The Life of a Doting Grandmother

So, the puppies have been here for a week.  Niko is doing a great job as a mom.  If fact, sometimes its almost TOO good of a job.  For example, I suddenly thought of some advice I wanted to give her, but this was about as close to the whelping box as I could get

Or would want to for that matter.  I like it better on the outside than inside the box.

Here' what I see whenever I look over at the box:

 

Nevertheless, staff was able to get some great pictures of the puppies.  They still sleep in piles

 

 

 Can you spot all seven puppies in this picture?

 

And feeding time-I remeber that well

 

And more sleeping puppies

 

Finally, pictures

It's been a very busy week here.  My staff seems to remember how to take care of puppies, and are doing a good job.  And the puppies are growing so fast-check out these two pictures

 

 

Above, from the night they were born

And below, from not even a week late

 

 

 

 

 

Is this thing still on?

It's been a long time since I've posted.  Really not much to report.  I've been happily retired since the last litter, though one of the puppies did stick around.  You may remember her as "Maeve" from the second litter.  As that name was already taken within the Helping Paws community, my staff decided to call her Neko (pronounced NEE-ko). She also has lots of other names too, but we won't go into that here :)

Anyway, she was selected to be the breeding dog from that litter. Three years pass. In that time Neko passes all her certifications (knees, heart etc).

And this year she was selected to have a litter of puppies.  She is due Tuesday, April 9th.

Sorry, no pictures today.  Neko has decided that rather than blogging, she is going to have a Facebook page.  You know how kids are these days when it comes to Facebook.  If you are interested in pictures right this minute, wander on over to Facebook and look for "Niko Paws"

Bath Time!

Today is "Puppy Go" day, meaning that the puppies transistion to their foster home. We want them to look their best and make a good first impression in their new homes. We owe a special debt to the wonderful volunteers who came over today and made bath time so easy.

Possibly the cutest pictures yet

While my staff was at work on Friday, some folks from Helping Paws and their entourage (including two of my former staff members) stopped by to see the puppies. As I think I mentioned before, Helping Paws employs a fantastic photographer.

The results of the photo shoot are here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/103659597131701239748/CheersXTrumanLitter43010?feat=embedwebsite#

My staff and I greatly appreciate having these pictures to link to as we have been very busy this weekend with all the people that have come to visit the puppies this weekend (one even brought chocolate chip cookies, not that I got to have any) and staff has neglected to take any pictures. But these are better anyway :)

Maybe we should have saved one of those chocolate chip cookies for the Helping Paws photographer after all............

An eventful weekend

As the pups continue to grow and change and become more entertaining, I have found that I need to increase the activities that I plan for them. Today I told them I would take them on a field trip. What I was really going to do was take them outside for their first romp in the puppy pen. Above you see us having a "team meeting" before we go out.

Next I attempted to pick up Callaghan to take her outside. Fortunately for me, staff picked up the clue (they missed the team meeting) and took the puppies out for me.

This one is pointing-not sure what he thinks he sees. I took him aside and informed him that we were Golden RETRIEVERS, not Golden Pointers.

This being the first time outside for the puppies, there were of course lots and lots of new smells to take in. One is checking the wind, while the others investigate the scents on the ground.

Roisin stalks a dandelion while another puppy looks on.

Roison nears her prey.

Limerick runs to see what Roison has.

Sorry, no punch line-just a cute puppy face.

Here you see them demonstrating their pack behaviour as they fan out.

Callaghan posing nicely.

I have no idea what's going on her, but don't they look cute?

Bono goes off on his own to explore the wilds of the flower bed.

And of course if you are a puppy, being outside for 15 minutes is pretty heady (and tiring) stuff. So staff brought them in, and they passed out promptly, as shown below.

Splash opted for the laundry basket.

Two more passed out under the couch.

And this just about sums it up.

(NOTE-In acuality, after playing outside, the pups were placed back in the pen. However, I decided to use my artistic license and embellish the sleeping part of today's tale. The pups are never allowed to be unsupervised when they are out of the pen. The last 3 pictures are actually from the day before)

"Official" Portraits

Declan-he appears to be wondering if that's how is name is really spelled. When we told him he was looking upside down he was OK with it.

Bono, who thinks he can smell food. Somewhere.

Callaghan, who as already mastered the art of the pose.

Roisin, who ultimately finds the whole portrait taking thing a huge bore.

Dara, she looks bored, but she's actually calling for her makeup assistant.

Limerick practices his wise look.

Brennan refused to have his picture taken without his friend "Hedgie" in the background on the left.

Splash looks guilty of something, doesn't he? He's not-I can assure you that he a very good puppy

Finnegan wanted to make sure that everyone saw his tongue.

Maeve with the "Are we done, cuz I'm stepping out of here" look