Eat, Pray, Love

Sleep and eat. Eat and sleep. That is the responsibility of a 4 day old puppy. They continue to thrive, having gained at least 5 ounces each, a couple as much as 8 ounces, and getting rolly polly as evidenced below. Leeloo has been diligent about their care and is not shy about letting me know when something isn't right. If a puppy is too far away I get the whine, if she's thirsty I get the whine, if she's hungry I get the whine, if they are not nursing when she thinks they should I get the whine. She is pretty clear about her needs and it's been a relatively easy job for me to ensure everyone's wishes are fulfilled.

Ever seen puppy toes up close? These are Miss Purple's toes - aren't they kissably pink and adorable? Miss P is already being called Coraline which is a bad habit for me since I don't intend to keep her unless, from a breeder's perspective, she's 'good enough'. However even if I don't keep her she will be registered as Coraline so I suppose it's not such a bad habit.

How about a puppy nose? Miss Purple again. She was in the most convenient position for this type of photo. Her pigment is starting to come in; they are born with pink toes and noses and the pigment gradually darkens as they age, it's pretty neat to see little maps of color spreading across their feet. Hers is very pale yet but you can already see the purpling that will eventually turn black and spread to her whole foot.

Look at that dome head. Lots of baby brain power being created in there. Miss Orange makes a lovely pillow, as all siblings do, and Mr Blue knows just where the good life is at.



A Little Help

Yesterday afternoon I became concerned about Leeloo. She was listless, had a higher temperature than normal, had some body trembles and mid-afternoon started to ignore the puppies. Off to the vet for a check up - after spending a small fortune she is on anti-biotics for a possible retained placenta - thankfully that is all it is, if it were a retained puppy we would be looking at a whole other ball game. It's important to know your bitch, sure she is not herself anyway because she has a whole new family to take care of, but knowing the difference between relaxed and listless was a big tip off. Today she is a contented mother and everyone is thriving as evidenced by the two following photos. This one is from Wednesday afternoon - all the little darlings in their whelping box.

This one is from this morning. I think the box has shrunk. They are a little more spread out but you can see the change for sure!

I weigh them everyday to make sure they are growing and as I do that I check them over and handle them for a few minutes so they get used to being touched. I flipped over Mr Black and had to smile when I saw his white patch -it's almost perfectly symmetrical and in the shape of ... what? Butterfly? A Rorschach test? Is he signaling Batman?

And little Miss Orange, one of the smallest puppies. She's the one with the multi-crowned ridge. She fell asleep as I was looking her over, as did most of them, and she fit perfectly in the palm of my hand. Another day or so and this won't be possible.

The Big Chill

Day 2 and everyone is still alive. I know that sounds morbid but the first weeks of a puppy's life are fraught with danger at every moment. Mom could lie on them, they might not get enough to eat, they could get chilled ... all things we need to be mindful of in these early days. I managed to catch up on some sleep but Leeloo made sure I was never allowed more than a couple hours at a stretch, sometimes only ten minutes!

She is a great mom, very diligent and concerned about their well being. She spent most of the night fussing over them which is fine except we do have to watch for over-attention. Some dams obsess so much over cleaning the babies or removing their umbilical cords they can harm the puppies. Leeloo is diligent but not quite classified as obsessive.

She also worried every time a puppy got 'too far away' from her. She'd whine and look at me to go get it - the  proximity alert goes off if the puppy is more than her leg length away - give that her legs are unusually long that's pretty far! Once I get the puppy and return it to her side she fusses and licks and makes sure it's okay and then relaxes until the next puppy rolls too far for her comfort.  Mr Red is well within The Zone.

Today Leeloo has decided that she need not fuss every moment and allowed the puppies to nurse and sleep in turns. She is quite content, much more at ease than Halo ever was and I offer her lots of praise for taking such good care of the puppies. She has an incredible amount of milk, so much so I will have to watch her for mastitis (a kind of milk fever), but with 10 hungry mouths to feed I'm sure it won't be a problem. Here's what we like to see: a totally chillaxed Momma with content napping babies eating by turns and sleeping fitfully.

Bourne Identity

Although my prediction for Leeloo's whelp date was June 15 and her 'official' date was June 18, Leeloo surprised me by going into labour last night. Her temperature was 38.1 on Sunday night and on Monday morning it had dropped to 36.9. That is a pretty significant change and enough for me to come home for lunch where I found her happy to see me but not in labour. I put her in her whelping box for the balance of the afternoon and when I came home I found she'd nested the crap out of it an made an almighty mess - completely normal.

She went into pre-labour at about 7pm so I'm sure she was just waiting for me to get there to hold her hand through this ordeal. Her big wide eyes kept looking at me like 'What's happening Mommy?" but I told her there was nothing for it but to power through. We all went to sleep, sort of, in the spare room while Leeloo intermittently nested and tried to bury herself in the blankets. At 3:40am her water broke (might not want to use that pillow again) and the first puppy arrived at 4:30am, Mr Blue, kicking and yelling at the world. Here he is saying hello to his Mommy and his Mommy is thinking "Where the heck did you come from?"

Leeloo then took a break of almost an hour which is quite a change from Halo who seemed to think whelping was a competition and the faster the better. Leeloo allowed me time to weigh, photograph, make notes, clean up and prepare for the next one. It was marvelous. She would relax for almost 40 minutes and then for 20 minutes would have a series of small contractions after which she'd have 4 or 5 major ones and out popped a puppy. This has been going on all day and let me tell you ... we are both completely wiped out and I for one am starving. Proud Daddy Boy has been very patiently waiting for news of his new arrivals, he was a little stressed out this morning, didn't eat, and threw up some water - poor guy doesn't take this kind of anxiety well! Here he is checking in on his gal.

The final count is 10 with 6 boys and 4 girls - we are only an hour from the last puppy's birth Leeloo is practically comatose and that kind of relaxation usually means a bitch is done. Everyone is doing great, they are all active, eating, and having a marvelous time discovering the joys of using their vocal chords. All of the puppies have ridges, most of them are even considered 'show ridges' except two - one apparently placed an order for two ridges by mistake so she has extra crowns and the other, well, she forgot to place a large portion of her order so she only got one crown that sits right on her shoulders - I'm very curious how that will mature. Because she only has one 'crown' I am calling her Princess ... plus she has the pink ribbon so it suits her.

Almost all the puppies are a light wheaton, not a color I expected a lot of and although Leeloo is obviously a light wheaton, for some reason I expected more red wheatons - probably because The Boy is red. I don't mind the lighter wheaton but some people do and it's something to make note of when choosing a puppy. So that is the end of one ordeal and the beginning of another, we will attempt to keep everyone alive for the next 8 weeks and barring any problems 9 families will get to add a puppy to their midst and I will have my show bitch ... considering there is only one to choose from she better be good! No pressure Miss Purple.

Shallow Hal

It's the final week of Leeloo's pregnancy. Hard to believe we are already on Whelp Watch. I expect her to whelp any day from tomorrow onward and will be diligently checking for signs of the stork's arrival. For Leeloo the stork can't come soon enough; she is so over being fat and heavy, hot and tired, having puppies kicking her liver and compressing her lungs, not able to find a comfortable position to sleep and never quite reaching the itch that needs to be scratched. Poor Booble - new nickname ... just came to me yesterday.

From above you can see the expansion of her tummy - it's actually more on her right than her left so I suspect there are more puppies in the right horn of her uterus although chances are there is such a mash-up of puppies her uterus probably looks like a bowtie. She very patiently stood to let me photograph her in the hot sun and accepted as many treat bribes as I offered.

I can't tell her that it won't be long now so the poor girl probably thinks she will be like this forever. I can't imagine a life lived only in the moment, to be unable to predict or plan the future. I know she will be relieved of this burden (only to have it replaced by another) in the coming days but she does not. She only knows that right now, in this moment, she is one very fat dog who can no longer get herself onto the bed - if she was a person she'd say she was grotesque and to stop taking photos of her ... all I see is my beautiful Boobles.

Men With Brooms

The day has finally come where Leeloo has accepted that she cannot sleep curled in a Ridgeball. She's been determined to sleep in her usual position because that is her favorite way to nap but she has now resigned herself to sleeping stretched out. Last night I was a little concerned as she groaned and moaned on the bed trying to breathe as her puppy bulk compressed her lungs. In the end I eased her over on her side and the rasping sounds of her breathing eased into a deep slumber.

This morning we were up early and after her breakfast she discovered that the sun is in a perfect position to warm her on my chair. She spent several minutes trying to find a comfortable arrangement in order to soak up as much of the long absent sun as she could. Puppies need vitamin D too you know.  

I will also note that the sun touches this particular chair between 6am and 7am. And it's Saturday. Because of Leeloo's insatiable appetite we were awake at this undoGly hour, we were also awake at 4 am to feed her but there's no way I'm getting up for the day 4am unless it's an emergency or we are heading to a dog show.  So here's to my little Sun Goddess, my Darling Bubbalicious, my Doodle Bug - enjoy your repose on this throne awash with the gentle caress of the sun ... time will soon see your lazy slumber cut short and replaced with the demands of motherhood.

Dead Calm

We are now going to leisurely walks in the morning on lead through the neighbourhood instead of off lead in the woods - much to Raimi and Esme's annoyance and to Leeloo's relief.  She is finding it more and more tiresome to drag herself along on walks and although I can tell she wants to go, once we are out and walking she looks at me like 'I can't wait to get home to the couch'.  If we are in the neighbourhood at least I can take a short cut or two to get home instead of having to go all the way back to the truck and then drive home. She is also not exactly in shape to jump in and out of the truck either and I am not in shape to be lifting a 100+ lb dog into a vehicle!

It's also been raining so much lately that I have to at least try to keep Esme as dry as possible, even with her coat she still gets a bit wet. Esme doesn't like being wet and for a dog with a lot of coat this is inconvenient. She gets damp from the grass even if it's not raining so walking her on the street will keep her a little drier than the woods. She tends to pull out and chew off wet cords which, by the way, take months to grow, so to have her systematically removing them just because they are wet is not acceptable. I need to get her a terry cloth robe or something to put on after a walk until she's dry but that will just have to wait, for now we just avoid wet grass and walking in the rain.

Boy is getting hives from mosquito bites - I'm not sure why since he's never had them before but the hives are going down each time we go out so he seems to be building a bit of a resistance to them. He is going a bit stir crazy without being allowed to roam the woods so this morning I let him off lead in a school baseball diamond and he went koo-koo banana and raced around like a 10 month old puppy. He had a marvelous time and burned off some excess steam with Esme hot on his heels. Leeloo even did a few play bows and bounced around before remembering how fat she is.

We also cut through a graveyard which looks to be one of the original graveyards in the town. There were stones marked with dates of death in 1755 and I noted another one from 1811. Three and four hundred years ago there were people fresh off the boat carving out lives in this New World and literally dying in the effort. To the people who have lived here their whole lives the graveyard is probably just that, a graveyard full of old tombstones and very large well fed trees but to me, an Alberta girl, they represent a hard fought beginning that the town doesn't seem to appreciate.

Anyway, enough of my maudlin musings, the point is our walks often take us to interesting places and I get to see things that I would not likely see without them. So even though we have to scale back our adventures while Leeloo grows babies we can always find something to ponder as we stroll through life.