heartbreak

Tonight our Little Miss Yellow lost her fight.   We are all so very sad, including Rosie.  Rest in piece little angle pup, we will miss you.  

Bonding

I had quite a day with Rosie yesterday.  I guess in an experienced raiser's perspective, it probably wasn't too major, but from my inexperienced perspective, it seemed monumental.  My sweet girl was totally normal when I checked in on her and the pups around noon, but by 3pm,  I knew something was not right.

Rosie wanted nothing to do with the bowl of vanilla yogurt I had brought for her.  Right there, a retriever refusing food, I knew something was up.  When she finally looked up at me, I was greeted by a big belch and the remains of her lunch.  Yuck!  Upon further examination, I realized that she had developed mastitis and she looked to be in much pain.  A trip to PAWS to see Dr. Jeanne, 3 shots, oral antibiotic and I feel confident that she will be feeling better very quickly.  She still feels pretty awful today and I hope that tomorrow will be a better day!

The first time we saw Rosie and her litter mates!  

This whole experience lead me to think about the bond I have with Rosie.  I am not ashamed to admit that my bond with Rosie initially was weak.  After all this darling fuzzball that came to us at 7 weeks was only to be with us for a short time in her path to become an assistance dog.  I put up a wall reminding myself often, "Don't get too attached, she is not yours"

Rosie's first day at our house.

Besides, I have lots of attachments to keep me busy, great husband, three darling girls and my first born, my four pawed baby, Jackson.  Jackson is the first dog that has ever been mine.  Andy and I bought him the weekend after we closed on our first house more than 10 years ago.  I am so incredibly bonded to him in a way that no other animal will ever compare.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love Rosie to pieces and I am glad that her path has lead her to live with us but our bond is different, at least it was  up until this experience.

My favorite pic of Rosie

As Rosie's belly grew and her temp dropped, I became so much more aware of her.  As labor started, I felt very connected to her and as I watched those puppies come into this world, our bond was changed forever.  She made motherhood seem so easy, almost effortless.  I love watching her care for these babies and as they grow, I am so proud of her.

To see her in so much pain has been difficult.  To see her struggle and wince as she lets her babies nurse is heartbreaking.  I worry about her and she cannot get better quickly enough.  My bond with my sweet fluffer-nutter has changed since she has become a mama dog and I totally adore her.

Pregnant Rosie and her buddy Jackson

Poop

What is not to love about a tiny golden puppy?  Well, in one word, poop.  Rosie does a great job keeping them clean, but this weekend all 8 babies were struck with diarrhea and it was more than Rosie cared to deal with.  So please forgive my lack of updates, but I have been busy cleaning.  


Not all was stinky this weekend, though.  We do have some milestones to report.


On Friday Miss Pink and Mr. Orange began to open their eyes.  By saturday evening all eight were peeking out at us.  It is so awesome to see them looking back.  


On Sunday morning, Miss Green, Mr. Red and Mr. Blue were all trying to get up on all fours and walk.  They are all trying it today, we should have some mobile pups in a few days.  


Miss Yellow is just shy of 2 pounds, Yippee!!  Miss Pink and Mr. Blue have each hit the 3# mark this morning, I cannot believe how fast they are growing!  


Looks like we are getting closer to visitors, I will let you know just as soon as we are ready.  


I am off to take some pictures and maybe some video of our little nuggets.  Happy Monday!  

Miss Purple shares a snuggle with her Mama

Caroline and Mr. Orange

Caroline has a special fondness for Mr. Orange, look at his eyes!!  

The Proud Mama stands watch over her snoozing brood.  

Patience

You might think that having 3 babies in 18 months (yes, twins) would have made me a patient person but, you would be wrong.  I work hard every day to have patience with my children, my dogs and the person in front of me in the check out line.  I realize that sometimes my impatience leads me to miss important subtleties of my environment.  So my goal each day is to have patience and to take in the world around me and notice the smallest details.  Lately the small details include the puppies.

Today, I cannot wait for these little golden nuggets to open their tiny eyes and take in their world for the first time.  How amazing it will be to watch them as they begin to see what is around them.  On this beautiful day, it is so hard not to take the little pups out to crawl in the grass.  Instead, I sit and I watch them as they snooze.  Some are silent and still, some are twitching and cooing.  They are only 8 days old and how much they have already grown.  Most have doubled in size since birth and they have so far to go.

Last night, I watched a PBS documentary showing assistance dogs and the jobs they do for clients.  What these special heros do is so much more than picking up a pencil or turning on a light.  Dogs like these change lives and I hope and pray that all eight of Rosie's babies will go on to have that kind of profound impact on their forever person.

I will just have to be patient!

I think I had better find a bigger box!!!  

If you want to watch the documentary on PBS, you can click Through A Dog's Eyes  

Mr. Blue

I really wanted to update you all today, but I literally have nothing to write about.  Everything is status quo and that is excellent news here in Puppy world!

I thought I would introduce you to Mr. Blue, our second born pup, but even he is pretty boring.  He is sleeping, eating and growing contently.   He is over 2# now as are all the pups except Yellow.  He loves to snuggle up to Miss Pink, but is most likely to be hiding under the whelping box railing all by himself.  I can't get this song out of my head, if you grew up in the 80's you may know the song and now you will have it stuck in your head, too!

....i'm mr blue
i'm here to stay with you
and no matter what you do
when you're lonely - i'll be lonely too, i'm mr blue....

So now photos of darling Mr. Blue, thanks for prayers for Miss Yellow (who is getting bigger and stronger) and a bid for a wonderful sunny Wednesday!

Oh, if you are a PAWS person and are wondering about the ribbons and the lack of order to the colors, ask Aimee :-)

Happy One Week Birthday

The Puppies are one week old today and what a week it has been.  I am truly amazed at the daily changes in these little golden nuggets. Two of them have reached the 2# mark already.  They are very strong, even tiny Miss Yellow is climbing over her bigger siblings to get to the milk truck and to snuggle with mom.  And, they are content,  Rosie continues to do an awesome job attending to their needs.   


I thought it might be fun to show you each pup, so today, I will start with the first born, little miss Pink.  


Miss Pink is a very calm and quiet pup.  She eats, sleeps and snuggles, barely ever making a peep.  She is sweet as can be.  My girls  have taken to calling  her Pinky-pie or Pinkalicious.  All of these pups are going to be in trouble when it comes time to answer to a real name as they all have lots of nicknames!  


Speaking of real names, have I told you that this will be the "K" litter?  That means that all the names will begin with K.  The future Puppy Raisers who will house them get to have a say in naming their foster pup, with the aid of the people at PAWS. Two Syllable names with a dominant first syllable are best and PAWS tries to steer away from common human names.  


So, here she is,  Miss Pink.....

More Answers

Time for more fun facts and answers to your burning questions....

Q.   How often do you clean the box.

A.   Just one time per day.

Q. What do you do with the puppies while you clean?

A.

  

Q.  How do you know if the puppies are eating enough? 

A.  The Fill-o-Meter.  When the tails are up, the puppy is hungry when the tail falls - all full! 

Q.  Is Rosie a happy Mom?  

A.  What do you think?  

Q.  How is Little Miss Yellow?

A.  Holding on, gaining weight, not out of the woods, but we are optimistic  Thanks, everyone, for the thoughts and prayers!  

Q.  Who won the puppy pool?

A.  The Millwood Family from right here in EGR.  Thanks to everyone that contributed to PAWS and had fun guessing.  

Pictures

I just LOVE the tiny feet.   Here is our Little Miss Yellow

Isn't she a sweetie!  

Momma's Love

When my children were babies, I firmly believed that I was in charge of the tone of the day.  Actually, I still believe this, most of the time.   If I was in a happy, rested mood, we would have a calm easy day, free from tantrums but, when I was stressed the children would pick up on it and things would only go from bad to worse.  I think I may have had the same effect on Rosie yesterday or maybe Rosie was having that effect on her babies.

Little Miss Yellow has been giving us reason to worry.  Though not the smallest at birth, she is not gaining weight like her siblings and seems to be struggling to nurse.  Along with my increasing worry for miss Yellow, Rosie started to be, well,  antsy.   She did not want to stay in the whelping box, would not lay down to nurse and she even found a place to hide from us, under a table behind some pillows so only her nose was visible.  Seems strange behavior from the afore mentioned Rockstar.

Aimee (from PAWS and another Rockstar) came and assessed.  We have started tube feeding little Yellow in hopes that she will gain some weight and begin to thrive.  Once the baby was calm and quiet, Rosie went back to her normal behavior.  Was it my, or was it Rosie's, stress over Miss Yellow?  I don't know, but one thing is for sure, moms worry about their babies,  the four pawed and the two footed kind.  

If you are the praying type, say a little one for our Miss Yellow, she is not out of the woods yet.

Puppy Love!  

Rockstar Mom

OK, have I told you what a total Rockstar Rosie is?  She IS!!  She has taken to this mom thing very easily and is feeding, cleaning and loving her babies, you can see it on her face.

You may not know, but it is totally normal for a momma dog not to leave her litter at all during the first few days.  I had to literally pull her away so that she would go outside to potty.  She eats, drinks and sleeps in the whelping box with the puppies.

Yesterday, she decided to leave the box by herself, so she must feel very comfortable.  She came up the stairs, found a stuffed bear, grabbed it and ran back down.  I followed her and watched her plop the bear down on top of the babies as if to say to them, "Here, it's my favorite, I know you will like it, too" It was just too sweet not to share!

And, has anyone else noticed that Miss Green is a bit of a camera hog?  

In case you are wondering, the boys are Mr. Orange, Mr. Blue and Mr. Red the rest are our little girls pink, purple, green, yellow and yellow with orange dots.  Orange is the biggest, my girls have taken to calling him Moosie, and Yellow is the smallest.  

Eat, Sleep, Poop...

...That is about the extent of the excitement around here, which is a good thing.  So, I thought I would take a minute and answer some of the questions I have been receiving.  


Q. Can I come over today?  
A. As much as I would love to see you and show off these babies, they are much too small right now.  Rosie needs time to adjust to them and she needs quiet.  At about 2-3 weeks old, the pups will open their eyes and ears and, therefore, be able to see and hear.  Once this occurs, I will post here on the blog and we will be happy to have you come and collect some puppy snuggles!  

Q. Will these puppies be adopted?
A. These pups are destined to do great things!  They were bred especially for PAWS With A Cause.  They will live here with us and Rosie until they are about 7 weeks old.  At that time, they will be placed in foster homes with PAWS Foster puppy raisers.  You may remember that we were Rosie's foster raisers.  Foster raisers are responsible to love the pup, to teach basic obedience and to socialize the pup.  After about 12-14 months with the foster family they will enter "college" at PAWS and continue training to be an assistance dog.  For more information about being a Foster Family click here.  

Q. What kid of jobs will these dogs have?
A.  The assistance dogs that PAWS trains are Hearing Alert dogs for people that are deaf, Seizure  Response dogs that are trained to aid a person with a seizure disorder such as Epilepsy.  Service Dogs for people with physical disability, social support dogs and Service Dogs for Children with Autism.  

Q.  Won't it be hard to let these puppies go?
A.  Probably.  I just keep reminding myself that these dogs will literally change a person's life forever, how cool is that?  

For more information on PAWS and the amazing work they do, check out  Paws With A Cause and the other links at the right.

They're Here!

It was an eventful night last evening as Rosie gave birth to 8 beautiful puppies in just about 4 hours time.  We have five little girlies and three little boys.  All but one weighed in over a pound with the last just under.  That is big an average pup is about 10 oz.  Rosie had a pretty textbook delivery and has taken to motherhood extremely well.

Anticipation

The Waiting Game

We made it through an uneventful weekend and are still waiting.

Today is Rosie's first actual "due date" and  Jackson is especially anxious to see what is in that big belly!  Rosie is practicing by taking good care of her stuffed babies.  It shouldn't be too much longer so stay tuned......

Buns in the Oven

Does anyone else think it is funny how well the expression "buns in the oven" really fits the pregnant dog?  Rosie is cooking those "buns" at a pretty consistent 100.3 degrees right now.  I know that because I have been taking her temp (don't even ask, it's not fun and she is not cooperative) twice per day waiting to detect a change.   Once her temp drops by a few degrees the "buns" are done and pups should arrive within hours.  Amazing, isn't it?  


Don't forget to place your bets for the date and # of puppies that will be born.  It's only $1 per vote and the money goes to the breeding program at PAWS.  The instructions are in an earlier post and if you are local, you can skip paypal and just give me a check or cash.  The prize is coming together nicely!!!  Thanks to all of you that have already guessed!!  

Are you in?

Rosie is sending out a big wet lick to all of you have placed guesses and donated to the "Puppy Pool". She thought that flashing you a little puppy belly might inspire the rest of you to place your votes so.... here it is. Send your guesses to me and you can Paypal your donations to e.milnes@comcast.net, checks can be made out to "PAWS with a Cause" or cash works, too. Remember the donations will go to the PAWS "Generations of Independence " breeding program.

x-ray day

Hi everyone, thanks for checking us out. Today was a big day for us. We took Rosie to PAWS for an x-ray to get a peek at those babies, it was really cool to see the little skulls and spines. The obvious question is......"How Many?" So, how about we have a little fun? A "PUPPY POOL" and even more fun, we will try and raise a few bucks for PAWS. Here is how it will work...

$1 per vote or $5 for 6 votes. Money collected will go to PAWS with a Cause "Generations of Independence" Breeding program. Paypal the funds (send it as a gift, please) to e.milnes@comcast.net along with your guess of how many pups and what date they will be born. There will be a prize for the winner, still working on what it will be. The winner will be drawn randomly from all the correct guesses. Tell your friends, let's try and raise $100. Get your votes in today!

Just for your information, Rosie was bred between February 8-12th