Puppies Episode III

Well, Della managed to hold off on her whelping to allow us a lucky 8/8/8 litter. She even almost started at 8PM (her first was born at 7:56). We finished off 10 puppies later at 2:30AM. There are 8 boys and 2 girls, all yellow. We do not know their litter letter yet, but I will post that, as well as pictures, when available. In the meantime, since it is now 4:20AM (I stayed up to make sure there where no surprises since Dr. Ruth was so unsure of the litter size) I will now crawl off to bed and hope my hubby is wise enough to not get me up until well after noon!!

??????????

Well, we had our X-ray on Thursday. Dr. Ruth's assessment of the number of puppies was essentially, "well you have 8, no 9, maybe 10, there might be 11 but I can't tell for sure." It seems the puppies are very bunched up and Della had a lot of gas in her intestines which decreased the clarity of the X-ray. I guess we will all just have to wait until the actual delivery to find out. Stay tuned, D-day is still the 8th with a good chance she'll be early.

Once more unto the breach dear friends....

Yep, Della is once again with pups. We took her to CCI for confirmation today. Both my 7 and 13 yo sons were fascinated by the ultrasound pictures. I didn't post earlier about her breeding because there was some question about whether the breeding took ( the boy had some probs the other time he was bred and Della had no morning sickness) and didn't want to get everyone's hopes up until I was sure. She was bred to new breeder Pirie, a yellow lab, so it will be a monotone litter this time around. I also found out while at CCI that Della's 1/2 sister, Litney, was up being bred, so their mom's B/C (and Litney's) will be having pups a month after we will!! Tentative due date for Della is August 8th. This means: a) Ashley will have over a month with the pups before she goes back to UCD, and b) David will be whelping alone as Ashley and I will be in Denver for the World Science Fiction and Fantasy C0nvention (anyone out there going?). Hope he took good notes the last 2 times!! ;-)

Advanced training has begun

As hard as it is to believe, two of Della's "C" puppies, Cyrano and Clementine, have turned in for advanced training already. I guess they just turn in early in South East Region. Cyrano's PR, Lybbi, was kind enough to get pictures of both pups at their turn in for me to share. Quite the handsome pair, if I do say so myself!

Cyrano and Clementine(in the red collar)


Cyrano and Lybbi


Cyrano

So I have now heard from all but 2 of Della's "G" puppies' PR's. They are, of course, scattered all over the country. However, this time there are actually 3 puppies staying in the Bay Area, making it easier to keep in touch, and I actually get to see them once in a while! :-) So, without further ado, here are the puppies' known locations:
Galen- (COC) Oakland, CA
Gaius- ?
Gordan- VI ?
Gillian II- Virginia
Gemma V- Panama City, FL
Gaylor II- San Jose, CA
Ginny II- Fremont, CA
Gypsy V- Colorado Springs, CO
Gilden- Evergreen, CO
Godwin- ? (but I have heard from her PR)

Galen (now called Ginger, so she can have a girl's name) came to visit over the weekend with her new family. I couldn't believe how much she has grown. She is almost as big as our Brittany already! I finally got to check out her mouth. She does indeed have a fair amount of overbite. Her new family is going to take her to a dental veterinary specialist in S.F. to take care of where her lower teeth are hitting her palate. She is doing great and is in good, loving hands.

Della has calmed down from her PPP and is doing great, already back to her pre-pregnancy weight and looking trim and muscular. I think that it really helps her physical recovery having Siri, our labradoodle, to romp and tussle with. Especially in the winter when it is too wet to go to the enclosed, grass (read MUD in the winter), dog park. It is hard to believe, but Della already has puppies turning in this month. Clementine and Cyrano, both in Florida, are turning in. My how time flies. I don't know about the pups in the other regions, but I do know that Cecil and Cressida, both in NWR, won't turn in until May. Still too soon for their PR's, but I know that Angie felt a little better about her turn in date when I told her how early SER turned in.

Not much else to say. I will be sure and let everyone know as soon as Della goes into heat again, or I hear more from her PR's.

P P P!!!

That stands for Post Puppy Psychosis and that stands for Della. I don't know how other dogs in the program react after their puppies go up to CCI, but Della seems to spend the whole next month reverted to puppyhood. She barks, she bounces, she chews up anything lying on or near the ground. She did this last litter too and ate up a number of the kids toys (that'll teach them not to put their stuff away!!). This time I was expecting it and bought her several soft toys that she could destroy. Still, I would love to know why she does this. You would think she wouldn't miss the puppies. She pretty well ignores them once they wean and she is very jealous of the attention they get when they are here. Then she gets all crazed when they go. Go figure........

TTFN "G" litter

The house seems so empty (and quiet, clean and good smelling! :-) ) with our little "G"'s all gone off to their PR's. To paraphrase Gilbert & Sullivan (Pirates of Penzance) "While individually we love you all with affection unspeakable, taken collectively you produce a mess and noise that we view with a disgust that amounts to absolute detestation." Not quite detastation, but it does get quite noisy and messy the last 2 weeks (and I couldn't resist a good G&S misquote). So far we have heard from all the PR's except those for Gaius, Gordon and Gillian. Hopefully they will contact me once the PR letter gets sent to their PR's.

The day after turn-in we had our first COC (change of career) out of 2 litters. Galen was COC'd for having an over-bite, I guess they can't pick up things as well as needed for the program so they dismiss them early and let them just be pets. Not to worry, I have a friend who is ecstatic to be getting her for their first dog. She will get to grow up with 2 great kids in a great family, and I will get to see her grow up, something I haven't gotten to do with any of the pups yet. In addition, both Ginny and Gaylor will be raised in the Bay Area, so score for me!!! :-)


Galen


Gaius


Gordon


Gillian


Gemma


Gaylor


Ginny


Gypsy


Gilden


Godwin