snow, the icy patches have melted, but there is mud. Not to bad for a walk, unless of course you are a ten inch tall Poodle with long hair.

My family doesn't like when I trim Pooh short like this and he has the "prissy" Poodle look.

It's not my favorite look either, although it is nice when he's all clean and groomed. I think we all prefer the happy, shaggy, farm-dog look. Like this...

or this...

Ok, this might be a bit extreme. He's almost at this stage now.

He just got a bath. I wouldn't let him back in the house until he did. Imagine this, but with dark brown, muddy legs and belly. Sorry, you'll have to imagine as I failed to get a picture of the mess.

My son thought he looked a bit like Sid from Ice Age with his hair flat against his head. Guess you had to see it in person.
Well, at least he's clean. Next we'll be working on the "prissy" Poodle look again, because the season of mud is here. And I am glad!

Wonders never cease!

I had prepared everything in readiness for Piper's upcoming litter. The crate was ready with a layer of newspaper. My whelping kit was stocked and handy. And my thermometer told me it would be soon. Wednesday was my "town day", but I decided to postpone that when I saw what Piper's temperature had dropped to. (For those unaware, a dog's normal temperature is usually around 101.5. About a week before whelping (delivery) it will drop to around 100 degrees. Then 12-24 hours before the big event it will drop between 98-99 degrees.) Just before leaving for town her temp had registered 98.4 and now she was "nesting" in her crate. Town could wait.

Murpy's Law of course kicks into affect now. Had I gone to town she would have had the pups while I was gone. (I know dogs have been having puppies on their own for thousands of years, but I'm the type of person that likes to be there to make sure everything is going as it should.) But since I stayed home she didn't do anything all day. Of course, I knew what that meant, I'd be up all night!

My normal routine is to park the whelping crate between the couch and the wood stove. Momma dog goes in the crate for the night and I "sleep" on the couch so I'm close by when things start happening. "Sleep" is relative when you're talking about being next to a dog that's panting, scratching, digging and shredding papers in her crate of course.

I had somehow dozed off when in my semi-sleep stage I heard a "kitten" meowing. When my brain translated that to "puppy crying", I was suddenly awake! It was 1:15am when little "Romeo" made his appearance.

 Only about 45 minutes passed when Juliet showed up.

Now if they would all pop out in that time frame I'd be happy. But it was not to be. I dozed off and on, checking and rechecking Piper's progress, or should I say, lack of progress. I was getting a bit concerned when a couple hours passed and no puppy appeared. (She wasn't very big for this litter and I had guessed there were only three pups. Feeling her gut confirmed there was another one still in there.) I did my usual thing, pray that something would happen soon and give her an herbal supplement that is suppose to help with contractions.)

Finally around 5:15 am, little Cupid was born!

I was happy and relieved that all three puppies were finally here. And pleased with the beautiful colors. I was surprised though that we hadn't gotten any black pups. Piper's last litter consisted of a ruby, a blenheim, two tris and two black and tans. Oh well, that's what's fun about this "business", the element of surprise.

I rechecked Piper and she seemed done. So I let her settle in with her pups while I caught a bit more sleep before it was time for me to start my day. 

Soon enough my day began. After giving Piper a new bed, making sure the pups were all nursing, and making her the customary "post delivery" meal of a warm scrambled egg, I headed out to do my regular chores and get ready for my trip to town later.

I left for town later that morning, ran my errands and headed home in time to pick up my youngest son from school at 3pm. When we arrived home, I opened Piper's crate to let her out for a potty break and spotted something black! What?! There was another puppy! He was already pretty dry, so he had to have arrived quite some time before. Voila' Casanova!

So we had our black puppy after all.

Six o'clock rolled around and it was time for Piper to have a break and me to change her bedding. She came out, I looked in and; I know math is not my strong point but I do know the difference between four and five. You guessed it, there was another little body in the crate!

Hello little Valentine!

All I can figure is Valentine was probably in there when I spotted Casanova, but since Piper was in the crate and there were already two ruby pups, I must have missed her. There's just no way a dog could go that long in between delivering puppies and have them come out alive.

Don't you just love Valentine's Day surprises? Wonders never cease!

Why taking puppy pictures is not easy (but is rewarding)

Fact #1~Puppies are cute, soft, sweet and adorable.

Fact #2~Puppies rarely sit still for pictures.

I guess my main "complaint" about taking puppy pictures is not having a camera fast enough to catch them!
Let me present some evidence why taking puppy pictures is not easy.

But when you get one of these....."Ahhhhh" pictures it's all worth it!