Just Another Day In Paradise

Today started like any other day, getting up, getting Tyler ready for school and myself ready for work. The day was a gorgeous one, so when I got home, I changed clothes, went into the puppy pen to play with the babies for a bit before Tyler got home. Tyler gets home, changes and heads outside while I was powerwashing some stuff.

A few hours later, I go outside to feed the puppies and find that little Boulder is lying down kind of funny looking at me. He tried to stand up but was unsuccessful. As I'm running into the pen, he gets up and squats to pee then on 3 legs he hobbles toward the inside. I scoop him up and take him inside and ask Tyler what happened and he states that he was inside with the puppies rolling around and rolled on Boulders leg. I put in a phone call to the vet and off baby Boulder and I go.

My fears are confirmed, his left rear leg is fractured in like a v-shape. They put on a small splint and he has on a teal green bandage. He ate a little bit of food and drank some water and is now resting comfortably in a crate on some super soft cushy blankets. I'll sleep downstairs with him tonight, but he seems to be doing okay except for not pottying since I got home. He is still trying to figure out how to walk with this thing on his leg, but I'm sure he'll figure it out soon. Say a little prayer for Boulder.

Haley/Steeler & Paige/Collin Puppies

Well, while I was away in Canada on my two week vacation is when my bitches decided to whelp their puppies. The first litter of 10 (5 boys/5 girls) out of HaleyWhippt...aka Eclipse SF Let Freedom Ring by Steeler...aka Eclipse Down at the Blue Moon was born the day we left on July 26th. These puppies were a surprise litter, so I wasn't sure when HaleyWhippet was due, so on Thursday I took her to my friends Shelbi & Louise's house to possibly whelp. She stayed there for 2 days until my niece Melissa could go and pick them up. Saturday night around 7:00 pm she started whelping and delivered her 10 babies in 4 hours. Being mom HaleyWhippet did a bit of traveling while waiting to deliver, I named all the babies after cities. The boys are Salem, Baxter, Austin, Reno and Jackson (sold), and the girls are Cheyenne (sold), Seneca, Fargo, Aurora & Shayla, all in shades of blue fawn, blue brindle, fawn & fawn brindle.

The planned litter between Paige...aka Eclipse Wish Upon a Star and Collin...aka Ch. Eclipse SF Bold Chance was born a week later (actually 4 days before her due date) on Sunday August 3rd. We have 4 gorgeous white & fawn babies, 3 girls named River, Rayne & Lilly and 1 boy named Boulder. They have the nature names that Melissa gave them.

Right now the pups are 6 and 5 weeks old, and all are doing great.

6 week Jaycie/Riggins pups

Here are the first stacked pics of the Jaycie/Riggins litter. They are one day shy of 6 weeks. These are the remaining two pups and both TC (boy) and TinkerBell (girl) are doing well. TinkerBell looks a lot like her momma and TC looks just like his daddy. Vanna is a good playmate for them as she likes to lie on the floor and play with them. Paco too is a good "momma" as the pups like to chew on her fur and she allows them to do so.

These pups are doubled up on the beautiful International Champion Paris Panther, and carry the very important bloodline of DC Paris Say You Will with the gorgeous Ch. Surrey Hill Smithereens as their grandmother. These dogs have always been favorites of mine, and I'm happy that I was able to incorporate them into my bloodlines.

TC is very outgoing and playful, and likes to pounce on the fuzzy squirrel while TinkerBell likes to look on from the sidelines. She does pounce once in a while. I'm looking forward to seeing how these guys react to the bunny.

Trials and Tribulations of Raising a Litter

As previously posted, the long awaited Jaycie/Riggins puppies arrived on June 11, 2008. Jaycie delivered her pups 4 days early due to a uterine infection she had, and got off to a bad start with 3 dead pups. She finally had her first live pup, and after a few hours, ended with 4 pups. A trip to the vet 2 days later confirmed that the pups were doing well and all were good and healthy. I decided to go to the Canadian National the end of June so mom and the 2-1/2 week old pups went to stay with my niece while I was gone. Melissa called me a few days into my trip to say the one pup, Ty, wasn't doing well and was kind of pale and lethargic, so she took him to the vet where she works, they gave him a dose of wormer and she brought him home. She was supplementing them with Esbilac cause Jaycie didn't have a lot of milk. In the morning when she went in to check on the pups, Ty was gone. I chalked it up to a bad luck, as all the other pups were doing good. The pups came home on Sunday, and all were active and nursing although I was supplementing everyone with Esbilac. A week later, one of the other pups, Taylor, got very pale looking and lethargic, and through the night he passed away also.

This has been the litter from hell, as I've never lost puppies at 2-1/2 and 3-1/2 weeks of age before. It's hard enough when they are born dead or die shortly after birth, but it is extremely hard to see them fail at that late stage. A few days later the little girl, TinkerBell, was looking kind of pale and was just a tad lethargic. I started with a stricter regimen of wormer, Esbilac and gave her a supplement called Nutri-Stat. When I started the Nutri-Stat, her front feet pinked up some, and with my constant nursing her, holding her, snuggling her, and telling her she wasn't going to die, she got better. She is now an active little girl who plays with her brother TC who is twice her size. TinkerBell was only 5 oz. at birth and her brother was about 10 oz., so she is still playing catch-up. She may not be a big bitch as her mother and grandmother are not big, and neither is dad Riggins.

I think we are on the right track, TC and TinkerBell have started drinking water from a bowl and they are trying to chew up some kibble, but they still like their puppy slop (Esbilac, Baby Cereal and Goats Milk mixed with some warm water).
Thanks Karen for being there when I needed someone to talk to about these pups and their situation. Even though there was nothing to be done for these pups, it was nice to know someone was lending an ear.

I'll post updated puppy pics soon.

Updated Jaycie/Riggins pups

Here are a few updated pics of the babies. They will be two weeks old on Wednesday.

Jaycie/Riggins Puppies - 6/11/08

Well the long awaited Jaycie/Riggins pups made their debut on 6/11/08. She had a v-e-r-y long delivery and after a rough start, we ended up with 4 live puppies, all in 3 different shades of brindle and white. We had 3 beautiful boys, Ty, TC and Taylor, and 1 gorgeous girl, TinkerBell. All pups were named by my son Tyler (see where that theme is going?), and all are doing well. I'm very excited about these pups and look forward to them growing up.