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WANNABE STUFF
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APPRENTICE STUFF
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MASTER STUFF
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And for our former harrowing adventures, there's always the archives
Saturday, July 30, 2005
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She likes it, Mikey!
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Good to the last drop!
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Adventures in weaning!
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Saturday, July 16, 2005
Guest Blogger
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Pupdates:
Liberty started to open her eyes late Thurs. night. By Friday, they were definitely open.
Sparky started to open his eyes on Friday morning, but he hasn't advanced to the open stage yet. Summer's eyes look like they are starting to open this morning -- just a hint, but definitely starting. Belle is sleeping too soundly to check the status of her eyes at the moment.
All four pups are walking now, albeit a little awkwardly. Belle is probably the most accomplished at walking to date.
Liberty was the first pup to climb out of the whelping box -- Wed. On her second adventure out of the box (Friday afternoon) she not only climbed out, she also crawled over to Phyl with purpose. Summer was quick to follow later that night. She actually had farther to go to find Phyl. Sparky and Belle have climbed out since, but they've not had to travel to find Phyl just yet.
Liberty has initiated play a couple of times. We weren't sure if that was what we were seeing at first, but we noticed it for the first time on Friday afternoon. Now that we've seen it a few more times, we're pretty well convinced.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
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No, we didn't pose them this way!
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Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Guest Blogger-time
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(By Lauren): Just thought I'd mention that Sparky took some attempts today at his first steps. This morning, he stood up straight and tall on his front two legs, and his back two tried really hard to catch up. And, he did manage to take a couple of steps. Unfortunately, the floor was slippery, and didn't quite cooperate, so it might be a little soon to call them real first steps. But kind of. In any case, it'll be any day now, I'm sure.
Also, we heard a first little bark from Summer on Sunday, and one from Liberty this morning.
Saturday, July 09, 2005
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Phyl with pups, week 1
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The two white pups, week 1
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Sparky, week 1
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Liberty, week 1
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Summer, week 1
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Belle, week 1
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sad news to report
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Poor little Sam (the tiny puppy) just wasn't thriving at all. Even being tube fed (heroically by Sally), and even being coaxed to nurse as often as possible (heroically by Sally's kids Lauren and Hillary), she had still only gained about an ounce in two days: she was back to her birth weight of eight ounces at five days old, while the other pups are around 24 ounces and growing. I took her to the vet today: three different vets examined her. None could find anything obvious (no cleft palate, her heart seemed fine, etc.), and all thought if she were a newborn pup she'd look like a healthy one. But the fact that she wasn't growing and wasn't nursing aggressively made all of them think that there was an underlying congenital problem: maybe liver, maybe pancreas, maybe something else. They didn't think she'd ever grow and be a normal dog, and they believed that the most likely scenario was that she'd stay basically this size for a couple of weeks with round the clock work, and then she'd fade and die. So I felt that I had no choice except ask them to put her down. So that's that: we now have a litter of four. The picture below is of Sam and her sister Summer, just to show the shocking contrast in size. She was a very sweet puppy, and I feel awful that something like this had to happen to her. Luckily, Phyl doesn't seem to notice that one pup is gone. I'll post pictures of the others today, in order to focus on something cheerful.
Summer and Sam
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Thursday, July 07, 2005
In which we give up the "in which" conceit for a little while
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Just a quick update to apologize for not getting pictures up so far. I hope to do that soon, and I also hope to have "guest bloggers" in the form of Sally's kids (Lauren, age 20, and Hillary, age 15, who are devoted puppy nannies). The pups are all ok, although the small one (Sam) has been a worry: she's a terrible nurser and needs to be tube fed, at least at the moment. However, we ("we" being Sally) have been tubing for a day, and she seems to be doing a lot better on it. The others are twice her size and are like huge, wild Vikings in the whelping box, fighting madly for nipples even though there are two nipples for every pup. I really think this is a very promising, lovely litter, but I might be a teeny, eeny, wheeny bit prejudiced! :-) At any rate, I'll keep everyone posted with frequent updates, and I'll get pictures up as soon as I can. Thanks for your patience!
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
in which we report on some new arrivals
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The pups are here! Five of them (four bitches and one male), and they actually *were* born on the Fourth of July, so we've given all of them patriotic whelping box names. The whelping itself (that is, when Phyl actually got down to the business of pushing out pups) went quickly and smoothly. However, we had a nail-biting day and a half of what the books call "pre-labor." Phyl's temperature dropped a full degree and stayed down below 99, and in most cases this means that labor will begin within twenty-four hours, often sooner. Phyl, however, doesn't seem to have read those particular books, so she panted and nested and made us wonder if we needed to take her into the vet for a C-section for a nerve-wracking thirty hours. But all went well in the end, and we have five beautiful, healthy puppies to show for it. I'll be posting their pictures soon, but for now here's a quick description of them for the curious:
So that's all the news. I'll be posting often, because I assume everyone thinks that these pups are as fascinating as I do!
Saturday, July 02, 2005
In which there is nothing to report
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We're still in a holding pattern. Phyl is with Sally, who is already taking wonderful care of her---I'm very lucky to have her in such a good situation. I visited with Phyl today, and she's suddenly much more dreamy and much less energetic than her normal persona. Her temperature is slowly edging downwards, but we have yet to see the full degree morning drop without a rise in the evening that means pups are imminent. She didn't finish her food tonight, which is *very* significant in a maniacal eater like Phyl. My feeling is that things will start to look more serious by tomorrow night, and that pups will be born on Monday. But I could be wrong. Right now I just want to get through it with no glitches. Keep us in your thoughts, and I'll report soon!
