One Pound Club!!

Three of the puppies hit the one pound milestone on Monday night. Coal, Choo-Choo, and Caboose all tipped their puppy scale just past one pound at tonight's weigh-in. Casey is sure to hit it tomorrow, and possibly Cara too. Little Chip is still a few days away, but overall we are very happy with the puppies' growth so far. Except for Chip, they have all doubled their birth weight in this first week, which is just perfect.

One Week Old!

It was almost exactly one week ago this moment that I realized that Callie was going to have her puppies before morning. Time has flown-- what a busy week! Callie has settled in very well to her mothering role. She is an excellent mother, keeping her family well-fed and immaculately clean. She has also graciously accepted other animal guests into our home in spite of her obvious and natural protective tendencies.

The puppies have grown and grown, exceeding our expectations. They seem quite happy and healthy and are moving WELL-- they graduated from the whelping box to the puppy pen today after several escapes, especially by little Chip!

By this time next week, they should begin to have their little eyes open! We can't wait.

The first 72 hours

The puppies have done so very well. We were initially a bit worried about the teeniest pup, Chip (aka "Crumbs" in our family!), but he is now gaining healthily now.

They all nurse well and are very vigorous and content. They can all move about their whelping box and they are just SO CUTE!

Happy Birth Day!

Callie was acting a bit peculiar from about midnight on, so we suspected that it might be puppy-time. At 3:30 AM she chased our resident dog, Vegas, out of the area and proceeded to begin to whelp her first pup next to/under our bed. I hopped up and tried to discourage this choice, which resulted in her hopping ON TO our bed having the first whelp (Cole) there!! She immediately picked him up and tried to relocate him under the bed, but I took him and moved him to the whelping area. She followed him in but picked him up and tried to move him again! But I shut the bathroom door with all of us in there and she relented to whelping box and had whelp #2 (Cassie) promptly at 3:35 AM.

After that initial excitement, things settled into a calm rhythm. I had plenty of time to take pictures and to weigh & assess each puppy in between arrivals. Callie was extremely efficient at removing their sacs, stimulating, & drying the puppies. The third puppy (Choo-Choo) was born at 4:17 AM. The fourth (Chip) came at 4:31 AM. Callie was able to get some rest between #4 and #5. Cara was whelped at 6:09 AM. Then there was a Long Wait.

Callie rested, we rested. She was not in distress and we were not worried, just surprised at the delay and grateful for the xray... we might have thought she was done at this point otherwise! She was relaxed looking, the pups were cleaned and nursing. Everyone was settled in.

Then, nearly two and half hours later, our big Caboose arrive! Once he was weighed, assessed, loved, licked, and had a chance to nurse, we congratulated Callie on her job Well Done. Six beautiful, vigorous puppies: 3 girls & 3 boys. We took Callie outside for a quick potty break (though it took much coaxing to get her to leave her family!), changed their bedding, and let the new family settle in. And her human guardians all took a nap!!!

We've posted many more photos in the Whelping Day album!

Introducing Callie to her Whelping Area

Today we set-up Callie's whelping area... now we have to convince her that this is the best place in the house to whelp puppies! We are giving her treats to go into this space and her food and water are now located there. We have clean towels, puppy scales, the camera, notepad, hemostats, and everything we need for her to whelp in this spot, but she still seems a bit more inclined to have her pups under the bed or on the couch. Hopefully over the next day or two we can convince her that this is a great spot-- HER spot!. We will confine her to the bathroom that contains whelping area when we leave from now on rather than crating her and hopefully she will come to claim this place. We have arranged for our other litter of puppies to move to other foster homes beginning next Friday, and if Callie hasn't had the puppies by then we will likely move this set-up to the far corner of the kitchen instead. In the meantime this secluded bathroom will work great.

Welcome, Callie!

To tell you the truth, we were ready to say "no" to taking Callie for fostering before we met her. We've had our hands full with our other puppies lately, and a pregnant mama dog is big commitment lasting at least 3-4 months with lots of hard work and sleepless nights between now and then.

But our family drove up to our rescue vet, Compassion Animal Hospital, to meet her anyway. And we met her three sweet 5 month old puppies (who reminded us so much of the beloved sheltie-mix litter the group rescued last year!) and we saw her xray (6 puppies!) and learned that she is healthy and heartworm negative (YAY!). Still, our resolve was strong. The *last* thing we needed here is another dog (or 7!!).

But when I saw her, it was love at first sight. She ran right over to me and put her paws on my legs and looked into my eyes with her gorgeous eyes, and I knew we were hooked! Next she snuggled up to my husband and then to our little 6 year old, Ben (who had voted "yes" all along!), and a few minutes later we were piling her into our car to go home.

Callie fit right in immediately. She walks well on a leash, goes into her crate without complaint, is very friendly with other dogs and cats, and is super gentle with Ben. As an added bonus, she is apparently housebroken as well, as she hasn't had an accident in the house since she arrived on Monday. She likes to be in the same room we're in and sits at our feet much of the time (though she does enjoy sitting on the couch as well!!). In these few days she has already gained a "full-access pass" to the whole house and is now only crated when we leave the house. Soon she will be confined to the whelping area when we need to leave for some reason.

Last night we took her to Mud Puppies to get a good bath before the pups arrive. She tolerated both the bath and all of the various procedures (ear cleaning, teeth brushing, nail trimming, blow drying) fairly well... you could tell she wasn't a fan but she let us do it. On the way home we stopped to buy her a new pretty pink collar and put a Forgotten Friends ID tag on. She is officially one of the gang!

Today I have been watching her closely so that I can get to know her habits a bit. Hopefully I will know her well enough by the time she goes into labor that we will notice the early signs and be ready.