Tuesday was one of those days where you meet yourself coming and going all day. I knew it was going to be a busy day, and I really thought I’d prepared for it, but in the end I found I was on the run all day.
The puppies now demand and require a lot more of my time. Oh I don’t mind that. They are so totally precious, I really do not mind getting down on the floor and playing with them, fixing their meals or cleaning their box. Well, maybe cleaning their box, but the rest of it is fine.
I particularly love to watch the pups now that they are running and jumping. Here is Fenway.
They now leap and jump! I love this shot of Curt!
And this one of Schnapps, too.
I got my hair done. Check. Picked up the mail. Check. And attended a meeting for the Library Trustees. I am in the running to fill a seat vacated by a woman who has moved to Florida. I wasn’t sure I wanted it that much, but it turns out, I do. So keep your fingers crossed for me.
Now I am sitting, feet up and blanket across my knees. Cold weather has come to New Hampshire. I’m afraid winter is on it’s way.
It was one of those days, filled with potential, and yet, it seemed disaster was following just behind me!
I woke feeling happy and nice. I had a good night sleep and actually wanted to get up for a change. Yes, I was rested and in good form!
The first thing I noticed was that Greta had a very enlarged teat. This required a visit to our Veterinarian. She has Mastitis, and needs to be on antibiotics, and medication to relieve the swelling and help dry her up.
Yes, the puppies are now weaned and eating puppy food and drinking water and a little puppy formula.
Okay, we went home after the Vet visit and gathered up our friends from Australia, and Arnie and Anneliese and off we went to see the beauty of Autumn!
We drove up into the “Notch” and saw the beauty of mother nature. Red, orange, and yellow leaves dotted the mountains. Lovely!!
I mentioned to Hubby that we needed to stop for lunch. Words I will will regret for at least the foreseeable future. We found a restaurant that advertised “Fish and Chips” for lunch, so we pulled in and got in the line waiting at the door for the lunch rush. I should have known. I should have walked away, but I didn’t.
We had the waiter from Hell! He brought warm, nearly cold water for Jill’s tea, never brought Hubby’s or my drink and it was terrible. I finally asked to speak to the restaurant manager and I complained. Another waiter came to help, but the food was terrible and none of us enjoyed it.
I got to the car and Anneliese needed to be walked. I slipped off her pants and left them next to my car. While I walked Anneliese I saw a woman pass my car and she looked at the pants and then kicked them under my car!
“No!” I yelled. “Those are for my dog!”
Too late. I ran back and had to lie down on the ground and retrieve the pants. This meant nearly crawling under my car. The woman was aghast. I tried to explain they were for my dog who was in heat, but she wasn’t very helpful.
I did get them, but they were soaked. They’d gone into a puddle under the car. So, I took a pair of pants out of my purse and put those on. Unfortunately I was so upset, I forgot to put the pad on the pants!
Okay, we saw beautiful leaves on our journey across the Kancamagus Highway.
It was beautiful and we had a great time. My neighbor went in and checked on Greta and the pups and Fritz, while we were gone.
The puppies are doing great, and I am holding a hot water bottle on Greta to help her teat. Poor baby girl. She is really uncomfortable with those swollen breasts of hers!
Oh my goodness, the puppies are all over three pounds now! I weighed them in this morning and couldn’t believe how much they had gained! They are all much more animated now and I hope next week we will have a warm day and I can get them outside for a little while.
You should see them run around the box and they have the sweetest little barks ever. Sort of, miniature dogs! lol!
Here they are in their puppy box!
I cannot believe how much they have changed and grown! Here is Calvin.
And Wally.
Curt and Fenway.
And Schnapps.
I was busy on Monday, as I have guests expected, almost any time from Australia. The last time they were here Greta was a baby and had come into heat for the first time. So what happens today? If you guessed that Anneliese is now in heat you would be right. I noticed just after lunch and now she has her little pants on!
No, life is never dull here!
Hubby and I ran out to the grocery store and shopped for food, and supplies before returning and having lunch. Then I was tearing into the house, so that all looks fresh and smells clean! The last room to do was the puppy room.
I got them all fed, the box cleaned and then they played with Makenna for half an hour. After that, they curled up and fell asleep.
I had to cross our beautiful state to go to see a doctor today. It’s a lovely time of year to do this, with the leaves changing and crisp Autumn winds. So, after feeding the pups their breakfast, I headed quickly to Weight Watchers, and then off I drove to Dartmouth. I saw my doctor and then began the trip home.
I felt a little peckish, so I stopped to get a “Hot Light Latte” for my drive back. I waited a few minutes after getting the coffee at the drive through before picking it up to drink. The girl had not placed the lid firmly in place and before I knew it the paper cup seemed to attack me with squirting coffee. It covered my light gray pants, the steering wheel and even the windshield of the car!
I will not tell you the terrible words that slipped passed my lips, let us just say, I was not a happy girl!
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I arrived back home and after throwing my pants into the washing machine, I came upstairs to my babies. Curt heard my voice, as I greeted the other dogs, and he started to fuss and whine. I went into the puppy room and there he was, waiting for me with bright eyes and a wagging tail!
I went in and one by one, I picked up the babies and held them. Here is Schnapps!
Fenway.
Wally.
And Calvin.
They are doing so well. Calvin, Curt and Schnapps are all over three pounds, with Fenway and Wally close behind.
They eat twice a day a gruel mixture, and by next week I will be starting to mix up puppy chow and make it soggy for them, to learn to eat.
Over the weekend I had a 48 hour virus of some sort. I didn’t move out of my recliner too often and found I had a wonderful nurse while I recovered. Was it Greta? No. Anneliese? No. Fritz? No. It was my sweetheart, Arnie! He hardly left my side. Here is a picture of my boy all snuggled up in the blankets with me. And yes, those are my super warm, leopard print, flannel pajamas!
I mean, just look at that sweet face!
I did get in to play and visit with the puppies, but I am more than grateful to Greta for being a totally awesome Mom to her kids.
They are growing like crazy and they are actually getting up on their little legs and walking around. Here is a short video of them walking today.
I also got a cute picture of Claus and Caspar together. Do you suppose they are twins or something? They seem to have this friendship and are always together.
I will leave you this morning with this picture of Christel and Caspar. They were playing like crazy and just cracked me up.
Our Saturday started with a Skype call to our pal down under in Australia. He is going on an adventure to Qatar and will be leaving tomorrow, so I wanted to wish him a safe journey.
Hubby and I had our breakfast, then headed off to the big city to get our flu shots and some last minute items that I’d forgotten when I did our weekly shopping. We were half way there when the skies opened and it started to rain hard. Luckily, we had two umbrellas and so when we got to the Pharmacy for our flu shots we had covering from the rain.
The Pharmacist gave us our shots. A very pleasant young woman named Stephanie, who had recently graduated from Pharmacology College. She was nice and kind and gave a very good injection.
After that we did a few errands before heading off to our Chinese restaurant for lunch. As we drove in we were surprised to see so many police cars, and officers in the area on foot. We surmised that it was a bank robbery, as nothing else would shut the area down, quite like this. I whipped out my cell phone and took two pictures. Not the best, but it gives you an idea of what we saw.
Poor Hubby. I’m afraid that all during my lunch, all I did was look over my shoulder at what was going on at the bank. Even our waiter, was chatting with us about the excitement. You see, this sort of stuff just doesn’t happen in the area of New Hampshire that we live in. I guess I should say, it didn’t used to….
We drove home and started to play with the pups. Arnie joined us and we got some pictures of him with the babies. Arnie, Me and Curt.
Arnie, Me and Claus.
Arnie and Christel.
We also got some close ups of the pups, showing how grown up they are getting.
Here is Curt!
Caspar.
Christel.
And here is a short video of my two week old babies!
Yes, Curt wins the contest, “Whose Eyes Will Open First”? When I got up this morning and looked into the whelping box, little old Curt was looking back at me with these half opened eyes!
The others all are close, but haven’t gotten to this point quite yet. I expect the next day or so to have everyone showing signs of eye opening!
Arnie continues to sleep in the puppy room with me. What a doll. If I go in for any reason he is right there with me, and loves to watch the babies. Anneliese and Fritz show no interest in the babies, but Arnie sure does.
The nice thing is that Greta doesn’t seem to mind his being in there any more. In fact she doesn’t even growl at him, and he just loves those babies!
Here are Calvin and Curt taking a nap together today.
Here is our Christel. She is quite a beauty!
Here is a very sleepy Claus.
The brood still snuggles all together.
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I went to see “Julie & Julia” today with Hubby. I have been waiting so long to go. What a fun movie! Meryl Streep was fabulous! I wonder if there is anything that she can’t do? I admit to almost drooling while watching the food being prepared on screen and I had a real urge to cook when we left the movie theater, so I came home and made lamb chops for our dinner! Oh Julia, you truly did excite the world with your cooking!
Thursday proved to be a very long and very busy day. Some of it was restful, like when I was getting my hair and nails done, but then I came back home and was consumed with puppy laundry, and cooking. Right now we have tomatoes coming in and we have far more than we can possibly eat, so I am making home-made spaghetti sauce with it. I’ve frozen some of the sauce to enjoy in the middle of a snowstorm this winter, and the rest I am using to make things like Eggplant Parmesan, and Lasagna.
The entire sauce making from beginning to end (including dinner), lasted from 1:30 until 7 pm! During this time I was letting dogs in and out, feeding Greta, who is constantly hungry, and checking on the puppies.
I actually didn’t take any pictures of them on Thursday. I will tell you though that their eyes are just starting to open. There are now lines where the eye lids meet, instead of the way the puppies are born, with the eyes tightly fused together. I wonder which puppy will have their eyes open first?
Arnie continues to be my special little guy. He follows me everywhere and sits by my feet when I am working in the kitchen. If I call to him he runs to me and leaps into my arms! What a guy!
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Today is September 11, 2009. Eight years have now passed since that terrible morning. So many innocent people died, and our safe little world forever changed. I have never understood how anyone could do such an evil thing. It still boggles my mind, and there are times I still hear the voices of those who were on those planes, in the World Trade Center, or in the Pentagon, cry out from their fiery graves.
The victims came from more than 90 countries around the world.
The following are the number of people who died at each site:
World Trade Center 2,823 (includes airline passengers)
Pentagon 125 (not including plane victims)
Flight 11 – 92 people on board
Flight 175 – 64 people on board
Flight 77 – 64 people on board
Flight 93 – 44 people on board
I wrote a long post last night about the puppies. It was beautiful. Eloquent! One of my very best! I had it all saved and set up and this morning when I checked….It had disappeared!
Granted, I was tired. I’d also taken something for a headache, but still, the post should have been there!
I will try to recreate my masterpiece, but frankly, since the blog thieves got it, I’m not sure that this is possible!
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On Monday we had Greta the the Vet to get out her IV. She is doing remarkably well and we are all thrilled. She lost 4 1/2 pounds and is back to eating and drinking as she normally does.
Each puppy was examined and they are doing well also. That is a real blessing!
I started to think on the drive back, how my life is really quite amazing. You see, when I was young I knew I wanted to get married, have children and be a Mommy. I could see that as clear as day. What I had no clue about was, what did I want to do as a career.
I’m a nurturer by heart, yet I’m also pretty emotional, so being a nurse, or something like that wouldn’t really work for me. I’d be destroyed if I ever lost a patient, even though I know that this is the cycle of life.
Then in 1996 I met the most wonderful little doggy named Shubi and my life changed. She showed me many things, but after losing my youngest daughter, and many years of depression after that, Shubi showed me how to love again and how to live!
And she never said a word! (Just an occasional bark!)
So now, here I am a Granny to 14 puppies total, with the prospect of Anneliese giving me more little miracles to love and then move along to their forever friends.
You see, for me, that is the joy. I am able to bring these little creatures into the world, love them, teach them all that that they need to know about being little doggies, and then send them on to their new forever homes.
I found my music in the midst of this crazy world. The music is of mewling newborn puppies, barking growing puppies, and the laughter of the people who come to get their new baby from me.
And to think, it all started with a little puppy from Landshut, (in Bavaria) Germany.
As it is late on Thursday night and I am pretty tired this will be a brief accounting of today’s events. Most all of it revolves around getting ready for Greta’s babies.
We had a quick Chinese lunch, and then set about shopping for dog food, people food and I bought some puppy formula.
We had the dogs out in the yard, Hubby picked Castleton Plums, which he sold to a farm stand, and somehow I still managed to get the mail.
We had dinner plans with friends of ours tonight. Wonderful steak tips and salad. Delicious! As the sun went down and the sky got dark, the temperatures dropped and I am sitting here, next to Greta, feeling the cold, and drinking some hot tea.
Greta just gets bigger, and is showing the first signs that she will multiply in the next few days. I can hardly wait!
