And So It Begins

And so it begins.  Hearing!  The puppy girl on the right was the first to give me a positive hearing response this morning.  Twelve days is about the earliest I have gotten good responses - pups that actually lift up their heads and "listen" to my high pitched whistle.  Several of the others were restless, and are probably detecting some sound, but not enough to consider them hearing yet.  Hopefully by the end of the weekend we will have strong responses from all.  This is a nerve wracking weekend!

I continue to get emails from people willing to fly in to pick up their pups.  I'm reading the emails and adding them to the files I keep on everyone.  Until I know what I have for hearing pups though, there's no point in discussing which pups might be available and who get one.  I'd like to hope that several of these pups are show potential and will go to show homes, but only time will tell me that.

Stay tuned.

Not A Good Way To Start The Day

Pups are fine!

Nope, it's my email that isn't.  Can't access my email account on either my computer or cell phone.  This is NOT a good way to start the day.

That's the cute little brown boy in the picture, the one I am sort of hoping is NOT show potential, so I won't have the temptation to keep him.  Love those little brownie boys.
 

Spots!

Spots are coming in now and every morning the pups look different.  This is Puppy Three (no actual names yet), the black spotted boy with the speckled nose.  He appeared to be the most colorful pup when they were born (spots show up on the skin when the pups are still wet), but we'll know for sure in a few days.  The liver pup is a few days behind which is typical.  Liver spotting is less distinct on pups and does not show up quite as quickly, plus this liver boy also has the thickest coat.  I'll have to wait a few extra days to see his spotting pattern, but I know he's open marked as I can't resist rolling through their coats, looking at patterns.

Check Up

Pups are thriving!

On Saturday I packed up the pups in a box with towels and a hot water bottle and took them in for a checkup and dew claw removal.  Stephanie & Carol came along to watch, and Dr. Valenti explained things to them as she went along.  Pups weighed in at 19 to 21 ounces, so continue to be very even in size.  (This morning the second largest boy weighed 24 ounces, so they are growing rapidly.)  Nena was glad to see her family, but very stoic about having the pups disappear for an hour or so.  Everyone checked out just fine.  I gave each pup a number for identification, since they don't have names yet.

Nena is an excellent mother, though I can see she's getting bored already.  Yesterday evening she spent half an hour with us in the family room before returning to check on her brood.  She's checking out other options for puppy housing too, and whenever she goes outside she looks behind the deck chairs, the dog bath and the dog bench looking for safe housing.  Needless to day, we don't give her the opportunity to move her pups!

Narrowed my puppy list down, removing some of the names.  Still way too many people on the list for all to get a pup, and some will have to wait until next summer I'm afraid.  Because of weather related shipping issues, as well as the cost of shipping, summer will be a better option for some potential homes.  Also, shipping around the holidays is not a good idea, so logistics may be a problem.  Need to get this handled within the next few days.  I love having lots of people waiting, but it's also a bit stressful.