Pupdate

 I'll start by saying that both mums and all the pups are coming along beautifully. We had a bit of a shuffle about last week as although Whoopi is a brilliant mum (one of the most devoted and natural mums I've had) she was struggling to produce enough milk for the whole brood, so when her pups were about 3 days old I popped the two smallest in with Florin. It worked like a dream,  Florin was more than happy to have the extras and Whoopi didn't show any sign of being upset at losing them. Almost immediately all of Whoopi's pups filled out and started to have proper growth surges, so I think it really was the right thing to do.

There remains a significant size difference between Florins pups and her fosters, despite there being just 3 days age difference, but I suspect that they will be similar sizes by the time they are 5/6 weeks old. 

I am pleased to say that all the pups have got fabulous homes waiting for them and can only apologise to those who were disappointed this time. 

These are a few pictures from the last week. 

Whoopi is a mummy :)

 I hadn't mentioned anything about Whoopi's litter because, despite getting the all clear from 2 independant vets, after her accident as a puppy (subluxation of vertebrae  in her neck, big bleed on the brain and a fractured pelvis) I was concerned about her ability to maintain and deliver a litter of puppies. As it turned out, my concerns were groundless, she coped with pregnancy in the same way as any dog with a large litter and yesterday she delivered 11 beautiful pups without any assistance. 

She is proving to be an absolute natural mum and is just the calmest girl with her pups. 

It has been a long and tiring couple of days here but I will go through the puppy enquiries in the next day or so, but please give me a shout if you don't hear from me as my head is a bit all over the place. At this stage I am only allocating pups to those who have previously been in contact, I am not taking any new enquiries as I am fairly sure I have more applicants than pups. 

It's going to be a busy but fun few weeks, I purposely mated the two girls together as I suspected Florin would have a small litter and I wanted to know that if Whoopi had any problems I had another girl available to help out, I am hopeful that this won't be necessary because Whoopi is currently doing a sterling job. 

There are 11 there, honestly, but photographing dark puppies with their black mum is proving to be a challenge!

Florins pups are growing like weeds, well they should be as there are only two of them, lol. 

We have puppies :)

 For the last week I have been sleeping on the lounge floor in order to monitor Florin whilst waiting for her to whelp. Sunday night was uneventful, and having taken her temp twice a day for over a week (a bitches temp should drop to below 98 degrees 24 hrs before whelping) I knew that her temp had remained stable, interestingly I learnt that her normal body temp is between 98.4 and 99.2 which is low, probably due to her being an exceptionally fit dog. Monday morning Florin happily went out in the garden at about 7am for her ablutions, she came back in desperate for her breakfast which she wolfed down in seconds, this was at about 7:20am. After her breakfast I was just giving her a quick fuss and felt a tremor go through her body, so we went back to the lounge where everything was set up for the pups arrival. Within minutes she was panting and pushing, the 1st puppy arrived at 7:40 am! It would appear that Florin hadn't read any of the books on signs of impending labour, lol. 

Anyway, the net result is a massive litter of, drum roll, 2! She has 1 girl and 1 boy, both of which have homes waiting for them.  I know this is going to be disappointing to so many people, but if you were waiting for a puppy please drop me a line as there is likely to be an option b :) 

Another fabulous day at the beach

 Yesterday I met up with friends who have a couple of Itzapromise poodles, and a family who would like one,  for a walk on the beach, a great time was had by all. 

Florin is very fit and well, she now has a small but definite baby bump :) 

They're cooking :)

 Florin had a scan last week and she is definitely pregnant, though once again it is looking like a small litter. That said puppies can, and quite often do, tuck themselves out of sight only to surprise us when they arrive. 

Florin doesn't look obviously pregnant at the moment, she should start to bloom in the next week or so, but I can see a definite change of shape in her. 

On Friday we had trip to Saunton sands with my friend and her 4 poodles, it was a pretty dull day so I didn't get as many photos as normal, but here are some of them anyway :) 

In other news we had the first fire of the season, it proved popular :)