Happy Belated Birthday! We are in the 4th week!

Weaning Here We Come!

The puppies are growing and changing everyday.  Daisy is spending less and less time with them and I guess it is time to start the weaning process.  I am not really looking forward to this as my work is about to start in earnest.










 Up to this point, Daisy has been cooking the meals, cleaning the house, and heading up the    entertainment committee.   She has been the chief cook and bottle washer so to speak.... now it is my turn!

We offered some baby cereal on our fingers yesterday and it was met with mild disinterest by the boy, total disdain by the smaller girl and complete delight by our roly poly girl.


Hmmm, I wonder if she will be a full figure gal like Daisy Delilah???

They are clamoring to get out of the whelping box, but no way Jose!  

Moses still does not know what to make of them. He really can't decide what they are...toys, cats, puppies, rats???



That's all for today!  Next time, I think Daisy might post since she will once again be a lady of leisure!

xxooo,

Kim

www.ticklishmermaids.blogspot.com

L+M=N Loss plus Memories equals Nostalgia

And Then There Were Three

I had to put one of my precious puppies to sleep today.  It was becoming apparent that she had a birth defect.  At first, I thought it was a "swimmer puppy" which means its legs are splayed out and it has trouble walking.  This can sometimes be corrected.  Sadly, it was more serious.  It was Pectus Excavatum which is a deformity of the sternum also known as funnel chest. Basically, her chest was malformed making it hard for her to breathe and a host of other problems.  

If she had been born in a larger litter and if we had not taken such good care of her and helped her nurse etc. she probably would not have made it as long as she did.  It is normal to sometimes lose a puppy and I can't decide if earlier or later in the process is better. Daisy was a good Momma and the puppy did not suffer.

The other two girls and boy are doing great! They are starting to walk, bark, and have little personalities. The boy is by far the most vocal.  I think we will name them soon.

No pictures of puppies this time because well, my heart is not in it...but I wanted ya'll to know.  I have pondered a name for her  and all day I have thought about the story of Gracie at Bonaventure Cemetary in Savannah.  Forgive me as I wax nostalgic for a moment. Every Sunday when I was a girl,  we would make the rounds at the cemetary.  I know this sounds morbid, but I think a lot of people did it back then. Everybody would squeeze into one car and go to ride...to the graveyard( and my kids wonder why I'm crazy!).  Either before, or normally after Sunday dinner depending on the season, we would go to Bonaventure and put flowers from the yard at the family gravesite. If there were no blooms, we would rake or pick up sticks. 

 Anyway, I would often get bored and walk around and right down from our plot was Gracie's plot. It now has a fence around it, but when I was a girl it did not.  You could go right up to it.  It was and still is a lifesize monument of a little girl who was beloved by her family who died very young.  For some reason it always scared me especially because her nose was chipped a little. 

The cemetary itself is filled with old oaks draped in moss, huge imposing cherubim monuments, various crypts and mausoleums all beside the  Savannah River.  It is so quiet that everything seems muffled and the modern world melts away when you are there. 

 I think as a kid somebody scared me with a tale of if I walked around her three times then I would hear her talk. I may have been confusing that with Tomochichi's rock.  But whatever, I loved and feared going to Bonaventure.  

Funny how the death of a three week old puppy can make you stop, reflect, and remember.

 

ps. The obelisk above and below is my Grandfather's family plot.

One Week Today!!

The Puppies Are Growing!

This has been a wonderful week.  I am amazed at how much fun it can be just staring at puppies!  My family has spent a lot of time gathered around the whelping box, which I might add is the bombdiggity and I highly recommend it! 

The changes have been coming fast and loose.  They are growing like weeds. They have gone from looking like white rats, to piglets and now I swear they look like mini white manatees.  They are so fat that I wonder if their little legs will be able to support them.  I guess we will see....

I was extolling the merits of having puppies to Bob and he reminded me that the first weeks are the easiest as Daisy takes care of all of the duties.  I wonder if there is such a thing as ape puppy nanny or puppy au pere??? I'm not much of a worker bee...I'm a delicate flower...LOL  Good try right?!  Dr. Lee says I better get ready for the work, but so far so good.

We went for our weigh in on Monday and everybody gained a half a pound (including me d$%^ it!)1  Daisy lost 5 ilbs of her babyweight.  She might as well give it up because we all know your figure goes to hell in a hand basket after child/puppy birth.  I didn't tell her though, let her hope for a while poor thing...bless her heart.

Maryann at Dr. Lee's office took good care of the puppies and Daisy wanted to help!

Christina thinks she wants a puppy... we will see.  She has her eye on the little boy.

Karen and Dr. Lee were to busy to get their pixs made...maybe next time.

Let's hope that next week goes as well....

xxxo

KIM for Daisy who was a tad postpartum today and did not feel like posting.