1 Month Old

This week we fed the puppies cafe' au lait and beignets... well not really- but we did go to church at St. Mary's after school on Wednesday to receive ashes and lit a candle at the St. Francis statue for all our puppies (thanks Beth for letting me know about it). I CAN NOT believe the puppies are already a month old. They are all jumping and running about. We have taken out the pig rail and opened the door to the potty area. They are mostly going in the area to relieve themselves. I can safely say that Petunia, Kaley, Lilly and Olive will be potty trained by the time they go home. As for Jasper, Marjoram and Quince...we are lucky they even get up to go...LOL! Those are my big puppies- they enjoy playtime too- but mostly sleepy time. I think they are saving up their energy for when they go home! They are certainly starting to develop little personalities and they are all so different. You are all very lucky I already have my hands full or I would be keeping them ALL!!!! This week they will be wormed for the the first time and start eating some rice cereal to give Daphne a little break to make their tummy's fuller. The week after they will start on their dog food. Oh- it is going so fast- before you know it they will be home with you.

Daniel decided to get in on this weeks photo shoot. He and Kaley really hit it off.

Speaking of Daniel-he decided that I was not paying enough attention to him- so he took some drastic measures. He decided to eat the ribbon from a spool of curling ribbon. I don't know how much he consumed. All i know is that there was 3 feet hanging out of his mouth. I was so scared that we would have to rush him to the emergency room for surgery- but the ribbon found its own way out - all 2.5 feet of it. I was very anxious and decided that all ribbon was banned from my home. I scoured the house looking for ribbon and opened the wood stove and threw it all in.... I am slightly ddramatic sometimes. I will be bitching the next time I have to wrap a present- but so be it. Daniel is fine and I promised him I would neglect him no more..

Here are this weeks pictures...Its starting to get more difficult to get a good one..But they are really growing big..and beautiful.

the antagonizer..pats everyone to get up and play when they are sleeping. Spunky and adorable.

The most intense eye contact I have ever seen- she makes her presence known and can bark the the biggest already! So reminds me of Dempsey as a puppy- she is daddy's girl.

Looks like a meanie in this pic- but is a mush! Love him- so easy going and laid back. Loves to sleep all over the others on his back and play with the toys.

LOVES to be held. Will go home with a tag that says: CAUTION: Whines when not being loved. But he will be loved bc he is SOOOOO adorable!

Looks shy in this pic- but is NOT! Very sure of herself- likes to play with the others and of course is a pretty girl. I think she knows it too!

Marj also likes to be held- she also is an intense starer. Likes to look directly at you.

Reluctant of unfamiliar territory- but after 5 minutes she agrees with it and makes it her bed.

CUTE, CUTE CUTE! in a Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island kind of way. Innocent and perky and is very curious about new things. She is the first one to come to the front when I arrive.

3 Weeks in the Garden

Well allot has happened this week in the garden. Almost everyone has doubled in size and everyone is getting up and walking...wobbly- but walking. We have a few chubba wubbas in this crew. I called the doctor to make sure that that was OK..LOL. I have never seen such big babies. He assured me that they were not MUTANT cockers and that they would stop growing so fast eventually. Daphne had more puppies to feed last time (they are almost a pound bigger than the last litter at 3 weeks)- but I am having Alice and Wonderland dreams where the puppies are growing and growing and eventually pop the roof off my house.LOL
I have added some toys to the whelping box. I can see that they are interacting with each other- which is cute. They mouth at each other and bat at each other.
I felt around and see we have some teeth. Hair is growing!- we will probably do a short trim next week. The first to give me a cocker tail shake was Kaley and it was the cutest. I also heard a big puppy bark from Olive and Lilly. Jasper and Quince are the big boys and like to sleep all day while the girls get gitty with each other. Petunia, Lilly and Kaley are the steadiest on their feet. Marjoram is very laid back. They are starting to get up to go to the bathroom themselves- were as Daphne does not have to help them. They are starting to do more puppy like things like shake their heads, whine a little when mom is not near and clean and lick each other. Now the fun actually begins. Next week I will take them upstairs to start getting acquainted with other places besides the whelping box and hopefully once everyone is up and running we may get a nice day outside. Today is a short blog- i have a ton to do. Rose is having a sleepover with her friend. I am sure they will help me weigh and handle them tonight. I will post pics soon.
Also stay tuned for a some videos.
We also have some new names that could change by the time they go home- but I love love them all- so I wanted to post them:
Jasper: Dubhlainn
Kaley: Teagan
Lilly: Cookie
Marjoram: Lila (maybe..if Ray gives in...LOL)
Olive: Livvy
Petunia: Maggie
Quince: Rocco

Puppy Day- MARCH 8th

Hi everyone. I just wanted to let you know that I have reserved Sunday, March 8th as the "Meet your Puppy Day". I know some of you are coming from far away and can only come once to pick your puppy up and that is OK- I have done that for 3 of my dogs and it all worked out fine. But for those of you that can come and visit we have reserved that day for you. Please contact me with a time and we can arrange a visit. We can start at 1:00 PM. We generally reserve an hour for each family. If you have any questions about this day- please call or e-mail me.

2 Weeks in the Garden

Well I know you all have been anxiously awaiting your 2 week photos. I am happy to say that everyone is growing rapidly. The weights change drastically from day to day. It is truley amazing. In the beggining of the week Rose was the first to announce that their eyes were open. We have a small viseo clip of that.

That squeeky noise in the backround is Rose saying, "their eyes are open!!" She was so excited. They are starting to get mobile a little bit.

Petunia actually stood up the other day to go to the bathroom. (Sorry- no video of that>.LOL) Daphne is taking more time to herself visiting her friends upstairs and getting to know Dillon. Dempsey on the other hand has been confined to solitary confinement. My beautiful Delilah thought it was just a perfect time to go into her first heat 4 days after her birthday. Of course we will be skipping this season- but with all going on and with the Stud Pad currently transformed into the Puppy Pavilion we are running out of room for dogs..I am going to check into that Hotel for Dogs they have in the movies. Maybe I can send him there. But it is working out OK so far. Please pray for me though..LOL! I am hoping my wonderful sister will take Delilah for a few days...I am hoping she will read this and know that everyone knows I am asking- cause them she will feel obligated to say yes. And I will post her response on this blog- this way everyone will know how much my sister loves me..! Like I had nothing else to concentrate on. I will say that Dempsey's girl is Daphne though. He does not seem to be too interested in Delilah. Which I find completely odd. It may be a ploy to catch me off guard. But if some of you don't know: HOWLING is a very common symptom of a male stud when we have a female in heat. Dempsey has been reserved. It may be bc there is just sooo much going on right now he just does not know which way is which and by the way that is OK with me..I am sure people with big kennels don't care bc they are not in their home. But we care- and it is a very challenging time for us all. We have many poor slept nights during those times. But it is all worth it when you come to pick up your puppy and we see your smiles..LOL! So that is what is going on right now. Oh - the pictures! That is what you came to see? Here they are. Happy Valentines Day! Sweet puppy kisses to all and I will kiss your puppies for you today.

Dapper Dempsey!

I know you are all waiting for your 2 week pictures in anticiptation- but I decided to send you a picture of Dempsey instead! He got a nice clean face shave yesterday and I wanted you to see how handsome he is! He even smiled for the picture..LOL ....What do you mean you don't care about Dempsey? He is the father of your puppies! OK OK- I thought it would be fitting to post the pictures tomorrow, Valentine's Day! Hope you can hold out til then...

MINE!!!!!!!!!

I can't belive I got the camera in time to get this picture. I told you how Delilah has taken Dillon under her wing...Here is the proof. He is so cute sleeping belly up and she really does love him. As you can see she is covering his private part for the pic...LOL

Breeding Better Dogs

I read somewhere about Early Neurological Stimulation. I did a little research and decided that this breeding we would implicate the same method they use in the military for their dogs. Of course we can not guarantee it will make a difference- but it is certainly worth a try. You can read all about the method and how it effects the puppies here at this link:
http://www.moondropgardens.com/neorological_stimuli.pdf

1 Week Already

Well it's hard to believe the puppies are already a week old.
It was totally amazing to me how everything fell into place and each of our puppies will be going to a wonderful home. With everyone picking a 1st, 2nd or 3rd choice - I was able to fill every one's request...well almost everyone. Our friend Beth most graciously gave away one of her choices so that another family so they would have theirs. Beth is taking home Kaley and Jasper and decided to give Marjoram to another wonderful family. We were so grateful to her for being so selfless. She has been in contact with us since the last litter and was waiting to retire which she did....in December; and now she is ready for her 2 little puppies. Thank you Beth for being the person that you are so that 3 of our puppies could have the opportunity to have wonderful new homes.

The puppies have not changed much in a week except for the fact that they are increasing in size..FAST. They are already all over 1 pound from the 8-10 ounces they arrived with. Daphne is very attentive to them and the first few days would not leave their side.


This is a funny picture with Daphne's ears tied up just like a new mom's hair..but that is to help her not get food on her ears..

I would have to force her to take potty breaks and actually have to sit ion the whelping box to spoon feed her her food. Even though I am a little jealous no one did that for me after I gave birth I think I owe it to her. She has given us 7 healthy beautiful thriving puppies.

On Monday not only did I have an appointment to have a well visit for Dillon- but I went back in the afternoon to have the puppies tails docked and have the Doctor check Daphne. Yes- i would agree that some of the people there probably think I am a little crazy- but they all hold it in rather well. The tail docking went well and they seemed unfazed. Doc said that Daphne looked great and indicated by the size of her litter- she was very healthy and if her body could not have handled that many puppies she would not have had so many.

Towards the end of the week she is actually allowing herself to come upstairs to take inventory of what is going on and to see if Rose has left any cookies on the floor. She romps with her friends and was briefly introduced to Dillon who she has taken an immediate liking to..Must be the puppy breath.

petunia - reserved for Margaret and Carl in Rockland

quince- Reserved for Cristina & Family from my hometown- the Bronx

olive - reserved for Leslie and Family in Hartford

marjoram - reserved for Lynn & Ray in CT.

Lilly - reserved for Melissa & Crew from upstate NY

kaley - Reserved with Jasper for Beth in PA

Jasper -Reserved with Kaley for Beth

Happy Birthday Delilah Girl

With all the hulabaloo we still made time to celebrate Delilah's First Birthday. She is still my little puppy girl as she has stayed petite and I love it. We got cupcake muffins from the Barkery and Rose planned a very special party complete with gifts she collected from around the house and made sure she wore her DRESS. Happy Birthday Delilah...We LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!

Pictures to follow............

The Puppy Pavillion

Winter is not the most ideal time to have a litter of puppies especially in the fridgid temperatures of COLD SPRING. So we decided to move the Puppy Nursery downstairs where the puppies would be constantly kept warm by the radiant heat in the flooring. Some of you may not know- but our home is primarily kept warm by our wood burning stove. It saves us alot of money, but you have to walk around with appropriate clothing and never be away from home more than 9 hours at a time to reload the stove with wood. We have been suplimenting with space heaters when it is really cold- which it has been this year (can't wait for winter to be over). Anyway- getting back to the pavillion. We took our 10x10 kennel (also know as the STUD pad) and tranformed it into a Puppy Pavillion for the time being. The worse part about the nursery was when I cleaned up- the puppies would run to greet me- stomping in their mess and then jumping on me...and although I loved everything about rearing pupppies- that part was my least favorite. So I had a plan and bc my husnand is who he is- he always makes my plans a reality. Thanks JIM!!!

We took a cabinet and lined it with linolium for easy cleaning- he make a pigrail so Mommas would not squish their babies when laying down, and we seperated it by a peice of wood with a sliding soor. This way when it is time to clean up the mess- I can block the puppies off. Ingeniouse- I know. I did see if somewhere else- so I can not take full credit- but honestly I think it will work out great. We covered the kennel with plastic to hold in the heat, and 2 heaters that heat the room to a toasty 80 degrees. Daphne always takes a few days to get used to it- but is always welcome to take a break when she needs- she is not locked in there. We decorated the room with pictures and all the needs of a puppy nursery and it really is working well. The blankees hanging on the wall will go home with wach puppy and it will smell like their old home when they need a little comforting. Past puppy parents said their puppies used their blankets to slep on for a while after they left. When the puppies are walking then we will take the pigrail out and switch the sides in which they play and sleep. I really look forward to seing it all in action. So far everything is going according to plan with the design. THANKS JIM>>>AGAIN.

The pictures do not really do it justice and we did not have time to paint the outside of the cabinet with flowers like I planned- but I wanted to make sure it worked out before I put all the effort into painting a whole garden on the outide of it..so far it is working out well...