Well not everyone actually. Galtero barely gave them a glance.. "No thanks, I've done my part. I'm done"! Mom Standing Watch Still loaded with milk. But not particularly inclined to give it up. Probably those razor sharp teeth! Galtero.... Wow! A Full Twelve Pack!!! Looks Like I Out Did Myself This Time! I'll be over here if you need me.... Or maybe over here...... Gem...... "Hey kids, you don't mind if I borrow this blanket do you"? Shine "Oh Hell No! I'm marking this territory as my own! Right here and now!!! Dazzle "Why are there so many of them? Please tell me they aren't all staying"! Duke... "Well now! I'm not quite sure what to make of this exactly"! Blue..... "Wowza! That Was Quite The Parade!
And an outdoor corral sat vacant... also for days! At least things are nice and green! And Well Watered!!! Yesterdays Photo Shoot.... Rained Out Shortly After We Got Started Yellow Checking Out The Newly Planted Pots. My Latest Rainy Day Porch Project Hanging Out Hoping For A Break In The Clouds. Didn't Happen. Only Got Worse We Called It A Day When Mother Nature Began Her Light Show 2.5 down 9.5 to go!!! Then Finally.....
We had a rain free day today!!! First one in roughly 3 weeks. It was glorious and much appreciated. I managed to get the remainder of the pups photos taken. Decided too, to take advantage of the weather and let them enjoy the bulk of the day outside. When I'd completed the first one, weather still looking good, I brought the two I was able to finish yesterday to the corral and added the third. From there I kept adding after each had had their chance in front of the camera until they were all corralled. Their reward for being good sports and generally cooperative was lunch on the green. I kept waiting for the rains to come but almost shockingly, at this point, they didn't come! The pups did great and remained fairly easy to photograph. Not quite as adventurous as some litters of the past. And not as quick to try and follow me. The plain and simple result of not as much time out as some have had. Makes my job capturing photos easier but it's disappointing actually. To lose a week of supervised outdoor time with me is to lose a lot. It's not that it can't be made up for but one week out of four or five is a chunk! I remain determined to get them where I want them while they're in my care. But I've got to work with what I'm dealt. I want them to be carefree, playful and confident when I hand each of you the reins. Fingers crossed for better weather going forward!!! Set my alarm last night... not something I generally don't do unless I've got an appointment. I usually rely on the dogs to tell me when it's time to get up. Usually 7:30-ish. But feeling a need to get a jump on the day and the early afternoon rains I set my start time at 5:30. Ironically the day I decide to do it is the only one that in the end wasn't necessary. It's beginning to get dark now and the skies still look generally friendly. Hopefully another dry day tomorrow and time for some group free-play. We'll start with breakfast in the corral and go from there. Undecided on the alarm clock... I'll begin the process of selecting and uploading photos this evening but I'm guessing I won't get the pup pages complete before tomorrow evening. Priority now is to get the pups out and exposed to the elements... to toys and to following. More time outside the box (corral) builds their confidence quickly. And speaking confidence I've got a blog post to share with you that I've shared with owners of the past few litters. It's a post written by another but it's very well written and worth the read. It's titled "Socializing Your Puppy - Why Later Is Too Late. Please clink on the link below.... There's no information there I disagree with and feel all she's written is valuable and will get you off on the right track with your pups!! www.drjensdogblog.com/socializing-your-puppy-why-later-is-too-late/ Yep.... they're late but I did manage to capture a few good shots of all pups today. I hope. At a glance they look good when downloaded to my computer. Now my task is to develop the pup pages and go through the photos to choose the ones I like best for their opening pages. I hope to get the pages created tonight and add a few pics of each pup. Time consuming endeavor though... depending to some degree on internet connection. It can be very slow here in the sticks!!! If not complete tonight I'll get on it first thing in the morning. My burn pile actually caused me some grief yesterday. And a late start on photos. It was hard to get going, but once going I was nervous about leaving it unattended. Was finally rained out early evening which basically put an end to my worry of burning down the neighborhood. Fortunately. A good worry free sleep. It was still raining this morning when I woke up and half way through the day. But finally the clouds dispersed and I was able to get the pups out for their first outdoor adventure. Solo today for the main purpose of capturing week 4 photos. Each did well and I received lots of kisses! I sat on the porch with each of them for a few minutes to let them get accustomed to the light, new sights and sounds. Four week photos are one of the things I most look forward to when it comes to pup rearing. I always get joy from watching their reactions to their vast new world. For the most part week four photos are pretty easy. They generally don't venture far from where they're placed. Once in a while they surprise me with their bold nature as they venture off into the great unknown. Midway through I thought Red was going to take the award for best tracking ability. But Grey passed her up. Hands down. I struggled a little trying to get a good head shot of her as she seemed to have a pretty good idea of where I'd gone and would chase me down. At a leisurely trot I had some trouble getting enough distance from her and myself to grab a good shot. Red the same but to a little lesser degree. Those two will cause me trouble in the weeks ahead with photos I think.... we will see. Yellow gets the award this week for best climber. She had no interest in staying where placed and seemed to enjoy the obstacles facing her... or at least the ones she chose to tackle. Black gets the award for lazy... or maybe sleepy. The pups are doing great! Appetite is increasing and this afternoon I increased their feeding to 4 cups of food watered down with 2-3 cups of water. Two pie plates pretty well up to the rim and they did a great job of finishing. That's a lot of bulk for little belly's. Even when there are 12 of them. Getka rarely spends time nursing anymore. She'll jump in the box periodically to check on them but her visits are short lived. I think new found teeth are sending her running. Or maybe the overwhelming attack on her by so many. She'll lay on her ottoman and watch... and I think tease. The pups are attempting chin ups on the walls and it won't be long before they are able to maneuver themselves over those rails. I plan to move them out of my bedroom into their new habitat tomorrow in the neighboring mud room. A corral, with a cot bed, shavings and a water station. There they will stay until they are ready to join their new families and abodes. Clean Plate Club.... Nearly! Click on pics to enlarge....
Or more accurately hump week... and these little monsters are climbing all over my girl! Getka continues to do a great job of mothering but fortunately for her the pups have taken to their mash well. A load off. They started off pretty slow... which I expected as I started them early. But week four, instead of just getting acquainted to it they're going gangbusters! I'm sure Getka appreciates the early start. As you can see she has quite the crew to deal with at the four week mark. They're up to eating a little over 6 cups a day split between them and over the course of 3 meals a day. Not bad for age. 1/2 cup a day each. Sorry for next to no posts this week... had another small issue I had to deal with. Last Sunday we had another thunder storm and again a power outage. Brought back less than fond memories of the Sunday before. Fortunately it was fairly short lived. Power was out while we still had some daylight and only for about an hour and a half. And no risk of a dog going into labor. Even so the memory made my heart hurt..... Monday afternoon as I was heading to the store I discovered a tree down in the pasture. Didn't think the weather had been severe enough to take down a tree but regardless it was down... or at least mostly down. So... this week I dealt with that. And actually I'm still dealing with it. I had one of our local tree guys come out for an estimate Tuesday and Wednesday, my birthday, he came and turned my problem into a couple large piles and brush and one large pile of mostly stump and trunk. Next on the list of to do's is to get the remnants burned which is a project I hope to get done in the next few days. Everything's a project though it seems! Wish I could just light a match and let it go but it's never that easy. The faucet nearest the pasture has been out of commission for awhile which wasn't an issue as I've never really had need for it. But since it's quite a bit closer to the burn pile than the house, a trip into town (local) to gather supplies to fix it along with fixings for a couple older hoses was in order. The trip and getting the jobs done in my extra time outside of dog and pup care took up a good part of the day. Finished the day up with mowing the pasture which was a project a week or two over due. That done, I think I'm set to burn.... and so far the weather has been cooperative. Wanted to get on it today but today required a trip to Gainesville for essentials. I hate those trips to town. By the time I get there, do the necessaries and return home half the day is wasted. So tomorrow is burn day.... but also 4 week photo day for the pups. Lots on my plate tomorrow but I'm hopeful for an early start, that the fire will be somewhat self monitoring and the pups cooperative. Do I see a zipper??? Well, ok maybe not so big. Or a fancy feast. But it's a start. Mash for their third week birthday party! They usually start off pretty slow first day or so. Once they get a taste for it though they generally pick up the pace pretty rapidly. I'll offer it to them a couple times a day until they gain an appreciation and then increase to three or four times a day from there. Today it seemed they preferred to push it out of the bowl and lick it from the blanket. I split them into two groups for their first feeding. Green girl joined the fatty's. The other seven did a fairly good job of finishing up the bowl. Brown gets the gold star for the day for staying on task. Copper, currently wearing a tan collar gets award for most messy! Wearing it more than eating it I think. Group One Group Two Maybe not 100% but getting there. Pretty sure Ritz is recovering quicker than I. I'm trying but must admit the enthusiasm I had to buckle down for pupdates is a bit dimmed. But I'm trying. I very much appreciate everyone's kind words and condolences in response to my last post. A difficult one to write. I will address them more in depth via comment on same post later tonight. I'm enjoying Getka's pups and I'm very glad they're here!!! They're helping! Hard to watch them and not find a smile creeping onto my face. I love watching them and do a lot of it. These little guys and gals are getting pretty active. Still snoozing the majority of the time when they aren't eating of course. But as a group they're starting to enjoy some short wakeful periods. They're responding to noises now. Barking at times when I open and close doors and come to alert when they hear my voice. I talk to them frequently. When awake they'll also come up to the side of the box if I scratch on it and encourage them. They seem to enjoy having their little faces and heads caressed. Probably expecting.... hoping for a snack. They're also beginning to play a little. Batting at and gnawing on each other. Once in a while they get irritated with being pestered and make their feelings known. Can sound a bit on the ferocious side. Yes, already! Right on schedule!!! It's a bit ironic but when I look at them it almost seems I'm looking at two litters in one box. There are four, (Yellow, Black, Copper and Brown) who are considerably larger at a glance than the rest of the pack. It's a big litter and the strongest, whether big litter or not, have a way of getting in there first and grab the best spots at the milk bar. I also think nursing technique is a factor. Some tug and pull, probably burning up near as many calories as they consume. Others just lay quietly and guzzle. I've been helping Getka out for about a week with 3-4 rotational feedings a day, 3-4 pups at a time outside the box but it doesn't seem those efforts have made a huge difference. The smaller ones remain smaller and the larger continue to grow larger. I'll start them on mash tomorrow. Or maybe tonight.... their 3rd week birthday. Ya, probably tonight. To celebrate. And maybe grab a few photos. I haven't had my camera out for roughly a week until today. Hoped I'd captured some good shots this afternoon but when I uploaded most were blurred. Too many individuals moving at once. Got a few cute ones after they settled down which I'll post. Hope everyone's doing well. A little over five weeks to go. My Apologies for being MIA past few days. Before we can proceed with all things happy and puppy, I have to share some tragic news. First let me assure you Getka and her pups are fine. And Ritz is fine. Her litter though, a total loss. I know some of you have been following both litter pages. in anticipation of the arrival of Ritz's pups. That anticipation and excitement began to change to worry for me by mid week last week. Ritz's pups were due Tuesday June first. She was happy, healthy, and active -quite willing to give chase to the large birds that dared to land on her property. She wasn't as fast or agile as she is in a more trim state, but still capable of making her dissatisfaction known. She enjoyed a perfectly normal and uneventful pregnancy. Except she wasn't going into labor..... Thursday the 3rd, with no signs of impending delivery, I called to update our reproductive vet and was instructed to bring her in for a reverse progesterone test which I did that day. The results of the tests are used by Vets to assure adequate pup development prior to performing scheduled C-sections. The progesterone level remains elevated throughout a dogs pregnancy but begins a rapid decline shortly before delivery. For C-sections Vets look for a number between 2 and 3ng. Preferable closer to 2. For natural delivery the level is generally closer to 1ng. On Thursday, 2 days past due, Ritz's level sat at 8.1ng. I was instructed to bring her back Monday for a recheck and possible C-section. Anxiety and curiosity got the best of me, and I opted for another check Saturday. Level 3.2ng. I again declared my worry and made point of saying yes, but she's sitting at day 67 from breeding and likely day 69 from ovulation. Not much of a response to my worry... was told to expect pups over the weekend. Saturday evening my worry grew to angst, and I feared the litter had already been lost. The emergency was over. As a nurse I was frequently reminded to "watch the patient, not the monitor". In this case the patient was fine. It was the patients within... the unseen and silent ones who were suffering. The ones with no voices. I understand protocols. But I also accept there are times there are valid reasons to break protocol. Protocols generally work well in normal situations. But if some values within a particular protocol don't make sense, the protocol itself, and exceptions, warrant another look. The protocol used regarding progesterone decline prior to delivery is long standing and well accepted. Taken too soon, the lungs of the pups etc aren't developed enough to sustain life. I felt my hands were tied and I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I assume my Vet shared that feeling. I still kick myself.... and looking back, I will always kick myself. Over the years I've learned to rely on my gut feelings ie intuition. Should have been more persistent. Louder and more demanding. Sunday evening I knew in my heart the litter had been lost. No movement and a cooling of the belly. The emergency was over. The window of opportunity lost. In the name of protocol. But the pups still had to come one way or the other. My thoughts turned to Ritz... get her seen and taken care of before she suffered ill effects. I had called the Vet Sunday morning to let her know we'd made no progress, I feared the litter was a loss and to expect us upon opening the clinic Monday Morning. Sunday night I was watching TV as I watched Ritz. At 11:15 the TV made a pop sound and everything went dark. As in pitch black! We had lost power. Prior to our power outage we'd had and were still experiencing a pretty robust thunder storm. Ritz is generally pretty calm during a storm but does tend to get a little needy. But that pop from the TV and immediate loss of power that followed obviously stressed her. I made my way through the house using the light of my phone to retrieve some battery operated lights. I set one up for Getka and her pups so she could see at least a slight outline of them in the darkness before she jumped in and out of the box. And when I returned to the bedroom I found Ritz panting and pacing.... obviously way out of sorts. I dimly lit the room with the battery operated lights attempting to conserve as much battery power as I could to get us through the night with at least some light. I began to panic, fearful that she was going into labor and I would have no choice but to help her deliver a litter... and likely a litter of dead pups in the darkness. As much as I had wanted her to go into labor my thought was "not now. Please not now! The light did help and Ritz began to settle somewhat... at least quit panting and pacing. Her symptoms stress induced, not labor induced. Thankfully. But she licked.... constantly licked for three hours straight. With no AC it was getting hot which helped nothing! We regained power around 2 am. What a relief!!! I turned all the lights on, added some soothing music and things began to settle. I think I and she got a couple hours sleep before heading to the Vet. By then she had developed a discharge. Black droplets on the floor. These droplets continued as we were waiting in the exam room of the Vets office. Vet walked in to examine. An examination or further testing no longer necessary as I pointed to the droplets on the floor. She simply stated she would take her in first. Ritz had her C section Monday and is recovering well. While in surgery I returned home to ready a room for the unexpected. I returned Getka and her pups to my bedside and dismantled the whelping box in the computer room. A disheartening task in and of itself. I left only the ottoman, added a dog bed and a comfy chair. With a good degree of difficulty, I've made my calls to those who were on our reservation list and have spoken to all but one who I've not been able to reach. My preference was to tell rather than have them learn of the loss via written word. But at this point I feel a need for progress. To continue with life as it stands. So for that one... first on the list, I'm sorry if you're learning of this event via the written word. Possibly on vacation? If so, I hope you're enjoying it. Yesterday was a day of recovery, not only for Ritz physically, but for me emotionally. A time to come to terms with what had occurred over the course of the past week. Getka's pups have been helpful in that regard. I watched some TV as I watched and listened to them. And some joy began to creep back in. I'm very much looking forward to the day when I can begin to enjoy some outdoor excursions with them. They never fail to warm my heart. I apologize for the horribly long post, but it's one I had to get out of the way in order to clear my mind and then continue with life. As it stands. It may take me a few days to fully get back in the swing of things. Give me a little time. I'll be back in full force soon. A Few Photos For The Memory Bank.
What Could Have Been, and What It Is.... My Sweet Girl Ritz! |