am so excited, I'm almost beside myself. We took Estee in to the vet today, and had her x-rayed so we could count the puppies.
Now before I tell you how many she has coming, I'll have to draw this out so there's a little suspense.
I went home walked both dogs, put Remmy in the x-pen while leaving Estee outside on her leash hooked on a handy trowel stuck in the ground for just such a purpose. She was looking at me not knowing if this was good news or bad news.
When I came back out and took her towards the car she got excited and jumped in. We drove to the school and picked up K and all K wanted was to have that dog sit on her lap. Alas, it was not going to happen, that dog belongs to me, and no other lap will do, so we let Estee sit by herself.
When we got to the vet I got out my handy black book, my purse, and my notes on heat, ties, dates and stuff. I marched into the vet's office with K following behind in charge of the dog.
Estee hates the vet's office. She couldn't have been more pleased when I took her in last week, just about this time, stood her up on the scale and weighed her (9.4 lbs). She picked up the vibe that she was going to experience more than just getting weighed and she wanted out. She tugged on that leash and pulled towards the door the whole time. I did manage to prop her on the scale and she is now 10.2 lbs so we know those babies are growing.
The vet was having a crazy day with dogs, cats and people coming and going, we finally got a room got her on the examining table for a temp which was 101.2 degrees.
I peppered the vet assistant with questions she started to blanch -- it was her second day and I discovered we both knew about the same, not much. The vet came in and so he got the rapid fire questions and he held his own nicely. I took notes, got his home phone number in case of emergency, and then he picked up my little darling and took her into the other room for the x-ray.
While he was gone I went over my notes with K so she would understand what we would be watching for, and we didn't have to wait too long before he came back and we trampled down the hallway into the room with the x-ray light. He flipped off the overhead, threw on the wall light pushed the x-ray under the clip and watched us try and figure out what was a puppy and what was poop.
They are soooooo beautiful, I feel like they are my own babies, we could see their little heads and their little spines and we counted them together. 1, 2, 3....4! We're having four puppies! I'M SO EXCITED IT'S NOT SIX!
We discussed the number of pups and the vet gave us the upside and downside, with 6 they come out easier because they're smaller, but with the smaller pups you have additional health concerns. If you only have two, the pups can grow too large and be difficult to get out. Four sounds perfect. I'm pleased as punch :-)
Well, that's our news. We'll keep you posted.
We're happy as a puppy,
Carol
May 21 3:45 PM
I
'm feeling like I have "the watched pot that never boils" syndrome. I laid down to take a nap with my girl and petted her profusely. She started panting and I said to myself, "A sign, and a sign!" And then she looked at me out of the corner of her, (just like her brother!), and I interpreted that as, "give me a break."
I keep wondering at what point does she realize that she has puppies inside of her. Does she think that she is going to be this big forever, with rolls and heaves happening inside that never seem to stop...will she want me nearby when the process starts or will she snap and forget who I am in the face of the rapture and serious business of motherhood? When I became a mom, I guarantee you I had EVERY mom hormone and instinct kick in when I brought my baby home. When she cried in the middle of the night my heart raced and the earth stood still until I knew everything was ok. Should I expect things tol be different? Different wonderful I hope.
Sharon told me about the blankets, and that she used to send Christmas presents to each pup each year. Now she sends a donation to the humane society to honor the puppy and I like that idea a lot. We have a 'puppy pool' at work -- gave me an excuse to go around and talk to everyone about our pups -- like I need an excuse to talk! No charge to enter the pool, and I promised the winner a Starbucks coffee. Bring on the Starbucks, I'm ready for puppies!
Carol
Diane replied:
C
arol, hang in there the first time is the worst. Just a little more time.
We usually do not send our pups to new homes until they are about 12 weeks old. I think because they are a longer lived dog that they need the extra time to become a dog and spend time with their litter mates. If you read about dog development you will find I think it the fifth or sixth weeks are the time they learn how to be a dog and that the interaction with the litter mates is what creates this. You will find that during this time it will seem like they are killing each other barking snapping and growling at each other. This is just their way to learn who they are.
If you want to use my booklet that I send out you are welcome to use it. I will send you a Word copy of it and you can modify and edit (spelling and all) as you see fit. I have also started to send a health pamphlet that gives the new owners a place to write down the vet visits and shots. Sharon crochets a blanket for each of her pups. We just make a pad for the bottom of the crate. Let me know and I will send you all.
Make sure you let us know when the blessed event has happened. I would not be surprised if was in the middle of the night.
Diane
May 22: Boy born 3:55 AM; Girl Born 6:48 AM;
I
can thank Diane for saving the little girls life. She coached me
on the pendulum swing if they are not breathing. Had to do it twice and
got a gasp of air both times, so figure it was well worth my racing
heart beat.
We have TWO more to go. Estee was slow to get the gist of things but
had me in tears when I watched her lick her little ones. I had lots of
competition on the crying front, these two little ones are BIG talkers,
mew, mew, mew. Thought I had kittens.
Carol
Details on how events transpired.
C
elebrate with us the birth of Estee's puppies.
Male 4.9 oz, Female 5.4 oz, then at this point Estee stalled out and we
took her to the emergency vet. She had a pup that was very large (in
comparison) and we were thankful to be at the vets because had we been
at home I would have never forgiven myself, as this one did not make it
and did not come home with us. Vet tried valiantly to save, tech made
heroic attempts after vet called it, but was not to be. I would never
have been able to have aided this one's delivery. Vet said she had to
pull on this one harder than she would have ever wanted someone at home
to have to do. We said our goodbyes and we are ok..
After this pup, came her last pup, Female 5.1 oz.. Came out like a
bullet. Once all were delivered Estee's countenance changed from
struggling mother in delivery to content and happy mama. It was
amazing. She had worked so hard to get the one out, and I feel bad that
it didn't work out better, but we go forward and celebrate life!
After all the final checks, the paperwork, arranging and such I
collapsed into bed. Thought I'd sleep till tomorrow, but little mews
next to me brought I out of my deep slumber and I feel a bit revived.
We are not distraught, we are so happy to have our last little girl and
our wonderful little mama. They fell in love with Estee at the vets. "I
just love this dog," we kept hearing. She was very calm with all the
prodding, shots and concern. And they were very encouraging to me as
the birth manager, what relief.
Since it was my mom's birthday we named the last one after her, "Wicked
Wilma," a character in a children's book that we love.
So much happiness here, so much beauty in life, so much worry over.
Thank you everyone for your support and kindness.
No sad condolences please. I am so happy with the beautiful pups we have
that nothing will over shadow their beautiful sweetness and the joy of
having our wonderful Estee.
Carol
May 24
I
think I'm coming out of my stupor. By the end of the day Sunday I
wondered how anyone can breed dogs, there is so much potential trauma
for the human and decisions to make and worries, and panic. Ee gads!
Then after a good nights rest and after adoring my beautiful bolos
I'm
wondering how I could go forward without doing it again.
Estee is a very attentive mother. She nipped Kynn when she had had
enough attention, tears for our poor daughter, but she is now fully
concentrating on Remmy. In fact, we took him to the school yard
tonight
and let him run his little heart out. His been very quiet lately. I
hold him up at the door of my room so he can see Estee but he is not
allowed in, by her or us! Last night Kynn took Remmy out to the
park
behind the house and a big dog scare him and he went running to
Kynn
so they are getting along just fine.
If Estee didn't love me as much as she does she wouldn't let me laud
over the babies like I do. When she's had enough of me she hovers
over
the babes and tries to tell me very, very gently, "that's enough."
Little Wilma weighed the same today as
yesterday so I called the vet (he is so nice to us) and we talked
about
the pups. I ended up going home at lunch and weighed her again and
discovered she was up a 1/4 ounce so my mind was put at ease. I
thought
the worrying was over after the delivery, hah!
I can watch these grow from moment to moment. The 2nd day they looked
bigger to me. And tonight I notice that "Mr. Parsley" was getting
some
pigment to his nose. Haven't been able to get that good of a look at
the other ones. Have you seen pigment come in that quickly? Estee is
white as the driven snow and where she's not white she's pink. Remmy
has more pigment, can't explain it, just see it.
Estee has a hard time leaving her pups to go potty, but I make her
go.
Man can that dog run home when she is done! I haven't seen her move
that fast on a potty break since she was a pup.
My Mom LOVED that the pups were born on her birthday, AND the neatest
thing is that her name is Wilma so now she even has a namesake.
I'm not sure my mom or sis will get a puppy, but I think they'll
enjoy
watching them grow. I got an email today from a guy from Florida who
lost his 18 year old Bichon. He found out about the Bolognese on the
AKC site when he looked at the Foundation service and saw a
picture of
YOUR dog. He found my web-site from there. We've corresponded and he
sounds very interested. He is coming to Seattle in August to visit
his
two sons, so it just might work out.
My sister predicts that our little boy will be the pick up the litter
and she also predicts that this little boy will love her. Like father
like son. I took some pictures of Remmy tonight -- I've been
trying to
get a picture of him squared up. I haven't got the pose I really want
but I'll send you a couple anyway. He was so happy tonight, he ran
back
and forth from Kynn to me and ran circles around Kynn. It was a
picture out of a story.
I am so happy with my flock of Bolognese. It is just simply
wonderful.
There's nothing like a baby, and I've got three!
Carol
May 25. To My Friends
F
eel free to live vicariously thru our puppy adventure -- maybe that
will help with your brooding :-)
I am feeling great. I am completely head over heels in love with my
baby trio. Loving my mama goes without saying.
Kynn is dedicating herself this week to Rembrandt and giving him lots
of attention. She packed us a picnic dinner (peanut butter sandwiches
w/ no jelly, crackers, cheese and pretzels) and we went to a fenced in
park and let him run his little heart out. What a happy boy he was.
Carol
How Our Pups Got Their Baby Names
O
ur litter is named after characters in Kaye Umanski's children's book,
"Wilma's Wicked Revenge." Umanski lives in Crouch End, North London.
Humour and music play a big part in her life and work which made this
book absolutely delightful. If you get a chance to listen to the book
on tape I guarantee you will enjoy it.
The story goes something like this....Wilma's mother and sisters are
successful wicked queens. Wilma, however, is a total disaster. She
plots revenge on her older sisters, Scarliteen who only wears red and
Frostia, who only wears white. Along the way Wilma enlists the help of
the garden boy who plays a mean guitar, also known as Alvis Parsley.
They wander through various fairy tales (one sister married Snow White's
dad, another is the Snow Queen from Andersen) and nothing works out
quite as Wilma plans. There is also a dog in the story, but I'll let
you discover that one when you read the book!.
You'll note in some of the pictures the pups have colored yarn. This is
how we identity who's who. I decided to follow the color of the ribbons
in an ARBA show: first (born) blue, second red, third yellow and fourth
white. If I keep this pattern in all my litters (sounds like we might
do this again!) then I figure that I'll always remember who was first
born, etc. The easier I make it for myself the better. At least so I
figure
So we have Blue Boy, Red Girl and no ribbon girl because she'd be the
one left over. And actually tonight I realized I could take the yarn
off of Blue Boy, he's the only boy! Brain is decidedly starting to kick in.
Carol
"off to coo over my puppies"
May 26
W
ell, pups are growing like beautiful flowers. They started around 5 oz
and are now right around 8. Our parents went to Central Oregon for a
week and I told them they would not recognize our babies when they get back.
Estee acts exactly like you describe -- stands at attention with eyes intently on pup until it returns. A couple of the pups got some caked on poop that I tried to get off with a Q-tip and then a wash cloth and I ended up having to run warm water over their bottoms to even loosen it up (it was like concrete) to get it off. The first day I had to do that I thought I would send Estee to the moon. The second time I had to do it, the pups slept in my hands and never made a peep and she was much better and their bottoms are looking much better now.
It's to only good friends that you can talk about puppy poo to!
Carol
May 30
D
iane,
On Pigment: I sent the picture to Sharon and she said all her pups had pigment by day 4. After I thought about and recalled her female that didn't surprise me as she appeared to me to carry more pigment -- that female, Serena, is the one she got from Alberto.
Thus far the little boy is absolutely the cutest (11 oz) and remains my sister's favorite, who can resist that nose? The second girl, red, remains the biggest at 12.375 oz. At this point she looks like a bruiser - ready for the football team. Interesting to note, she is the size my Maltese was when I brought her home at about 8 weeks -- now that was a small dog (full grown 2-1/2 lbs). And the 'baby' is my mother's namesake and her favorite. This girl has pigment on one of her individual paw pads, left back paw little 'black' spot, now that is cute! And her hair on her forehead makes this ripple that looks like a zig zag Harry Potter style.
Estee likes to go outside way more often than usual. I've been taking the dogs out separately and now whenever Remmy goes out Estee joins us. They get along fine outside of the house but man its a terror when we hit inside.
I have a lady in Florida considering a pup and a lady from LA. Both have asked for my address to send deposits.
Sharon said she only has the male left in her litter and I teased that if we're both left with our males maybe we should trade. They had friends staying for the weekend, Linda and Syd, (Linda met you at a Chicago dog show) and they all got to talking about the puppies at breakfast. And of course looked at our little male with the beautiful pigment. They ended up calling us. Linda is interested in our male if he turns out to be show quality. So its possible all the pups are spoken for. Makes me even that much MORE anxious about pup care now that I may be caring for someone else's dogs! Silly.
Kynn is talking about showing Remmy. I've been thinking about signing them up for a dog training class about the time the pups leave so we have a new focus and won't dwell on our 'loss.' And get some tips on showing.
My sister came over and Estee made her follow her to the nest -- looking back every couple of steps to make sure Debbie was still following her -- it was the cutest thing.
Let me know how you and Johan are doing. Hope everyone is healthy at your house,
Carol
D
iane replied:
Carol, I have not seen a nose that black that soon. I know that his Great Grandmother (Clio, aka Alma) is very highly pigmented. Maybe those genes are coming through now.
Diane
June 6
W
e took the entire crew to the vet's office yesterday. Our vet thought the pups should be dewormed at 2 weeks, so off we went. There are two vets in residence there the older one (Dr G) selling his practice to the new one, Dr V. It was Dr V who told me 2 weeks should be right for deworming. I couldn't find anyone who thought 2 weeks was about right. So I was skeptical. I was kind of anti giving them any 'chemicals' at so young an age.
When we arrived the older vet saw us. Now he is a little rough, kind of a farm boy type and these babies of mine are like precious gold so I winced when he grabbed a pup and stuck his big finger inside her mouth (looking for cleft palette -- well we would have known that by now!). She winced a bit, too. I almost came across the table at him. Anyway he said we didn't need to do de-worming until 4 weeks, closer to what I was thinking -- I need to listen to my gut more I think.
Any-hoo he gave everyone a once over did a quick patella check on Rembrandt (perfect! we knew that too and are waiting for a letter for our records), listened to his heart, checked over my mama, told me to up her feed. And sent us home with a bill.
My goodness! What a great bunch of hullabaloo for not much more than a bill to show for it. I guess it was nice to have a professional tell me they were doing great.
I was hoping to discuss the loss of the little pup with the other Doc, the vet we saw would have just said, "It happens" and I want something a little more in-depth.
(Speaking of Rembrandt, he is sitting on my lap and nudging me because I am not petting him enough. Need another hand I guess).
We hadn't seen the old Vet very much as he is mostly-retired but he remembered my little Maltese and we got to talking about what a small dog she was (2-1/2 lbs) She is lucky she lived as long as she did. We were laughing that our 2 week old babies are actually bigger than the Maltese was when I brought her home. I had no idea back then what I was doing. Now at least I KNOW I don't know what I'm doing! But I have a good network of great dog people who have been such great support to us -- thank you especially Diane for all that you have done for us. I count you as saving one of our pups (red girl).
The biggest pup, Red Girl is just now starting to open her eyes. Kynn says the little boy is doing the same, but I'll have to have a good look with my glasses on to know for sure. At this point he is absolutely the cutest and everyone's favorite. Hope he turns out to be show for the couple from New Mexico.
Kynn would like to keep one of the pups. I, on the other hand, was thinking of keeping one from the next litter, we'll see.
Carol
D
iane replied:
We do not worm until about 6 weeks either. It also depends on if we see worms in the stool. Puppies can get worms from the Mom no matter how careful you are. The two weeks I think is used if you see the worms in the stool. We do make sure they are dewormed before we send them to a new home. I will ask Johan, he is the medicine expert. If he says something different I will let you know.
Diane
July 24
Y
esterday the puppies went in for the second shots. I took Estee with us as she had something going on in the ear -- she usually goes to the groomer regularly and they pull the hair out, its been awhile and I hadn't done it so there was some junk in there and not looking good. Also, I had noticed, when she had asked for a belly rug, that one of her back nipples looked odd. When I touched it seemed hard at the end instead of soft.
We got the ear thing cleaned up and some medicine, and when the vet looked at her teat he said, "Looks like she's been bit." He examined it a little closer and under the bright lights of the examining room we both noticed something extremely odd and terrible. A wad of hair had wound itself around the nipple and was acting as a tourniquet strangling the end of the teat off. Eventually that part of the nipple would have fallen off if she hadn't been looked at. It was cut thru already, pretty far.
My heart about fell through the floor. He got out the scissors and managed to cut the hair off. Estee was as calm as could be -- if it hurt she gave no sign. She sure wanted to ski-daddle when we were done, though.
That evening when I went to dab a little of the antibiotic medicine on it, it was already looking better, feeling soft instead of hard.
He had never seen this before. Of course it had to be on MY dog! I guess now he can retire, he's seen it all.
We had all patella's and bites checked. All look good. He thinks our little girl who has been sold is ready for her new home and I was sensing the same thing. I have contacted them to say she can go at 10 weeks -- this coming Saturday. Waiting for an email confirmation back. She barked at me this morning to hurry up with her breakfast -- can you imagine?! At 9 weeks old so bossy!
I'm feeling like Grandma who has had the joy of the children and is now sending them home. And now I'll be getting my house back together. I have the edging pulled off the loop pile area rug in the office and the little boy decided it was his 'job' to unravel it from the center. I tell myself its old, its been peed on since my Maltese, and not to get upset about it. Oh, and today they brought in some 'treasures' from outside, leaves laden with earwigs. I had a stompin' good time.
Carol
PS We did have Estee's belly shaved the week prior to birth so we wouldn't have a big hair thing going on when the pups were nursing, fyi.
C
arol wrote:
I had a request for the history of the parents going back 3
generations
-- do you have any pertinent info about the grandparents etc that I
could share?
Rembrandts father's line of Zepos, mother's line of Katisha, and
Estee's father's line Manlio and mother Paprika.
Thank you,
Carol
D
iane replied:
Zepos is from Belgium. The breeder is very well respected. I do not
know of any health issues. He is a European champion.
Katishka is out of two Italian imports. They have no health
problems
but I do not know about their parents, although at the time
there were
not problems. Alma is an ARBA champion.
Manilo is an Italian import. I do not know anything about his
parents. But we have had no problems with any health issues with
him
or any of his offspring.
Paprika is our breeding, She has had no health problems. I would
like to have shown her but she always seemed to be out of coat
or just
coming out of having puppies when I could go to a show.
Paprika is out of Peppercorn and Gina. Gina is an import from
the
Netherlands. She has no health problems but is on the larger size.
Peppercorn is out of Cinnamon and Bris. Cinnamon was our first Bolo
and is quite large. She is 13 years old and the vet said very
healthy. Bris is a Czeck import and quite small. He is a Czeck and
ARBA champion.
Pepper was one of our first attempts to get a smaller dog. He has
great structure, but I cannot get him to walk on a lead. As soon as
you put a lead on him he lays down and will not get up for
anything.
There are not health problems with him either unless you
consider and
overactive "nature" when the girls come into heat. Bris is the only
dog we
have had with a patella problem. I do not know if it is
inherited or
if it happened from jumping off of furniture. His lines are also
the
lines that we watch more closely for bite problems.
Hope this helps.
Diane
