Category: Puppies

Today was the first day that Greta left the pups for longer periods of time. She seemed to need to get away from it all. By “it all” I mean, five hungry little parasites that are literally sucking the life out of her! I was amazed by the fact that the pups are now a week old, and have doubled their birth weights. Of course they do nothing but eat and sleep. A occupation that I would love to have! Greta also has done her share of sleeping today. Real deep sleep.

Hubby decided that it simply wasn’t fair for Arnold to have a name and not the girls. He asked me why I was dragging my feet? Well, quite honestly, it was because I wasn’t really happy with one of the names. As much as I like the name April, it just didn’t seem right for a puppy. So we looked over a list of German names and decided on Anita. It passed the yelling out the back door for your dog test. Ah–neee—tah! Yes, that would work.

So here it is,
Miss Yellow, Anita
Miss Green, Anneliese
Miss Pink, Angelika
Miss Red, Anya

I’ve noticed the ears on the puppies are starting to open and I suspect two of the pups will have eyes that start to open soon too. There sealed eyes almost look swollen, so I suspect that this may be the case.

Meanwhile, I will have to start calling them by their names, that is if I can remember them!

I was watching Greta nurse the puppies this morning and I noticed how vigorously Miss Pink nurses. All I could think was, if my babies had nursed like that, they would have gone on bottles before they even left the hospital!

The puppies are doing well though. Miss Pink is now just over a pound, with the other four coming in at just under a pound. Miss Yellow and of course Miss Pink have both doubled their birth weights in a week! To show you how much bigger pink is than the others here is a picture of her next to her sister Miss Red.

Greta is starting to spend more time out of the whelping box and away from the pups, yet there is always a part of her that causes her to rush back and check on them and make sure they are doing okay. Last night she crawled out of the box and came and lay down with me on my mattress. She cuddled for a while. I think she has missed me as much as I have missed her this past week.

Just think, by this time next week the puppies should have their eyes open! Wow! This is going so fast! Maybe I’ll just have to keep them all a little longer than I thought….LOL

New puppies are like new babies. You just can’t stop looking at them or talking about them, or taking pictures of them, let alone video’s! People now see me coming and run in the other direction, lest I whip out this mornings pictures

I know. You are all getting tired of hearing about my puppies, right? You want me to get back to talking about…….well let’s see, I talk about Hubby or my dogs, so you are out of luck. It’s either them or nothing!

Actually, Hubby came into the puppy room today and said, “You aren’t going to sit there and stare at those puppies all day, are you?”

“Well, yeah!” Why did he think I had Greta have them?

I did get up and do a little house work, and I even managed to cook him meals, and still check on the babies every two seconds.

I thought I could sneak in with my video camera when Hubby was down working on the car, but of course he came up stairs for something and caught me coming out of the puppy room with the camera in my hand! Rats! However, I got this cute video!

Miss Piggy Pink, remains the big gainer in the group. I think it’s because she is literally always eating! Our boy, Arnie is right behind her weight wise and then the other girls fill in with Miss Red in last place, but they all have big, healthy bellies and that makes me smile a lot!

I’ve always known I wanted to do this, but it was never the right time until now. With Greta it just feels so right.

We’ve been waiting for Greta to bring forth the fruit of her womb before we printed up and posted our Christmas cards/letter (you remember, snail mail?). We try to make our letters a bit amusing, and yet fact filled for the people that we do not see very often. There have been some years where the best we could come up with was, “..and the year is finally over!” However, this year, despite some trying times, we found we had much to be thankful for. Especially after last Sunday, with Greta’s C-section.

I went in and lay down on the mattress next to the whelping box today and just watched the puppies as they nursed. They are little piggies, I tell you, greedy little piggies, and Greta is a fabulous mother. Today was the first day that she was back to being my girl. She happily allowed me to pat her, she kissed my face when I was cleaning out the box and when she wanted either food, or to go out, she actually jumped out of the box and came to get me. Yes, my girl was back.

Hubby and I sat down and selected 4 girls names that we like for the female puppies. Anya, April, Angelika and Anneliese. All look nice with my kennel name of Dackel Princess and will look nice on the pedigree. Best of all, they are pretty names. We like Annaliese the best so we will most likely use this name for our puppy. Of course the boys name is Arnold, or Arnie for a nickname.

After watching the puppies and finishing the Christmas cards, I lay down on the sofa and fell asleep. I had a nice fleece blanket, the drone of a soap opera in the background and sleep deprivation that I have simply not caught up on, that put me into a near coma like sleep. When I finally woke up I felt groggy and spacey. I guess I need a few more naps in order to catch up.

If any of you need a puppy fix, here is today’s picture.

My resume is growing. I went from being a Canine Mid-wife, to Canine Puppy Nurse. What a wonderful job this is! I weigh them, I make sure that they find their Mom and that they stay nice and warm.

Overnight on Monday I was awakened by Greta as she literally jumped on the mattress I was sleeping on, barely missing my head. Have I mentioned that I am sleeping on a twin bed mattress on the floor next to the whelping box?

In any case, she needed to go out. This was the first time she wanted to go out on her own. Of course she was frantic to get back inside and back to her babies as soon as she could. I had to keep a leash on her so that I could get her little pants on her before I let her go and she raced back to her kids!

She’s fun to watch. She stretches out and allows all the kids to nurse, cleans them and moves them around if they miss a nipple. Oh yes, I do nipple management too, as these poor babes don’t have their eyes open yet. I need to remember that for the resume.

I spent about an hour snapping pictures and here are todays shots. I hope you enjoy them.

Aren’t they sweet?

Logy. Yep, that’s what I feel like today. Tired, confused, almost like I have the worst case of Jet-lag ever! The funny thing is, it’s all from lack of sleep.

You see on Saturday I woke up at 6:30 in the morning. I was awake all day, made a zillion batches of Christmas cookies, and then just as I was getting to sleep Saturday night Greta went into labor. I tried to doze in between her contractions, but I was also watching her intently. It seemed every time I thought she might be close to starting some serious labor, she stopped.

I thought she might deliver at 2 AM or 4 AM, and then nothing. That concerned me even more than her actually having contractions. So I called the Vet on Sunday morning. He asked me to come in so he could examine her. So, off I went. After the exam and the x-rays they could see that there was a big pup in the breech position and that although it was possible that the pup could move (they actually tried to move it), I was thinking it wasn’t too likely. My Vet and his wife, who is also a vet, and two technicians were summoned, and I raced home, to drop off Emily and grab my cell phone (which I had forgotten), and was just heading back when my cell phone rang and it was Hubby. He had gone skiing that morning and after I told him what was going on he said he would meet me at the Vets.

Hubby arrived just as Dr. Chris was starting the operation. Dr. Julie and one technician and I waited for the babies, as we were the revival team. The other technician assisted Dr. Chris with the surgery.

Dr. Chris worked hard and soon babies were being born. Our job was to dry them, stimulate them and get them breathing on their own. It was hard work, and I learned so much that day about how precious life is. You see once they give a mother anesthesia, it goes right through to the pups. So these dogs literally had to be awakened from their anesthesia induced sleep.

The babies woke, Hubby took many pictures and we all then waited for Greta’s surgery to end. Hers was the hardest part of the entire production. Soon they woke her up and as she is a nursing mother, she is beautifully stitched down the center of her belly with an invisible line of stitches. We put her into an open crate and put the babies with her and soon she was licking them and nursing them and showing great motherly concern. It was so magical. How does a dog know that these are her pups when she wasn’t there when they were born? I do not know, but somehow she did and she is a fabulous mother!

I got to sleep about 8:30 Sunday night. I just went in to check on the pups and I was out like a light. I slept like the dead, but still today I felt Logy.

Yes, I love that word. It says it all.
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