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7 weeks 4 days (8/20/06) I probably won't be blogging again - so I want to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU! to everyone who tuned in to watch and read about the start of the WIllow/Creek line of agility labs. This has been wonderful and I can't wait to do it again next summer. If anybody out there is interested in the next litter - you better e-mail me now! 2 puppies have already been spoken for (I get pick of the litter :-) & my assistant, Amber, wants one too). Trouble leaves us on Friday and then everyone but River and Zia leave Saturday. It will be very quiet in the house. I'm going to miss the little guys. I will be updating the puppy page with pictures of the babies with their new owners. This way everyone can have some closure to this delightful soap opera. 7 weeks! (8/16/06) On the puppy front...the babies did great last night in the crate. We took them out for a quick pee at 3:45am (that's impressive for such young pups)! Then we got to sleep until almost 7. Although, the avalanche of pups trying to be the 1st out of the crate, was almost overwhelming. I'll post new pictures and weights at some point today. OK - so I put their weights up, but I don't have any new pictures yet. I've been done all day. 6 weeks 6 days (8/15/06) Last night was the first night of crate training. I have to admit, I was expecting a sleepless night. I was wrong. Trouble cried for about an hour, then crashed with the rest of them. At 2 am they all started crying. I took them out on the porch and they all pottied. I put them back in the kennel and they didn't cry again until 6:30! We are going to setup a contained area outside to put the puppies in when we take them out in the wee hours of the morning. 6 weeks 4 days (8/13/06) My grandmother calls every couple days to hear the latest stories about the munchkins. She really enjoys it. Did I tell you, she wants to write a childrens book about them? Right now, they are all passed out on the kitchen floor. The had a tussle and some dinner about 30 minutes ago. I'm off to test software. Joy. 6 weeks 3 days (8/12/06) I got the puppycam working again. I had a major computer crash. I'll try and keep it going until the 23rd. I took the puppies outside again for awhile. Willow really enjoys being able to play with them. She uses her head to knock them down and roll them over. It's really cute to watch. 6 weeks 2 days (8/11/06) I finally found out who keeps pulling out the child safety plugs - Maggie! I have to say, I am just exhausted. I'm going to get off the computer and just relax. 6 weeks 1 day (8/10/06) I'm glad to hear the webcam is finally working. It sounds like you all get to see some interesting stuff. Like me drinking wine, picking up poop in my jammies, etc. I have to make a conscious effort to remember where the camera is, so I don't just leave behind a butt shot. The puppies are now 6 weeks old and no one backed out, so it looks like everyone has a home to go to. Yes, I will miss them when they are gone, but I'll be happy to have my kitchen back. I've got some work to do in there, my grout is cracking all over the place. 6:30 pm The puppies seem to have recovered from their day. They slept for 5 hours and now they are terrorizing the kitchen and everything in it. Did anybody see Luke playing with the puppies tonight? Wasn't that cute? I think he'll miss the puppies as much as the rest of us. My mother brought over a present for her favorite, Maggie. So that little pink purse you see being dragged around goes with her :-) I think I have enough stuffed toys for everyone to have one to go home with them. Thank you to those of you who sent toys over. I will only wash them if they are pooped on. The puppies are on a RAMPAGE! They like to play over in the potty area. Go figure. I finally got the pictures up from the day at the farm. I hope the 27 pictures makes up for making you wait a week for new pictures. 5 weeks 5 days (9/7/06) I took the puppies out to the back yard twice today. The first time they all huddled under the deck. The second time, they followed me ALL over the backyard. I had to keep an eye on my koi pond. The little rascals were fascinated. Willow wasn't too sure about it either. She kept getting between the puppies and the pond. She is such a good mom. The first time out, the puppies stayed under the porch, which Rebel didn't like. That it his domain. It's were he digs his best holes. Captain fell in one of the holes and decided to dig a little deeper. I had to rescue him. He couldn't get out. Every time one of the puppies came out, Rebel would bark and take whatever toy-like object was closest as far away as he could and pee on it. That's how he announces the football game is over (Willow LOVES to play football), or whatever game of fetch is over. Rebel takes the toy and pees on it. He has incredible aim! The second time out, the puppies were more adventurous. They played in the sand box, rolled in the dirt, carried sticks, and ran after Rebel. There is nothing funnier than watching a Great Dane run from stampeding puppies! He eventually got to the point where he was playing with Captain. It was very cute. Captain would run around him and play bow, then Rebel would kinda run and play bow back. Other than the giant mosquitoes, we had a blast playing outside. Now the poor little guys are passed out!!!!! I brought them inside and fed them. Some of you may have been able to see 7 little heads in 2 bowls. Now they are scattered around the kitchen, sleeping. Peace and quiet. FYI - I will pick up my camera tomorrow and update the puppy page. 5 weeks 4 days (9/6/06) Now..the webcam...I think the laptop I have it on is having issues. Just when I think I've got it working, I get nothing. I can't even get it to stop and restart. I may have to move it to another computer. Bear with me. I'm trying. I still don't have my camera back. I'll go pick it up soon. 9:00pm The webcam is up and running! My apologies for today. It seems the laptop I was using to host it just wasn't powerful enough. I tried the streaming video (live feed) and it seems you can't get through my firewall. the streaming video accesses my computer while what I have now just access my webpage which is hosted by my company. So to get a live feed, I have to set up a server outside of my firewall. This will not be happening for this litter. For the next litter, it shouldn't be a problem. Well, I made my pick today. I know that puppy won't get to stay because it is going home with one of you. But I made my pick anyway. That's between me and the puppy :-) If you've been watching, you will see that they have been little hellions! They flipped the food bowls and scattered food EVERYWHERE! It will all be eaten by tomorrow morning. Maggie ran all over the kitchen with newspaper in her mouth. It makes it kinda tough to keep paper down in the potty spot. I'm going house-hunting next Friday. Wish me luck. I'm looking for a bigger house and more land. I want to build or convert a room to be just a kennel room with tiled walls and a neoprene (wetsuit material) floor with a drain in the middle. James and I have enjoyed this SO much! He also knows I want to continue to breed labs and eventually have more than 1 breeding female. Now I just need the right location. Enjoy the webcam. I'm going to savor my last 2 weeks with the babies! 5 weeks 3 days (9/5/06) Jaz came down yesterday to see the puppies for the first time. She still has not made a final decision, but bear with her. She has been waiting a long time for this and hand picked Willow for the breeding. She did say that she would be happy with any of them. The puppies have gotten big enough to stir up all kinds of trouble. They can reach the dish towels, phone cord, dishwasher, etc. Clean-up has taken on a whole new meaning. I'm hoping by next summer to have my kennel room completed (with a drain in the floor), so I can just hose it down everyday. My computer crashed today, so I have had to rebuild it. It's still not done, but I got enough done to be able to blog. 5 weeks 1 day (9/3/06) Today we are ALL going to the farm! I haven't figured out how I'm going to transport 9 dogs, but I'll figure it out :-) I'll take pictures. 8:29 pm We had a blast at the farm. Puppies stalked grasshoppers, played in mud, and napped under the deck. I took loads of cute pictures. But...I am a butthead, I admit it. I left my camera at the farm. So I won't be able to post the pictures until tomorrow. Oops. FYI - I'm still looking for a home for Zoey & Zego. They are starting to fall into the groove here. Please - someone adopt them!!!!!! I am taking them to the vet this week to get up-to-date on their shots. They are already fixed and very sweet! Please, give them a loving home, they have been through such an upheaval. I started house-hunting today. I'm trying to find a bigger house with more land. I love my little zoo, but it needs more space. Everyone has power back on today. Still trying to catch up on clean up. My neighbors have been out all weekend. My backyard still looks like a hurricane hit it. The pool is loaded with leaves! The puppies have discovered that the most effective way to get to the kibble is too flip the bowl upside down. The non-skid bowls aren't any better, they just push it out the sides. I better go - I hear the kibble bowl being tossed again. 5 weeks! (9/2/06) James is still having difficulty adjusting to the magnitude of the poop. He really wants to move them onto the porch were we can just use the hose to clean up. No worries, he won't win :-) I've got a laptop setup for the webcam and everything is installed on it and ready to go. I just need to recover from a day of no power and get everything setup where it goes. We got about 12" of rain yesterday. Our Cybercafe still has no pwer and a large hole in it's ceiling. Thank goodness the computers weren't in there. Puppies.. have been sleeping through the night. Willow has been sleeping through the night. Most of them - not all - but most of them will potty on newspaper and not the tile. Piddle pads seem to be good for playing only. So don't waste your money. I will put pictures and weights at some point today. But I have a lot of cleanup to do first both inside and outside. For those of you who have been fretting...Jaz (pick 1) is coming down Monday to make her pick :-) 8:30 pm The babies had a big day. They were outside twice while I cleaned up the yard and then the spent several hours on the porch while I mopped the kitchen floor. Now they have full tummies and are terrorizing the kitchen again. When you look at the pictures of them in the play-pen you should know they do the "Finding Nemo" thing. They've learned that if they all go to one section of the pen and push, the whole thing moves. 4 weeks 5 days (8/31/06) 4 weeks 4 days (8/30/06) 4 weeks 2 days (8/28/06) CALGON TAKE ME AWAY! This has just been a "Hair On Fire" day. James gets back from Mississippi tomorrow - thank goodness! This morning I learned why the newspaper gets strewn all over the kitchen floor - Luke & Turtle. They go surfing at night. Luke and Renegade discovered they could play together (see puppy page). That was fun to watch. Luke was surfing in the kitchen and Renegade had to check it out. He and Maggie are the designated "investigators". If I manage to get to it, the puppies will get their first round of wormer today. Otherwise, I'll do it in the morning. Today has just worn me out. Oh..before I forget. Captain weighed in this morning at 6lbs 12.5 oz! He's going to be HUGE! I Month (8/26/06) Isn't that just the cutest! After the party, I decided to forgo play day and just relax with my little boy. The puppies are just exhausted! After the party, it was time to mop the kitchen floor so while Laurie was doing that, we put puppies in the baby pool and then played outside. I ended up confining them again outside because Maggie kept taking off under the porch. I'm not a big fan of spiders, so I didn't like having to dive in their after her. This morning I came down stairs (not until 6:30 :-) ) to find Maggie humping the food bowl. She and Captain have also ben biting their siblings hard enough to make them squeal. Willow has a rule against this, but she was outside so I had to give the lesson in not biting your sibling. It seems Maggie (who takes after her mother) is making a bid for alpha puppy. She's a wild one that girl. When it came to bemoaning puppy jail - Renegade was the loudest, followed closely by Guinness. Her howls are just SO cute! 3 weeks and 6 days (8/25/06) Captain has hit the 6 pound mark! I can't believe how much food he eats. I've been trying to curtail his eating or at least make sure he is the last one to bowl. 6:46 pm I've updated the puppy's individual pictures. Those are only going to change once a week. You can only imagine how many pictures I have to take to get those. I started teaching the puppies Sit today. You can imagine they have an attention span of about 0.0006 seconds. I have to be fast with the treats (peanut butter). I can have a bunch of it on my finger and it just takes a quick swipe in the mouth. The cats up for adoption are Zoey & Zego. They are brother and sister. I have no idea how old they are. I will try to get a picture of the two of them together, but they are still shell-shocked from the sudden change in their world. I've had to force them out of hiding. Zego has been sleeping in a corner in the living room ever since. Rebel barks at him on occasion. I am just worn out today. These little guys have kept me moving! I'm terrified to set foot in the kitchen if they are sleeping because now, you at least one will wake up. When that happens, it's like they send out some kind of signal to the others. I will put up more pictures tomorrow. Tomorrow we try out the wading pool :-) 3 weeks and 4 days (8/23/06) You know how in those cop shows and CSI shows they sometime flash an image of the murder scene on the screen for like half a second? Well I want you to think of that when I tell you what I woke up to this morning. POO - EVERYWHERE POO! For those of you who haven't seen my kitchen, it's huge! My kitchen is about 150 sq ft. There was puppy poo everywhere. But it wasn't just in piles, it had been stepped in and tracked, it had been rolled in and smeared. So most of it had dried, into the grout and textured tile. I wanted to take pictures and put it up on the blog so you could truely appreciate the magnitude of the poo. I kept waiting for MIke Rowe and his Dirty Jobs camera crew to walk in the door. We didn't do pictures because someone might be offended. TOUGH! If I wake up to the poo nightmare tomorrow - I'm sharing! I'm going to have some coffee and relax now. Then I need to puppies on the porch and sanitize my floor again. 2:58 pm It's been a reasonably quiet day, given the chaos that ensued this morning. Willow is determined to wean the puppies. She was sitting on the floor, licking her udders and shooting milk across the room! But she wouldn't nurse them until she just couldn't stand it anymore!! Willow is nursing them now, she gave in. The poor girl is bruised from their paws and toenails. I had to get a new scale. Mine is only good to 5 pounds, and Captain made it error the other day. So I apologize for the gap on the weight chart. I have a 25 pound scale now. Captain is almost 6 pounds!!!!!!!! I also got a call today from the North Carolina Sheriff's Department looking to buy 2 of our pups for their Search & Rescue division! How cool is that! I told him I wished he'd called 2 weeks ago, but to please keep us in mind for next year. I would LOVE to be able to say that our dogs were S & R dogs! Can I just say, I feel like a puffed up rooster! Search & Rescue wanted TWO of my dogs! 3 weeks and 3 days (8/22/06)
Gabby has been getting around really well today. She has tried to run a couple of times across the tile and when her back end skids out she hops! and keeps on trucking! I need to try and get it on video - it's really funny! The puppies managed to get through an entire bowl of kibble today (without Willow's help)! To my knowledge, Willow has only nursed them twice and both were for very short periods of time. When I am feeding the puppies, Willow is not supposed to be in the kitchen, but occasionally she sneaks in and hides around the corner. I think she's checking to make sure I'm doing a good job. For those of you who don't know, I own a software company that does all kinds of custom software work and web development. I am not a web developer. So while you may love my website, my web developer guy is going to make it a little better. Since - THANK YOU THANK YOU - I get 150+ hits per day, I am going to take advantage of it and get Willow Creek Kennels at the top of the search engine lists. He is also going to "optimize" the web site. I have no idea what that entails, but I'm told it makes the site faster to find and easier to navigate. He said he was going to compress and modify the video footage to be faster to download and even viewable within the website. 3 weeks and 2 days (8/21/06)
Gabby is responding well to her PT. Yesterday she took several very wobbly steps and actually walked! I nearly cried. Today she goes back to the vet for a follow-up. I'm utterly determined to make an agility dog out of her. James was saying all day Saturday, that she could still make a great dog for someone. She would just be a started dog. Then yesterday morning, I came downstairs and he had her in his lap, doing her exercises. He looked up and said "She needs me." Sucker :-) I have to fill you all in with the stuff that happened yesterday. I have a cold and yesterday I was just too distracted by life to sit and write. James isn't much the blogger. I think you can tell which blogs are his (I love you honey!). I was working in my office (which is just off the kitchen) and I had my door open with no gate across it (yes, Jaz, I FINALLY have my doors :-) ). When I heard some crying and thought, boy that sounds close by! I looked down and there was little Renegade! So he got to spend some time in my lap. Can I just tell you...I saved newspaper for 2 months. My parents saved newspaper for 2 months. I've been through about 1/2 of it! Now that the pups are on solid food, their poo is...gross. Some of them have got upset tummys and so their poo is runny. WIllow won't touch those. I make everyone go barefoot in the kitchen now. You just don't know what you are going to step on or in and barefeet are so much easier to clean. 3:39pm The doctor's visit was very uniformative. So I started calling other lab breeders I know. A swimmer happens when the puppy over-eats, gets round and the kennel surface is too slippery. I have been instructed to take her outside 6-7 times a day to walk on a better surface. That and not let her gorge herself on food. I have taken her ouside twice today and she is terrified! But if she has siblings with her she does better. She has been able to walk much better already! So I have put her back on the sale list! I also learned some more things. I planned to do our next breeding in Jan 2008 but after talking with other breeders, I only need to wait 1 heat cycle. So we are looking at July 2007 for the next breeding. Apparently the experts now say, for the working/show dogs, breed them 4 times back to back and then stop. I could never do that! Even if Willow doesn't need more than 6 months recovery, I DO! 3 weeks and some hours (8/20/06) We're feeling much better about Gabby now that we know a little more. She's already doing a little better with a day of therapy behind her. She sometimes fusses up a storm when we exercise her, but she's getting better about it. Everyone crossed the 4 lb mark today! 3 weeks! (8/19/06)
At one point, we had four faces in the bowl. Now these little guys really need a bath. 10:57am The second breakfast was a huge sucess. I mashed up canned puppy food and a little formula soaked kibble. They LOVED it! I've put pictures of that and bath time on the puppy page. We've given the puppies the run of the kitchen. Something we noticed is that Gabby is dragging her back legs around and not really using them for walking. Needless to say, I am very concerned. I have already made an appointment with the vet Monday morning at 9. I will keep you all posted on what is happening. If there turns out to be something wrong with her, I will be taking her off the market and keeping her for myself. I will not sell a sick dog. So I just want everyone to be prepared for the possiblity that we are down to 6 puppies. Cross your fingers, that she is just a little behind the curve and that by Monday she's romping around with the others. 1:28pm So I couldn't stand waiting until Monday. We took Gabby to the ER and the vet said that she is a "swimmer". She has suffered an injury to the ligaments in her legs, causing them to be stretched out. She will have to go through pyhsical therapy (which I'm starting today) to get the strength in her legs to hold them under her. He didn't think she would ever be able to compete in agility. This is not a congential defect and she could still pass OFA when she is older. The more intense physical therapy can't start until she is 8 weeks old. As of right now, Gabby is no longer for sale. We will still go and see our regular vet on Monday to see if she knows of some other courses of action we may take. 2 weeks 6 days (8/18/06) We figured out why Willow is SOOOO reluctant to nurse...teeth. The puppies are cutting their teeth :-) Yesterday I managed to get 4 pieces of kibble into Maggie. Renegade managed to down a few. Everyone else isn't quite sure yet. Lots of playing this morning. Trying to change the newspaper is tough! As soon as you clean one spot they run to it and piddle. Trouble has made the first escape attempt out of the puppy area. He's not quite tall enough to get over the barrier. 9:00pm We didn't get around to the bath today. It's amazing how fast the day can get past you. The puppies have gotten alot of attention today. I've had people in and out of the house all day. Unfortunately, I have to work this weekend to tie up some loose ends with my project before my vacation begins. But you should expect lots of neat web stuff next week :-) I'm not going to put sound up on the webcam - too much going on in this house for that. But I've got a laptop to set aside just to stream video for you folks :-) I LOVE technology....My 100# puppy just ran through the house. That's my cue. 2 weeks 5 days (8/17/06) Willow seems to be getting ready to wean them. She has been spending her nights with us instead of them. Although last night she was very antsy about the babies and we still haven' figured out why. I suspect she wants us to bring them upstairs - won't happen. This morning, they were hungry and she didn't seem ready to feed them, so I made a mash of puppy kibble and formula. First I had to keep Willow out of my concoction - Leave It - works great! The kibble still had it's shape when I put a piece in each little mouth. The expression on their faces was priceless! Some of the pups immediately started gnawing on the kibble (Guinness, Captain). Others licked off the formula and spit the kibble out. The second or third time I put kibble in, they gnawed on it and ate it. Willow finally fed them, so now they're quiet....spoke too soon. I promise to write more later, I have a security review this morning :-( 2 weeks 4 days (8/16/06) The puppies were playing with each other today! Mouths open, wrestling, barking, all of it! It's fabulous. The enormous video file I uploaded is of them playing. I've got some footage on my video camera, but I'm still trying to upload it with sound. I may have to skip the sound for now. I know you all have been waiting patiently for it. I went to the pet store today to buy puppy food and decided to take a look at the collars. I found 10" collars in every color I needed (except white - which is now blue)! So all the puppies are now in their first collars! I was going to put new individual pictures up, but every time I sit down to take the pictures...Willow decides to feed them. So at some point tomorrow, I will put up new head shots. I am just SOOOOOOOO excited about the playing! I have been waiting for this to start. I put some stuffed toys in with the babies and they sleep on them and wrestle with them. FYI - I am on vacation all next week, so I will have plenty of time to work out the kinks on that webcam stuff. 2 weeks 3 days (8/15/06) I will have to go to the fabric store today andget more ribbon. I think I'm going to make little collars for them with fabric ribbon and velcro. So expect to see some color changes. I will not change the color code of each puppy, but I want a more vibrant color so you all can see them better and distinguish them better. 2 weeks 2 days (8/14/06) I took the puppy poop into the vet today. The babies are clear of worms - YEAH! I have to say, I'm surprised. My experience has been that all puppies are born with worms. The puppies still splay out all the legs when you pick them up. Then they settled down a little. I'm convinced that Willow can count. I had a puppy on my lap - fast asleep while Willow was outside. James let her in and she went to the puppies, sniffed around, then started searching the house for the pup that was missing. She allowed me to snuggle with the puppy a little bit longer, then insisted that I return her to the puppy area. Today I found a tuft of Bear's hair in the puppy area. I guess he forgot his head and ventured too close. They are getting bigger every day! They are also able to stand on all fours longer and longer. We've had some minor tussles too. Usually someone scrapping to see who gets to be on the top of the dog pile :-) 2 weeks 1 Day (8/13/06) Puppy pictures are up. They have been a noisy bunch today! The kitchen has been filled with growls, yips, trills, and barks. We've expanded the available space the puppies have for roaming. WIllow isn't to sure about it. Maggie had some awake time today. I took her into the living room and let her explore a little. Everyone else was passed out. The pups are beginning to get more active and their sensory input has definitely increased. They have become startled more than once, when I reach in to pick on up. It's kinda cute when they get startled. Captain growled at me :-) I'm still working on getting the birth video on DVD. I'm having technical difficulties with the sound. The pups will be starting solid food in another week or two. We'll just have to see where Willow is in the weaning department. She is clearly tired of being a feeding station. Although, she is getting her spunk back. James put up the puppy fence in the kitchen and she has no difficulties jumping over it. I pointed out that the fence is lower than her jump height :-) Rebel could step over the fence, but jumping is much more fun! His problem is, his lack of coordination. This leads to some excitment as he jumps the fence and skids out to miss hitting a puppy! You gotta LOVE Rebel. He is such a big doofus:-) I've managed to collect enough puppy poop for the vet. I'm guessing they will be getting their first round of wormer here soon. With the heat we've had this summer and all the animals I have, all the Frontline in the world won't keep them flea-free. I have been able to stay a step ahead of an infestation though. If I capture any more adorable moments, I will pass them on. 7:31pm James is sitting in the kitchen with Captain in his lap, just cooing away at him [James at captain]. This man is such a sucker for the little yawns. :-) BTW - James says we are averaging 100 hits a day on this site. You guys ROCK! For those of you who are buying puppies from me - PLEASE keep in touch. I want pictures! I want to know how everyone is doing. I can't believe how popular this blog is! 1 week 6 Days (8/11/06) Rebel has been drooling over them less. He still checks on them. I had disassembled his kennel during Willow's frantic nesting episodes and I haven't put it back together yet. I did put his bed where his kennel had been. He has been very good about sleeping through the night on his bed. Willow even came up to snuggle with him for a little while before heading back down to see the babies. We are going to start doing individual pictures of the puppies tomorrow. Some of my job stress has lessened. I finished up my project. All that is left is beta testing. WHEW! I can't wait for my vacation! Sadly, James and family will get to see the NFL preseason game (Colts & Saints @ Jackson, MS) on the 26th, while I stay home and puppy sit :-) Maybe I'll get to see them on TV! Next year I'll get to go to the game! I'd LOVE to see the Colts v Giants game live! Tomorrow is our first puppy visit from a prospective owner. I'm very excited about it. I am going to play with puppies and head to bed :-) 1 week 5 Days (8/10/06) Rebel came home yesterday. Willow was very happy to see him. We were worried about how she would react with him and the puppies. She was completely relaxed! He checks on them when they cry. It took a little while before he stopped drooling. Rebel does that when he's nervous or scared. He was happy to be home. I'll update the site with some new pictures later today. 8:40 pm I tried to go to bed without putting up new pictures and my girlfriends of Bedlamb let me know it! So...here you are, new pictures :-) 1 week 3 Days (8/8/06) I do apologize for the minimal blogs lately. I'm desperately trying to finish up this project for my J-O-B. AHHHHH puppy breath! Today has been a day of puppy breath. I was taking a break and snuggling with puppies when one yawned!!!!!!!!!!! What a sweet smell! No one's eye have opened yet. There has been lots of barking today and lots of climbing. Tomorrow should be interesting. 1 week 2 Days (8/07/06) Tomorow everybody's eyes & ears should start opening. This is when the fun begins! Every day they are getting more and more mobile. This weekend, James will be barracading the kitchen and giving the munchkins the run of the kitchen. Last night, Captain tried to stand on his back legs to poop! It was very cute to see him squat kinda wobbly but he tried! More news, the 7th deposit is in the mail! Unless someone changes their mind, the puppies are all spoken for. 1 week 1 day (8/06/06) I apologize for the short blog yesterday. This has been a busy weekend. Today's blog won't be much better :-( We didn't even manage to get last night's weigh in done. We'll get that in this morning. Before our day starts. 1 week (8/05/06) I got to sleep until 7:30!!!!!!!!!!!! Not for lack of my pounce of cats (yes that is the technical term) trying to wake me up. Turtle had crawled under the covers at my feet to attack her brother on top of the covers. Back to puppies...Guinness is the queen of removing her ribbon! I don't know how she does it but she does. Every morning. Guinness seems to have wiggled her way into James's heart. It's one of the few puppies who name he knows. She is strongwilled, quiet, and adventerous. She loves to hide under the paper and make Willow worry. Somebody is in their barking... Day 6 (8/04/06) I was also reminded today, by my Grandmother, that my Great Grandfather was a dog breeder. He even had an AKC registered kennel - Greene Pastures (my maiden name is Greene). Oddly enough - the name Willow Creek turned out to be somewhat fortuitous. I knew I was going to breed Willow the day I bought her. So I spent alot of time looking for a stud and coming up with a kennel name. I decided on the name Willow Creek Kennels about a year ago and I found a stud (not Creek). I was just biding my time, waiting for Willow to turn 2, and get her OFA certifications done. I had been in touch with the stud's breeder and was just waiting for Willow to go into heat. Then an interesting thing happened...My handler was at her first NADAC trial (one of the few in our area) with Willow when she met a woman (Jaz Whittington :-)). Jaz fell in love with Willow immediately and passed her business card onto me. Jaz and I corresponded by e-mail and researched each others dogs and decided to breed them to each other. Oddly enough...the stud's call name was Creek! I have decided to continue to breed Willow to Creek for her next 2 litters and keep a puppy from the last litter and breed her to the stud I had originally picked out - if he's still being a stud! I hope today's blog wasn't too dull. I just didn't want to keep everybody hanging. The number of hits this site gets every day is AMAZING! I'll write again if anything cute happens. 7:00pm Captain was just barking his little head off!!!! I guess he was hungry and Willow was busy begging for food. We did the evening weigh in and Little Miss is getting some special attention. She didn't gain any weight today. Needless to say - I have made sure that she has eaten this evening and she will be getting a bottle here shortly :-) Day 5 (8/03/06) I talked with Terri last night to get her opinion on when to bring Rebel home - she is a professional animal trainer, been to school and all for it. She said when the puppies are 2 weeks old! :-( I was then given specific instructions on how to reintroduce him to the household. I'm going to go visit him this weekend. He's having fun tracking sheep & rabbits, and bossing around - or trying to boss around - Border Collies. 6:35 pm There is only 1 puppy left!!!!!! Willow has been taking more time for herself today. I think she's bored and tired of being a vending machine. We gave her a good brushing and threw a ball in the house. It was 108 outside today! She had been feeding the babies and then coming out to resume her usual activities while they are sleeping. Then she makes them squall for awhile before feeding them again. It reminds me of when my munchkin was born :-) I took some more footage today so I can try and share the noise from the kennel area. I'm hoping to post some of that this weekend. I'm going to try and get the webcam up again too. I need to use a separate computer because it eats up alot of CPU time. That won't be this weekend. Thank you again for all you wnderful compliments and support of this website. We are enjoying this. My husband isn't as much of an animal-nut as I am and even HE is enjoying this. He is the one updating the charts twice a day. Breeding dogs isn't for everyone. But there are so many things that people miss out on. Watching them learn to walk, opening their eyes, and the first time they hear themselves. It is too funny to watch when the first puppy barks after their ears are open. It scares them heck out of them! Then they start checking to see who else can make that noise! The next thing you know...there is a bark-fest going on! I hope to be able to capture these moments for you to enjoy! Some of you have asked if I will leave this information up. The answer is, yes I will. I have every intention of giving this much attention to every litter I bring into this world. I also feel that if you are going to pay this much money for a dog - you should get your moneys worth! Day 4 (8/02/06) Captain can already push himself up on his front paws! I'm going to try and take some video of the babies tonight and see if I can capture him crawling on tape. At the moment, Willow is on the cold tile floor enjoying some much deserved piece and quiet :-) I went in there to check on everyone because Gabby was squealing her little head off! She hadn't eaten in the last 5 minutes you know. We've decided to wait until this weekend to introduce Rebel :-( While Willow ADORES the big doofus, she is a hormone-laden female with young! Thank you all for the wonderful comments about the website! I am enjoying this alot and you just can't do this sort of stuff when you are a big kennel. It helps too, that this is what we do all day anyway :-) Things will settle down for us after August 15th. Our cybercafe opens that day (assuming the contractor finishes) and a big project I've been working on, debuts to the Mary Kay world that day :-) I'm off to play with puppies and try and get some rest again. Miss Willow decided that I needed to be up at 5:30 this morning. She wanted me to see that she was eating her biscuit and out of the box. I'm so happy that she is finally taking some time for herself. Tomorrow she gets a much needed bath! 8:55pm I heard a lot of commotion coming from the kitchen so I got up to check. It seems the puppies are mobile!!!!! Most of them are on all fours - not long - but on all fours enough to move themselves pretty quickly around the corral. Poor Willow just doesn't know what to do. This explains why everytime I turn around Guinness is under the paper on the other side of the box. Day 3 (8/01/06) Trouble has now been eating for the last 30 minutes. James said he is still on a tit. Good. We will be checking everybody's weight twice a day until we are satisifed that everyone is on an even keel. James will update the charts (he's such a wonderful geek!). The cats are still taking an interest in the babies and getting in trouble for it. Rebel will come home tomorrow. I'm hoping it goes well because I miss the big doofus :-) 5:00pm Trouble is doing MUUUUUUCH better now. We will take his offical weight later on tonight, but I've been weighing him throughout the day and he is doing better. Willow had a little episode today. It seems the cats travelling through the kitchen was just too much for her. This poor dog, who has refused to leave her babies to go to the bathroom, suddenly bolted up the stairs ran around a bit then dashed downstairs, grabbed a pup and ran back up. She just wasn't satisified with the space in the kitchen anymore. So James and Drew ran around trying to come up with a way of giving her a little hidey-hole. While they were doing that, she was bringing me pups to keep an eye on so she could continue her fruitless search for a cat-free zone. The boys found a hidey-hole for her and she has finally settled down. OH The Excitement! Now we're thinking that poor Rebel can't come home yet. I have SOOOOO much guilt for doing this to my poor Rebel! On the puppy sales front, I know of 2 more deposits which are coming for puppies - which leaves us with 2! I also know of someone that is thinking of sending a deposit. If they do - WOOHOO! 7:44pm Willow is happy again. Now that the puppies are hidden, she has been coming out to tell me she's hungry, or that she has to potty, and even just for some loving! She is back to her normal-self:-) Day 2 (7/31/06) Today has been a day of firsts for the little ones. They had their first nail trim, first car ride, and first trip to the vet. They are all in good shape and Willow got LOTS of love from all her friends at Salty Paws. She is also back to her pre-pregnancy weight. ATTA GIRL! All the puppies were several ounces heavier than yesterday. I don't have the specifics of who is what (sorry, just too tired) but they all were in the 13 - 15 ounce range. These puppies are just down right adorable! Little Captain is already pulling himself up on his front paws. I could have sworn I saw him on all fours for a few seconds too! He and Gabby are clearly the strong ones. Maggie has a white blaze on her chest. Right now, everyone is quiet. They must be eating. Willow is getting better about going outside and she finally started eating today. Day 1 (7/30/06) So, I lied. I can't go to sleep yet - too much to do. The entire birthing party disbanded this morning at about 3:15 after puppy #6. No sooner had everyone left then - BAM! - out pops #7. It was immediately clear the she was the last one. I put her in the starter box and proceeded to get Willow ready to move to her whelping box. Willow ran over to the box - grabbed #7 and carried her (screaming) back to the kennel. All the other puppies has eaten already. We got the whelping box together and moved the puppies to the box - much to Willow's dismay. This morning when I woke up - I couldn't find Willow! I could here her, but couldn't see her. She was in the bottom shelf of my bookcase!!!!!!!! The heating pad had made the whelping box too hot for her (pups where great!). She also REALLY hates the whelping box (baby pool). So my dear husband - who stayed up for the entire event (he updated the blog) is putting together an are of the kichen as a large whelping box for her. She will have room to stretch out and space to move around. We have 7 GORGEOUS brown puppies! We got birth footage of everybody except #7. The commentary gets punchier and punchier as the evening progresses. OK - Willow is happy with the new arrangement! YEAH! 6:54pm Nothing new to report. The little ones are eating well and being noisy. Like any 1st time Mom, Willow is forgetting herself and all about her little ones. I have to - quite literally - pick her up and remove her to get her to go outside and potty. We put kibble and the water bowl just outside the puppy area. I figure she'll eat when she is hungry enough. I can hear them now - grunting and whining for Mommy. Check out this wonderful picture of Captain Jack snuggled up with Mommy (he's in the crook of her paw).
I am just absolutely delighted at what a wonderful mother Willow is being. She has allowed the cats to come and check out the noise. She has welcomed her family to check out the babies. She gets a little nervous when my boys are holding pups, but then so do I :-) I am off to watch SpongeBob with my 5 year old and hopefully sleep right through it :-) Seventh Puppy: 7/30/06 at 3:26 AM Dark chocolate female. 11.7 ounces. Sixth Puppy: 7/30/06 at 2:00 AM Dark chocolate male. 11.7 ounces Fifth Puppy: 7/30/06 at 01:29 AM Dark chocolate female. 12.5 ounces and loud. Fourth Puppy: 7/30/06 at 12:56 AM (FINALLY!) Dark Chocolate male. 12.4 ounces. Had to threaten Willow with the emergency vet to get this one to pop. Third Puppy: 7/29/06 at 11:46 PM Dark chocolate female. 11.6 ounces. Waiting on the third. The girl has been very noisy. The boy is starting to rev up after another round of licking from mom. So far mom has cleaned up the pups herself. Willow keeps checking the puppy box. Second Puppy: 7/29/06 at 11:15 PM Dark chocolate male. 11.6 ounces. First PUPPY! 7/29/06 at 10:59 PM Dark chocolate female. 12.7 ounces Pre-Puppy Day 59 (7/29/06) Her contractions have started, but they are light and far apart. My experience tells me that can change fast. Willow will leave the bedroom to potty and then RUNS right back up the stairs. I have coffee brewing. I'll write more later. I'm going upstairs to comfort my Willow :-) 1:15 pm Today is definitely our day. I just don't know when. We have had TONS of panting, pacing, and newspaper shredding. Right now, Willow is irritated with me because I got tired of being cooped up in my room and came downstairs to make cookies. She went back upstairs. I've let her out several times to do her business and had to drag her out from under my deck! She DOVE under there and started nesting. So now she goes out on leash. The phone has been ringing off the hook. Terri has a beginners obedience class now and some advanced classes until 4:30. She's worried Willow won't wait for her. My mother doesn't get off work until 6 and doesn't want to miss it either. I want a nap! I KNOW Willow is ready for it to be over. Stage 1 labor is so hard and so long. I will update as often as I can. I'm going to try and be able to blog from my other computer which I dragged upstairs so I had something to do other than watch TV. 1:39 pm I can blog from upstairs! Willow is still restless and panting. I've put a blanket over the top of her kennel to hold in warmth and make it more like under the porch - which really seems to appeal to her. I'm hoping that since this all started at 9 last night that she won't go too much longer before popping out puppies! I can't wait to meet them!!!! Once they are all born, dry, fed, and we've checked them over & weighed them all, I will put pictures of them on the website. 3:02 pm Still nothing. Willow will not leave her kennel without some major coaxing. I've tried taking her out to walk her around (speeds up the process in humans), but she wants to be in her hole. So we just have to be patient. 3:19 pm For the cynics out there, who think this might be a false alarm. Her temperature is now 98.6 :-) We are waiting for puppies. 5:07 pm This is just frustrating. I know dogs can be in stage 1 for 6 - 24 hours. I just never heard of them actually being in it for 24 hours. Pre-Puppy Day 58 (7/28/06) Willow had a MUUUUUUUUUUUCH better night last night. It's 5:45am and I woke up 15 minutes ago in a little bit of a panic because I realized she hadn't gotten me up. She must have found a comfortable spot to sleep in - Finally! She's still not eating. Not to worry though...there is baked chicken in her future :-) I just took Willow's temp and noticed that her back end is a little more flacid than usual. The vet told me this would happen when we got close :-) :-) :-) This is just as exciting as waiting for the birth of my own children...minus the discomfort. AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited! 6:33pm I still have not gotten Willow to eat much. She is snubbing kibble and canned food. I even got her a Busy bone and it took her about an hour before she finally settled down and ate it. I've cooked her some beef stew which is now cooling. I'm hoping she'll eat that. She is probably just milking this for all its worth. She knows I'm a sucker. How can I refuse this face?! We've gotten a kick out of watching her from above. Sometimes you can watch her belly move from side to side. When I take her temperature -which you can imagine is her favorite activity - I usually straddle her and my knees get kicked. She has been my shadow today. I'm convinced she'll give birth wherever I am when the time comes. I'll make sure I'm near the whelping box. I'll take her temperature again later tonight. Keep your fingers crossed. The anticipation is killing me! 8:41pm Willow's temperature is down to 99.1. I think we may be in business!!! Cross your fingers. AM: 99.9 Noon: 100.6 PM: 99.7 Pre-Puppy Day 57 (7/27/06) Willow managed to get some sleep on and off today. I've had her with me most of the day. She ate a little bit this morning and and only wanted bread at lunch. Tonight she hardly touched her food. My poor girl. The temperature here is at 100 before the heat index, so I don't feel comfortable taking her for a walk. This morning I had to interview a young lady whose grandparents are AKC judges. So her entire life, she has been taken to shows (she was raised by her grandparents). She immediately fell in love with Willow and referred to her as "stunning"! I AM A VERY PROUD MAMA! There hasn't been any more excitement today. I have to admit, I was really hoping to see WIllow's temperature drop today. My anticipation is growing and growing! I've got everything ready. I have been hesitant to take everything upstairs since there is a chance she'll decide at the last minute to change where she whelps. Rebel is enjoying himself - bossing around Border Collies - at the farm. There are also plenty of good scents for a hound dog like him to track. AM: 100.1 Noon: 100.1 PM: 99.9 Pre-Puppy Day 56 (7/26/06) Yesterday, we went back to the vet for a followup X-ray. She was extremely bothered that she couldn't give me an accurate count. She says definitely 6. My girlfriends (a professional dog trainer and a vet technician) count 7 which means 8 (there is usually an even number) and my husband and I using a white screen, bad lighting, and completely untrained eyes, see maybe 9, which means 10. So we'll see. I tried to scan the X-ray, but I just couldn't get it sharp enough without crashing everyone's computer. Today, I had to take my poor Rebel out to the farm to stay for awhile. Willow is irritated with all species male. Which is a shame because we live in a male-dominated house (husband, 3 boys, 3 male cats. She is very uncomfortable. He poor belly doesn't look too big, until she lies on her side. Then you can watch the wrestling match. If you watch her belly long enough, you can see paw pads from a puppy! Last weekend, Willow and I ran our last agility runs until September. The pause table was a down and our coach/judge took pity on her. She was negotiating her down and as soon as her elbows hit the table he said "I'll take it. Go" We had our best runs ever together that day. Granted, they dropped the jumps to 12" for her and on our first run, I ran the wrong course. We call our coach "Simon" for Simon Cowell, because compliments don't flow easily from him. He said, other than my running the wrong course, it was the best we'd ever done. For those of you who don't know, I am not usually the person who runs Willow. My friend Terri, at Bedlamb Bestiary, has been my handler for the past year. Now it's my turn. We will enter the ring again in October. I will try to blog every day from now until the puppies leave. Please understand if I don't. I will also put Willow core body temp measurements at the bottom of each blog. We are watching for a significant drop (like 97), to indicate that labor is iminent. |
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Copyright(c) 2008 Willow Creek Kennels |
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She and her brother need a loving home. They must stay together. She is VERY sweet. Full of head rubs and lots of kisses.
