About the new litters …
Well things here are settling down as the weather heats up. Sunday June 6th, Annis showed signs of going into labor so we headed to the whelping room for the night. Around 5am on June 7th, she started to deliver. A few days previously the vet had said she saw eleven skeletons with two possible shadows. After each pup was born and Annis had a chance to clean them up, we would weigh the pup, snap a quick photo, and give it back to mom who insisted on cleaning them up some more before introducing them to the milk bar.
All the pups were within a few ounces of each other. No teeny tiny puppies this time around. The puppies are all sables with white collars and white tipped tails. Only a few have blazes or spots to help us out with identification. I spent time yesterday sketching simple line drawings of the pups to help me know who is who.
Annis is doing a great job feeding them all. They all are gaining every day and we haven’t had to do any supplemental feeding yet. I noticed she feeds them and then leaves for about ten minutes. Letting them settle down, a few still squeaking in protest, she grabs a snack and then goes back in and feeds those that didn’t fall asleep.
Annis is still in good condition and as always when her food bowl is empty, she brings it to Tom to be filled. Annis isn’t leaving her farming duties undone. When I sent Tippin out to drive off a wild Muscovy Duck harassing the duck flock, Annis took it upon herself to drive the poultry back into their pen to keep them safe. When I said, “Annis, come in, sweetheart. Ariel can do it!”, she just looked at me as if to say, “Nah, mom. This is fun!”
Litter breakdown: 5 females, 7 males.
Mia was very interested in Annis’s puppies, but has wisely kept her distance. On Tuesday morning she would come get me or Lily and then go sit in her baby pool and look at us. In the afternoon she was no longer coming out and Lily could see the contractions starting.
After the first puppy, Mia decided under Lily’s desk would be better than her baby pool. She had her puppies from 5pm to 11pm. The vet said she saw seven puppies with two more possible shadows. Mia took a break around 9pm after seven puppies were born. Lily wanted to move her into the clean, warm and fuzzy pool. I told her we needed two hours after the last puppy before we moved mom. At 10:20pm Lily texted me: another Merle and I came running to check it out. After another 40 minutes or so, we had a surprise. Number 9, much to our astonishment, was a blue merle. Around 1am Lily was able to install them in the pool and everyone got to sleep a bit. Mia was a trooper—the last pup was 14 ounces!
We love how Mia goes out to have a potty break and then runs back to be with her puppies. Annis is more of a saunterer and likes to have a run around the yard before returning. Mia got out her paint box and we have piebald, merle, tri, and sable, with a mix of long and natural stub tails.
Litter breakdown: 4 females, 5 males.
On day four we started to do 2-3 minutes of Puppy Culture and early socialization.
If you are interested in a puppy from these litters, please fill out an application. We will be doing Volhard testing July 7th and we will be placing puppies by personality at that time.