Maddie and Jazz Puppies born July 9, 2012
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| Maddie snuggling with her beautiful puppies! |
This past week has really flown by and it’s hard to
believe Maddie’s little puppies are one week old. Maddie herself is recovering
from a C-section required to deliver her tenth puppy, little Miss Pink, but you’d
never know it. She is a very attentive mom and for the first few days she would
not even leave her pups for meals, preferring breakfast in bed or room service. As the pups are getting a bit more established, Maddie does venture
out more, but prefers to take her naps on the floor just outside the whelping
box.
We currently have two litters, each of which is in
an opposite end of the house. When Maddie is in the kitchen, closest to Mango’s
litter and hears the tiny voices coming out of that room, she does her utmost
to hurdle the barrier in an attempt to attend to Mango’s puppies.
At this stage, the pups spend their days eating and
sleeping. They are usually very quiet except when they are hungry and trying to
make their way to the milk bar. Their eyes won’t open until sometime between
weeks one and two, so in the meantime, they rely on their keen sense of smell
to find their target. They propel themselves there using their tiny forelimbs. The
most resourceful pups find a preferred spot at the bar where they can lay down
to feed and use their tiny fists to prime the milk pump. For some of the
others, once they’ve latched onto one of mom’s nipples, they use their hind
legs, kind of like walking on a treadmill, to keep in place. They’re starting
to get a bit more traction now that their nails are growing. Occasionally, when
mom is feeding from a sitting position, the nursing puppies resemble quivering
little ornaments on a white Christmas tree.
Maddie certainly has her work cut out for her, trying
to keep all those hungry tummies full.
The puppies are growing in leaps and bounds with the boys weighing in
the neighbourhood of 2 lbs. and the girls typically a bit less. Our nickname for Mr. Blue, the largest at birth and the first to cross
the 2 lb. threshold is “Sherman”, named after the tank. Not to worry about Sherman, as all of
the puppies’ weights will level off in due course.
Knocking on Heaven's Door
In closing, we are so sad to have let you know that
we lost little Mr. Forest Green from Maddie’s litter to fading puppy syndrome
in the wee hours of the morning on Friday. We are so heartbroken.
The only comfort that we can take at this time is in knowing that our little
“Forest” had more love and care in his brief time on this earth than many other
dogs experience in their entire lifetime. We can now only imagine God to
be uttering the phrase, “run Forest, run”.
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That’s it for now, but be sure to
join us next week for another chapter in the continuing saga of “Puppy Tales”.
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