Just as the last kitten goes....

We went away for 5 days in Sept, the first time we have been away as a family for more than a weekend, and Grahams parents very bravely offered to look after all the animals for us. They did an absolutely sterling job for which we are very grateful but unfortunately on the first day they were here (before we left) they opened one of the kitchen windows fully. Miss Tibbs was calling and very quickly took advantage of the open window and disappeared. As soon as I realised she had gone I let Manuel out because although I didn't want any more kittens this year, I figured is Miss T was going to be naughty I would far rather it was with Manuel than the local Romeo! They both returned, together, some hours later with smiles on their faces.
Yesterday the last sphynx kitten was leaving for Scotland and to be honest we were looking forward to being kitten free for a while, I had arranged to take her a couple of hours up the road to help with her new mums traveling time but before we got out the door Tibbs produced 4 lovely rex kittens (well done Manuel!). She has got 2 blue boys, 1blue and white boy and 1 lilac and white girl. All are fit and well.

Next year is going to be a much quieter year, I am only planning 1 litter of toy pups and 1 or possibly two litters of kittens.

Avaialbility update - 1 girl re available

Just a very quick update on who is still available. Dollar has 2 silver boys  and there has been a bit of change with Audrey. There are 2 boys left but we also have a little girl as the gentleman that had booked her is now going for a boy. I had 3 people on a reserve list for her but out of those 2 had already found pups elsewhere and the third didn't respond to my message, as always if you would like more info please get in touch. Will try and update with more photos later today.

Calm before the storm

Everything is chugging along nicely at the moment. All the pups are doing very well, all now have their eyes open though Dollars lot were a few days ahead here. Now that they can see it is very exciting for the pups when mum comes to feed them, they are all up on their legs wobbling around like faulty clockwork toys, hard to imagine the elegance they will have as adult dogs! Won't be long before they are all over the place causing havoc, it's at this point that the other adult dogs generally want to leave home :-)

They are finding good homes and out of 18 pups there are only 6 still available, considering they are only just over 2 weeks old I am delighted as it is so reassuring to know they have secure and loving homes waiting for them. If you think you may be interested in on of the remaining pups I would be very happy to talk to you. I know a lot of people have been following Tiny Tim (last picture) in particular and I am pleased to say that he is one of the pups who has a home waiting for him, with a 6 year old std poodle to teach him the ropes :-)

Getting bigger (well most are)

Things are nice and settled here at the moment and we are making the most of the chilled atmosphere, which will evaporate once the puppies are a couple of weeks older and start doing their 'great escape' routines.
I think Dollar got confused about different types of pups as hers look more like seal pups than puppies! Her litter are generally bigger than Audreys pups but one in particular, Big Bertha, is huge. The contrast is Audreys smallest pup, Tiny Tim. I had my doubts about whether or not he would survive but he has proved himself to be a little fighter. All he required was a bit of help to ensure some quality time at the milk bar, now he is a feisty little chap and is nearly always first for dinner.

I am expecting to see some eyes opening in the next couple of days. All the bitches from both litters were booked within 24hrs of being born. Most of the dog puppies are available so if you were wanting a beautiful pup from sound health tested parents reared in a real family environment please don't write these off purely because they are boys, in fact as a generalization male dogs tend to be more affectionate and hormonally stable.

Surpise Surprise

 Well Audrey caught me out on two counts today. This morning she didn't eat her breakfast but as she has been off her food during this pregnancy I didn't worry too much about that. I did however take her temp just to check and it was 100.4, I would expect it to drop to about 98/99 prior to giving birth. As all appeared normal I loaded all the girls into the van for their daily walk, Audrey shares a pen with Spirit on these journeys. Our walk is just over 10 miles away and I have to use a busy dual carriageway to get there, we were about a mile away when I heard noises coming from the back. I had to get off the dual carriageway to pull over only to discover Audrey had had a puppy!
I am not known for sedate driving but I made the journey home in record time with a cold wet puppy on my lap (I didn't know the van could go that fast). Fortunately the whelping box was already set up so Audrey was able to go straight into it.
The second surprise she had in store for me was the number of pups she was carrying. I think the fact that she hadn't been eating very well gave a false impression as she looked a lot smaller than Dollar, who had 8 pups yesterday, she also has a very deep chest so the pups can sit hidden in there. She produced 10 pups with absolutely no problems and at a very civilized hour. We have 6 boys and 4 girls. A couple of these are very small pups but appear strong so hopefully they will thrive, will just have to keep a careful eye out to ensure thay get their fair share of milk as, like Dollar, Audrey only has 6 nipples. Every single puppy is a lovely dark colour and although I will wait for a second opinion to confirm it, I think I have a mixture of reds and apricots.

What a night

 Just goes to show, you should never take anything to do with animals for granted. This is Dollars 3rd litter and the previous two, although the labours have been fairly drawn out, have gone very smoothly, this one wasn't quite so straight forward. Dollar started early signs of labour early yesterday morning. Things progressed through the day until the early evening, by which time she was panting heavily and was having contractions. She continued through the night with both the panting and contractions gaining intensity but by the time it got to 4:30am she still hadn't started to push. I had to call the vet.
Once at the surgery it was established that Dollar was ready to have the pups so we tried an injection of Ocytocin to try and start the pushing. This would normally take effect in about 10 - 20 mins. Half an hour later we decided that nothing was going to happen so she would need a caesarian section. Whilst the vet went to call the nurse in and prepare for surgery Dollar decided that perhaps she would have a little push. When the vet returned I asked her to check to see if there was any sign of a pup, she did and there was. The 1st pup was safely delivered in the consult room followed fairly quickly by her sister.
At this point I left the surgery with Dollar and pups and another jab, just in case.
By the time we got home there were 3 pups and over the next couple of hours she had a trouble free time delivering 5 more. We have ended up with 4 boys and 4 girls. At the moment it looks like they will all be silvers or blues but they are still wet so I will have another look in a while, probably once I have had some sleep!

 

Now I am just waiting to do it all again on Friday with Audrey :-)