(For Thursday Thirteen, please scroll down)
I wanted to post a picture of each pup before their eyes open. This way you will have a chance to see them before and after. The male, Arnie is so handsome and so are the girls, but I just love Arnie’s darker coat.
I imagine their eyes will open in the next few days and then the fun begins! Until then, enjoy these recent photo’s.
Anita
Angelika, (the big one)
Anya
Anneliese
Arnie, Angelika, Anneliese, & Anya
Aren’t they cute?
1. The first thing I do each morning is check on the babies
2. I try to hold and pat each puppy every day.
3. Most of them like it.
4. I always spend time stroking and talking to Greta and telling her how much I love her.
5. I also tell her what a great Mama she is. After all every new mother needs encouragement, even a doggy Mama!
6. Greta is spending a bit more time out of the whelping box and back with the humans.
7. But no one better go near those pups or she’ll come running!
8. She did finally let Fritz come close to the box to see the babies.
9. She only curled her lip once!
10. I am still sleeping next to the whelping box.
11. I can hardly wait to get back to my own bed.
12. I wonder when that will be?
13. I also wonder when their eyes will open?
I was pregnant, for what seemed like forever. In February of 1976 I found out that I was expecting my first child. The truly amazing fact here is, I’d been told when I was a teenager that due to some serious “female” trouble, it was doubtful I would ever carry a child. Guess they were wrong.
My due date was November 29th, but by mid December both my doctor and I thought perhaps I had miscalculated somewhere. I was pretty sure I hadn’t, and eventually an amniocentesis would prove me correct.
Finally on December 20th at 9:15 in the morning, Amanda Mae came into this world! When I saw her little cherubic face, and pouting mouth I was instantly in love and believed that it simply couldn’t get any better than that one moment in time.
But, I was wrong, it kept getting better and better. As a small child she amazed us by advancing so fast that she literally scared us at times. She took her first steps at 7 1/2 months old, and was talking in long sentences by a year. She grew so fast that before I knew it she was ready to go off to school, and she never looked back.
Over the years she was like a sponge soaking up all the knowledge and information that was offered. I could see a frustration at times that the information wasn’t coming fast enough, and with that frustration an anger too, but she kept striving and working, not just academically, but personally.
She was forced to endure something that many young girls at the age 8 should not have to, and yet she did not allow that to taint her outlook on life.
Mandy has grown into a fine, loving, beautiful, and intelligent woman. I look at her, and I listen to her and I am proud of the fabulous person that she is. I don’t just love and admire her because she is my daughter, but because she is also someone that I call friend.
I could never find all of the words to say how special Mandy is or how much she means to me, but today I want to tell her how I feel and to wish her a very happy birthday!!!
I love you, sweetie! You are the best Christmas present that I ever got! Happy Birthday!!!!
I got out the video camera and shot a little footage today. After all, since the puppies are now a week old, I needed to commemorate the day.
The nice thing is that Greta is allowing me to handle each pup without becoming upset. Last week she did not want me to hold them for too long and she would get upset if I did. This week, she almost welcomes it. As long as, of course, I pay attention to her too!
If I had known how much fun raising pups was, I would have started doing this a long time ago.
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
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Annoying
Poison Ivy! All I have to do is look at it and I get it! Which is why, it is annoying!
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.
1. Seeing the puppies born this week.
2. Helping to revive the babies after their birth.
3. Knowing that Greta would be okay after her surgery.
4. Seeing how quickly the puppies continue to grow!
5. Seeing what a great mother Greta is.
6. Getting my Christmas letter written and printed out.
7. Getting all the Christmas cards addressed and mailed.
8. Finishing up my baking.
9. Delivering my goodies to my neighbors.
10. Having Fritz do well with the entire puppy experiance. At least, so far.
11. Getting the Christmas lights up.
12. Did I mention the puppies?
13. Having a dream of mine fulfilled.