Greetings

I recently watched Julie/Julia this last weekend, twice. First of all I was marveling over the fact that Amy Adams seemed to be in a lot of the movies that I've seen recently, caught the end of Doubt, (both Amy Adams and Meryl Streep in that one). B. Jane Lynch played Meryl Streep's sister, I think Jane Lynch is funny. 4. That there's a lot of blogging in Julie/Julia. I was feeling guilty for not writing in my online diary. So two days later I thought I'd write something.

It's about 9 days until Mercedes (aka Sadie) is due to have her puppies. She is carrying high this pregnancy. A pregnant mom doesn't really start to show that she is pregnant until the last 2 to 3 weeks. Her uterus is "U" shaped and puppies are spaced out along it's length. Puppies are protected up high by her rib cage, so she looks normal up until that last minute. Warning!: if you ever rescue a dog and she looks pregnant, be ready to be up to your elbows in puppies instantly. It will seem that way. A dog that looks pregnant is very pregnant and you better be preparing a whelping area and reading online how to's about birthing puppies.

But anyways, I was brushing Sadie tonight and was feeling babies wiggle and move under my hands. It's like putting your hands on a pregnant woman's belly and feeling her baby move. Next weekend I will be celebrating New Years by giving Sadie a hair cut and a bath, and moving around a crate for her to have her puppies in. I like to put them up off the floor so it's easier on my knees to help Sadie whelp and keep the crate clean and dry. Also so Cubby doesn't "feed" the puppies little bits of this and that.

What Dogs Teach Us.

If a dog were your teacher you'd learn stuff like:
When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure
ecstasy.
When it's in your best interest--practice obedience.
Let others know when they've invaded your territory.
Take naps and stretch before rising.
Run, romp, and play daily.
Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.
On hot days, drink lots of water and flop under a shady tree.
When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into the guilt thing and
pout. Run right back and make friends.
Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
Eat with gusto and enthusiasm. Stop when you have had enough.
Be loyal.
Never pretend to be something you're not.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle
them gently.

--I found this online a while back. I would also like to add that dogs sometimes make choices for us. I my last posting I wrote about Gretchen being my summer mom, well needless to say she and Fritz took advantage of my turned head a couple days ago when it snowed. I'm blaming the snow. Yep, it was so pretty coming down and I was watching it and taking pictures of the dogs running around so happily in the fluffy white lace, that I missed the opportunity to stop Fritz. The funny (or not so funny) part was that just a couple minutes before as I was walking down the stairs behind the dogs to let them out, I thought to myself that Gretchen was looking smaller and drier and hopefully would end her heat soon. Well I got my wish, her heat will end as a sign that she has become pregnant.

Time

Both Hiedi and Gretchen are now in heat. We are not breeding Gretchen this cycle, she is our summer mom. Hiedi will be breed in the next week or so. It's funny how it seems like it takes so long for puppies to arrive once a mom is bred, but they arrive pretty fast when you mix into the formula, work, family, dogs and home. Life can keep you pretty busy when you are shuffling everything around all the time. In fact when I stop and think about it, a week has pasted already since our poodle mom Mercedes was bred.

My Grandma passed away two weeks ago. Two weeks gone by already. Sometimes it seems like when something happens like this happens to us, time stands still. Maybe it's because the focus seems to be on memories of the past. Time is just time and it is measured out in the same way every second of everyday of every year. I didn't really know this Grandma of mine, she was my father's mother and my parents divorced when I was 6. So my memories of her are very faded and dependant on the memories of others. Its like looking out the window thru shear curtains, you can kind of see out but the colors are all blurred.

Count Down is On

Last weekend the Littles and I took our sweet Mercedes to meet Cassie. This was also my first face to face with Cassie's owner, Jan. I've been communicating with her for about 2 years now via emails. I knew I was at the right house when we pulled up in the driveway. There is poodle lawn art work everywhere. Jan has been breeding and showing standard poodles for more than 30 years. Cassie's pedigree can be traced back by Jan for that length of time also. I got to see Jan's set up for grooming also. It's quite impressive, especially for someone like me who is on knees on the floor in front of the tub to bath dogs and sits on the floor til my legs and other regions have gone numb to groom dogs.

Cassie was better than I expected. I didn't want to breed Sadie (mercedes) to a male that was really tall. They are about the same height and weight. Cassie is a nice dark chocolate (semi-sweet dark chocolate) with a grey undertone. Sadie is shiny light silver with milk chocolate undertone. I think they are going to be beautiful puppies. Silver Chocolate mixes. Puppies are due January 5th, 2011 and will be AKC registered.

Mercedes Last Heat

Our standard poodle mom went into heat last weekend. I'm very excited, since she is our only poodle mom it means that we don't often have a poodle litter in comparison to the labradoodle puppies. This time is also special because this will be the last litter of puppies from Mercedes before she retires. I found a charming chocolate stud to breed her to, his name is Cassie and he only produces chocolate and silver chocolate puppies. I'm hoping for an all chocolate litter. I have plans. I will be keeping her smallest chocolate male pup to breed with Emma and Tawnee, our medium sized labradoodle moms and make chocolate pups with Emma and with Tawnee red and chocolate pups. I'm also going to keep two chocolate females to breed with Fritz, so I will have two poodle litters a year instead of just one. I'm already thinking up names. What do you think of Baron? Like Baron Von Chocolate? The girls I'm thinking Alice and Charlotte. I know its about 10 week before we even see these beauties, but I like to plan ahead. I actually have a list of names in Alphabetical order of names I like. If you look to the side you will see that my dogs are in alphabetical order by name. Next year I will be adding A, B and C to the list. Alice and Charlotte are going to be Bear and Cubby's puppies. Oh sure they always have a puppy to play with, but these ones will be for keeps.

By the way the puppy in the picture is Sugar, a chocolate girl of Mercedes from last year. Isn't she gorgeous? Check out pictures on my photo blog of our Gretchen as she travels around American with my son in his truck. She is now more traveled than I.

Tawnee

A week ago we sent our Gretchen on the road with our long haul truck driving son to act as his companion for the next couple of months. This serves two purposes for us. The first is that right now at my sister house there are serval female dogs in heat and Gretchen just had a litter of puppies on the 4th of July and we don't want her to go into heat early and unexpectedly so we can keep her from getting pregnant again to early. The second purpose is to train M to be used to taking care of his own dog by himself. M has never had a dog of his own and I am giving him a puppy to travel with him. This puppy I handpicked for him, is a medium size girl. She is Gretchen's grand-daughter. She will be the perfect size to share the truck's living space with. M also has allergies like I do, just not as serve, so this little girl is a 5th Generation labradoodle. Her name is Tawnee. It is a name that has origins in serveral countries including Native American and German. I like it because it goes along with the german names of our dogs and it means brightness. Tawnee is the daughter of Emma and Dutch. From Emma she get's her small size and spunkiness, from Dutch she gets goofiness and a lighter version of her daddy.

Fall Has Started in Puppy Land

Time seems to be slipping away so fast this summer, I decided to blame the weather and not my age. =) The summer this year seems so short like it never really happened, only a few days were warm enough to be considered a summer day. Quite disappointing. I have a feeling that we are in for a long colder than normal winter.

On July 4th, Gretchen gave birth to 8 beautiful puppies and for once we had 3 different coat colors. The only chocolate girl was sold when she was only a few days old to a family in Louisiana. The only cream puppy is going to a soldier stationed at Ft. Lewis. A couple others to families closer to home. Now they are nine weeks old and we are hoping to place the remaining four soon. They are so much fun at this age, we let them run around chasing and playing with each other and playing peek-a-boo around the furniture. This photo is Bear holding the 3 big boys of each color, he is scruning up his face because the puppies kept licking his face.

On August 12th, Emma gave birth to another 8 tiny puppies. She did a 2,2,2,2 thing with the puppies, there are 2 black girls, 2 cream girls, 2 black boys and 2 cream boys. Everything quite even with her. The smaller cream girl has been selected to be our first puppy in a guardianship program. We are going to keep her until she has her adult teeth and is potty trained because she is going on the road with my son M, the truck driver. He also has allergies to cats and dogs so this will be a great companion for him while he is on the road. Her name is Tawnee, which by some definitions means light tan or brightness and is German in origin. All our dogs have German names and our son is carrying on the tradition.

I don't know if I every wrote about the reason we pick German names for our dogs yet. Simply put, our last name is of German origin. Also, Poodles were developed in Germany and Labradors too. It has been kind of interesting also to look up names to consider if the fit a dogs personality. For example, Fritz was the first dog my husband and I named together and we rolled around names for a couple days after we brought him home. Fritz was very proud right from the beginning and pranced around in a trot, never a gallop. Prince would have been an excellent name, but it is pretty over used. A local radio jockey had just become a father for the first time and he and his wife named their son Fritz. I thought it fitted Fritz's personality perfectly. My husband liked it also because it went with his German family name. Personality, I just like everything to match and if one dog had a certain type of name, then they all had to. Soon after we brought Fritz home, we picked out our first 2 girls and we had a few names picked out. Gretchen was Gretchen right from the beginning warm and spunky. I selected Hiedi because she was so curly even at 2 weeks of age and reminded me of Shirley Temple. That's were I got the name for our breeding program, Curly Top was a name of a Shirley Temple movie.

So Long Lucy So Long Grizz

The final puppy from our winter litters went home today. Lucy stayed with us longer than any puppy so far, almost seven months. She is such a sweety with her tail always wagging no matter what. We are glad to have found the perfect home for her. So in all it has been a bittersweet day. Happy for Lucy. Sadness over the news we received from J in Afghanistan.

After J arrived in Afghanistan, he started talking about seeing a couple dogs all the time that hang around the base. One almost got shot because it was hanging out at the firing range. One of the dogs soon became a room mate and would go out with them on missions. They named him Grizz, like grizzle bear. One of the guy's family sent them a collar for Grizz with their platoon emblem. We sent them dewormer, you never know what dogs eat. Everything was great until another camp dog bit one of the trained ARMY dogs. Then the order went out to get rid of the camp dogs. J saw a few of them shot including a pregnant bitch that was sleeping under their quarters. So he says they kidnapped Grizz and took him up and left him in the mountains. Not long after that J came home on leave and was gone for 30 days. He just returned this week to Afghanistan to find his best friend there had been transferred out of his platoon. Then J writes that he had sad news about Grizz. Said he carried him up the hill and tied him to a post and stood there while Grizz got shot. J said that at least he got to be there with him at the end. While I understand the orders and the need to protect the trained dogs, at the same time I hate to see an animal put down for no reason and hurt for my son loosing his friend.

Summer Fun

Some times I go back and read the last post to see were I stopped in our sage. In just four days after the last post, our Grandson's or the "littles" as I like to call them moved back in. This time we are petitioning for full custody, as I said last time, I could fill another blog with that story line, but here I'm just choosing to say that they are back and we welcome our little puppy whisperers with tight hugs and big smiles. They are experts at what they do when it comes to puppy/child training, us grown ups just can't do it. They have a special touch. Bear takes his job seriously and usually carrying around a puppy around it's rib cage while the rest of the puppy dangles and sways gently as Bear walks around passing on his store of knowledge to the puppy. Mind you Bear is a whopping two years old and in the mist of toilet training. With Bear, everything's about eating, sleeping, potting and playing. Now it's Cubby's job to inspect the troops and their quarters, when ever a door is open, Cubby's going to be there to crawl/enter Crates to inspect puppies and make sure everyone is sleeping in an orderly fashion. If there by chance happens to be food or bones or even a chew toy. Cubby is also going to be working as an inspector/food critic. Yes folks, Cubby does indeed sample the local fare to insure it is high quality.

J came home for 14 days from Afghanistan and kept himself very busy the whole time seeing friends and making new ones. M got to come home while he was here also so they got to spend some good brother time together and the littles went along too.

On the 4th of July, Gretchen had her puppies. She had them during the peak time for lighting off fireworks. She started when they started going off and was done when the neighbors were too. She was very fast and I wonder if the noise had anything to do with the timing. She gave us 8 beautiful healthy puppies in 3 colors, black chocolate and one cream. Today they are 3 weeks old and have their eyes open and are moving around quite a bit on their bellies, some times one will get up and try out it's wobbly legs. Next week they will be getting their first set of vaccinations.

Friday June 18th, 2010

We have been pretty busy lately so once again posting here has gone to the wayside. One of my sisters decided that her chicken coup was too small and falling apart and letting mice in, etc. So she wanted to add on to it and I'm like lets build a totally new one and make it bigger, at least twice the size as the old. So she and I texted back and forth for about a week about sizes and what she wanted to have inside for her chicken. So finally decided on a 12' X 24' structure, 4 times the size of the old! So now every Saturday I've been driving up to her place to work on it. Sometimes the littles, Bear and Cubby go along to help too. To date we are up to insulating the interior wall and have rough electrical ran. It has a roof that we are proud to say doesn't leak. Cubby has a portable crib inside to take naps while we work. Because of being gone every weekend and for a short time I was driving to the coast every other weekend to get the littles from their mom, I just decided not to advertise our last 2 puppies. Which is fine, it is giving us time to work on potty training, though I need to work on teaching them more basic commands. The littles went back to living with their mom in April, and to be honest I don't know how long that will last, they may end up back with us again. Which is a whole other story that I could fill another blog up with, I think I could fill another blog about work too. Sometimes work is great and fun, and sometimes people your trying to help make you wonder why your even making an effort at all. It reminds me of one of those emails that get forwarded to 1000 of your closest friends about how having dogs are better than having kids. Speaking of kids, my own sons are doing well, M, is driving all over the country in his truck and enjoying himself. J, is in Afghanistan doing his job there. I miss having them close by, but they are both really good about contacting me in some manner or another so I don't have to worry about not hearing from them. Take care all and enjoy everyday.

I haven't posted in this blog for quite sometime, but since I always like to repeat Mary Poppins "I want to make one thing perfectly clear, I never explain myself to anyone" I wont try to cap up the last two months or give reasons for not posting.

That said; I am currently down to the last poodle puppy born December 27th, 2009 and the last labradoodle puppy born January 4th, 2010. Once puppies start leaving it is nice to have one or two older puppies to play around with. These puppies get a lot of one on one time with us, we advance them along to crate training, leash training and out door potty training. Recently on some very nice and dry days, Suzi the poodle puppy, has gone along with my adult dogs to our local dog park. Suzi has been a little shy around new people in the past, so going to the park has been a great way of drawing her out of her shell as she greets and meets new people and dogs. A side note: I love our dog park. It is an old pasture and has no trees or water, just one bench and a bulletin board for notices. That's right nothing extra fancy about it. The reason I love it is because it doesn't have a high traffic level of dogs and their owners going in and out. Usually there's one or two other groups there and the dogs don't go in to sensory over load trying to "talk" to everyone there. Back to Suzi, she is coming along great with her training and has just the sweetest personality. She had a beautiful coat and I have trimmed into a puppy cut. On poodles this means that her face, feet and the base of her tail and down between her legs is cut close to her skin to about 1/4of an inch. The rest of her hair is left long and by now it has grown to about 4 inches. Yes she is a fuzz ball.

The last labradoodle puppy we call BB, which came about because we kept calling her belly button girl. When BB was born her mom bit her umbilical cord to close to her tummy and this resulted in a hernia that was about 2cm long. She definitely had an outty. We decided to hold on to BB until she was old enough to have a surgery to repair the belly button hernia and spade her at the same time. This way she only had to go thru one surgery and by doing this ourselves we were assured that it would be taken care of and wouldn't later become a more serious health issue. BB is really more like a BeeBee, she is always happy and on the go, buzzing around from one thing to another. Just a happy tail wagging little girl.

Soon we will find these two their new homes and we will be puppyless again for a short while, our Gretchen is due in July with hopefully many different coat colors. I have someone wanting a chocolate puppy. So we will see and be surprised and happy for what Gretchen delivers.

Going Home

In the past week, five of our poodle puppies have gone home. It seems odd now because the poodle puppies were all the darker puppies and now when we play with them, the majority are golden puppies instead of an even split. Next weekend the labradoodle puppies will be ready to start going to their homes.

Quiet Sunday

Today we got up at the normal everyday time. The dogs, especially Gretchen, have no concept of my plan of sleeping in a little on the weekends. Gretchen gives me a morning wake up call every morning, everyday of the week. So up we get and let the dogs race out of their beds and down the stairs where at the bottom they slide every time. Nails making scratching noises the whole way, thank goodness for laminate flooring. It's a harder surface than hardwood floors. Dogs go out and babies are loaded up in their high chairs. Applesauce is a huge favorite with the littles, they eat it everyday, sometimes twice. Bear gets his in a bowl and a spoon right away so he can get started. I pop in some bread in the toaster and sit in a wooden chair to quickly shovel a few spoons into Cubby's mouth. Toast pops up and gets a coating of fake butter and cut into squares. Bear gets the plate and Cubby gets a couple of squares on his tray to chase around while I prepare the dog's breakfast. In the morning the dogs are spoiled. Or rather they think they are getting spoiled. I grab the stack of metal bowls and fill and stack them with dry dog food and carry them into the kitchen were I unstack them. I run the water for hot water and in yet another bowl I mix a can of dog food with half a can of hot water. I pour a can of hot water into every body's bowl and divide the canned food so there's a little for everyone. See how they think it's so great? It's just enough to flavor the dry food. After everything is all mixed up, take the bowls outside two at a time and place them in a row along the back step. Everybody eats. By mixing their food like this in the morning, I know that everyone will eat. I have a couple dogs that will wander around while everyone else eats "waiting" for their turn. In the mornings when I have to leave for work I don't have the time to wait for them to all eat. The littles and I sit in the sun and watch the dogs eat and have a nice conversation while applesauce is shoveled in. This takes a while but we are in no hurry today, no one is coming to see puppies. After breakfast it's back upstairs with the littles to apply fresh diapers and clean clothes. Cubby gets a bottle and Bear and I set to work cleaning up the puppies areas. Bear is great at following me around and saying "eww poop". Puppies get fed and dogs brought back inside. Now coats are applies to the littles and they get strapped into car seats. We have a some what plan for the day. We are off to Home Depot and Costco. Home Depot is our first stop. We are shopping for a new submersible pump for the pond in the backyard. We seem to need to replace it every year. This time the old one must have a crack in the seal protecting the motor. Every time it is set in the pond it trips the breaker. This time the pump costs $11 more dollars than last time. We also picked up some more pads for the swifter wet mop, a bottle of window cleaner and a glade plug in. Then we loaded back in the car and headed across the street to Costco, convenient. At Costco we got 100 pounds of dog food, kitchen trash bags, toilet paper, peaches and oranges in little cups and applesauce in little cups. Loaded back up and back across the street for chicken nuggets and a fish sandwich for lunch. Got home and Cubby's sleeping like he does every time he gets strapped into the car, so we bring him in and leave him to sleep. Bear and I go out to the backyard and hook up the new pump and start the pond draining, it has a nice green coating of algae from the nice weather we've been having. By the way, two red eared slider turtles and a few big goldfish live in the pond. We do some poop duty and let the dogs out again. They had a nice time enjoying the sun shine and ran around playing with each other while Bear rode around his red plastic bike. The photos above show what my back yard used to look like before dogs, very green, now it's more grey(pavers) and brown(mud). I am planning on a garden again now that the area is fenced off to keep the dogs from digging in the raised beds. We spent the remainder of the day caring for the dogs and puppies. Emma's puppies had a bath and got vaccinated and Hiedi and Mercedes got a baths too. Hiedi usually goes to the VA with her Daddy in the mornings so I like to have her look nice and clean. Mercedes got a little bit of hair trimmed, a bath and an ear treatment. She has been doing the shaking thing again. Someday I'll get the right amount of time between treatments for her. Cleaned up puppies, fed them again and all the puppies got a deworming treatment. The rest of the evening was spent playing with the littles.

Good Bye Daddy, Good Dog Ambassador

Good Bye Daddy, friend of Cesar Millan and good will dog ambassador for dogs everywhere. Hopefully through the Dog Whisperer show, people will realize that Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Bull Terrier or American Pit Bull Terrier, aka pit bulls are not always the bad dogs people think they are. Aggressiveness can be bred out of breed of dogs just like it can be bred into a dog. Training a dog from an early age to be a calm submissive member of your family is key to having a good long lasting relationship with your pet. Daddy was the best example of this and fans of the show benefited greatly in seeing how a dog should act as a member of the family. Daddy was a just as much of a hero as any dog seen on television or in the movies and in my opinion even better because Daddy was true to life. Good bye sweet handsome boy.

Puppy Work, Dogs at Work

I haven't posted in a while. Been a little busy with puppy care and grand kid care. If I'm not cleaning up one type of poop, I'm cleaning up another. =) I know grossness. I laugh to myself whenever I hear people complaining about cleaning up after their new puppy, try having a litter to clean up after. Next weekend the first of the puppies start to leave for their new homes. I'm excited. Their new families are even more excited. I've met some wonderful people who are going to be taking my fluffy babies away. It can be hard to let go, some puppies you just feel closer to. Like the first time you hold it's warm wet body in your hands and two weeks later he's looking at you with blue tinged baby eyes. I think the best time is seeing the tail wag for the first time. How cute is that. Don't think anything could be better except a toothy grin from a grandson. I also happy to say that we may have one or two puppies that will not only be pets but will be learning to be service dogs. Still waiting on that one, but think it is a great opportunity for the puppies. Our Hiedi is my husband's companion animal. A companion animal is a pet that can accompany it's owner where every the owner needs to be that could create a stressful situation for the owner. The companion helps keep the owner focused, stress free and some can detect health problems. Usually no training is involved, just a close relationship between the pair. Another helping dog is a therapy dog. Therapy dogs go through obedience training and are tested for good dog citizenship so the dog can visit patients at care facilities and hospitals. A service dog is a dog that has gone through extensive training and matched to a person who needs a little helping paw so they can live independently. Most people think of German Shepards, Golden Retrievers or Labradors when they think of service dogs. Many fail to see that poodles make great service dogs, they are considered to be one of the highest intelligent breeds, and someone who is allergic to dogs may have no allergic reaction to a poodle or labradoodle. They are more than just a pretty face.

Nanny Fritz

At night when all are a sleep, Fritz is on duty. Most nights he lays by the bedroom door, well that used to be true. Now he lays on the floor in front of the boy's cribs. I have to remember to be careful if I have to get up in the middle of the night to take care of Cubby. He don't care that I am inserting my feet in between his legs or next to his head to reach into Cubby's crib and fish around for that bottle that got away, these are his boys and he's not getting out of the way for anything. Fritz is also helping Bear with his pitching skills. In order to play fetch in the room Bear has to be able to aim the ball threw a doorway and past the row of dog crates. He does okay and Fritz is always willing to get the ball for him no matter what direction the ball went flying. Some times the ball goes under a bed and Bear and Fritz go diving under and I look down at the floor to see two size 9 tot feet and two furry black paws and tail sticking out. These two goofy for balls have an audience. The moms all watch the fun while they feed their babies and Cubby has recently learn how to pull himself up in his crib to stand on wobbly legs and make his baby words. I'm not sure what he is saying (well to be honest, Bear is hard to understand about 50% of the time), but I know he is into balls too. It is late and all is quiet, the room is dark except for the light of the tv and computer screen and I look on the floor and there is a big dark empty space, a black hole. It is Fritz, stretched out with his tail under Bear's crib and head under Cubby's crib.

Day Off?

Day was sort of a day off. I took the day off from work to stay with my husband after he had a dentist appointment. Gotta keep my eye on him. So I went to the local restaurant for breakfast. My Army boy used to work there as a dishwasher before he left for the Army. Everyone wanted to hear the latest news about him and how he has been doing. I had talked to him a couple of days ago and passed along his greetings to everyone back home. After gathering up my husband from the dentist, picking him up some yogurt and pudding, and getting him settled in bed to sleep it off. I took the opportunity to put everything away that got pushed around when I laid my laminate flooring. I also re-installed the toilet and got the whole house swept up. I lined up all my sewing machines that are in cabinets and placed a portable sewing machine on top of each one. I still have one cabinet upstairs that the bird cage is currently on. All together I have six and two more that belong to my sister that she brought over for me to check out and I haven't got around to looking at yet. Cringe. Sorry. Then I gave Emma a hair cut and a bath. I also gave the poodle puppies their first bath, that was a little noisy and I got to have a bath too. Then I put collars on all the puppies and took their pictures to post to the website. Fortunately I have a good Internet connection tonight and was able to make some changes and post the pictures. It is a best guess with my camera right now. I can't tell what I'm taking a picture of, so I take a bunch and hope for the best. Tomorrow I'm planning on giving Gretchen, Mercedes and Fritz a bath, Hiedi's turn will be Friday. I have people coming to see the puppies this weekend, so I want everyone clean and smelling good. I'm also planning on doing some aggressive advertising for the weekend, three online newspapers and as many free online classified as I can find. I named Hiedi's big cream boy, Nanook which is the intuit word for polar bear. He looks like one, if I had a coke bottle I would take his photo with it. I also named Mercedes large chocolate boy Kodiak, which is another word for grizzly. He is a fierce and brave little fellow.

The Puppy Whisperer

The poodle puppies are now 2 weeks old. Yesterday their eyes started opening. The eyes don't just totally open up. At first the corner of the eye seems a little open and as you move the puppy around the light catches and a glimmer is seen along the closed lid. The puppies are all doing well, both litters. It is amazing how much bigger the poodle puppies are compared to the labradoodle puppies, they are 11 days older. Now that the poodle pups are getting bigger, they are getting handled a lot more. My older grandson, Bear, is now an official holder. He does a real good job. I ask him if he is ready to hold a puppy and he goes and sits down on the big comfy chair. I lay the puppy on his tummy and he puts his hands on the puppy and whispers in it's ear. Pretty good for a 21 month old. Today he held one of the sweet black girls. She was making noise in the crates and so I go and pull her out. Bear headed right to the chair and says "wanna hold?" and I put the puppy in his arms and she calms right down and goes to sleep. Bear usually holds the puppies for 15 to 20 minutes at a time.

New Photo of Our Poodle Babies

Mercedes puppies are almost two weeks old now. Any day their eyes should be opening up. They are all nice and fat and definately growing.

Hiedi's Puppies are here!

Tuesday night after I got home from work, our sweet girl Hiedi finally let lose and had her puppies. I had barely gotten home, got my coat off and was checking everyone like I do; husband, littles, dogs and puppies. Everyone getting little pats of love. I watch Hiedi in her crate for a little bit. Husband and Bear go downstairs to start dinner and I see Hiedi is ready. She's pushing and moving around and pushing some more. I'm excited, these are the puppies we have been waiting for more than 10 months for. We are trying to add a new coat color to our selection. I watch Hiedi as she pushes, phone in hand. As soon as I see the pup come out, I'm ecstatic, I can see that it's light. FINALLY!. I love Fritz and he fathers beautiful puppies, but he only produces black and chocolate. We are always asked about lighter puppies. Soon puppies are arriving every 30 to 40 minutes and everyone of them is light, so close in shading that I can't believe what is coming out. After 8, Hiedi is done. I thought she had more but she was finished. About midnight I coax her away from her puppies to potty and decide to give Hiedi a bath. She is basically coated from nose to tail with birthing fluids, except for the top of her head and down her spine. I usually weight til the next day to bath the mom, but I could just imagine what the neighbors would think if they saw her looking like that. It's kind of funny that all last year I have people asking for the lighter puppies and right now I'm having inquirers for chocolate. Tonight I placed ads online. To place ads I have to take photos, write out descriptions of the puppies and wait and hope I can get online. My camera is on it's last leg. Something got dropped on it and the display screen is cracked so I can't see what I'm taking pictures of. At least it is still taking pictures for now. Another future business expense. After taking photos, eating a dinner of waffles and putting the littles to bed. We declawed Hiedi's puppies. It upsets the mom more than the puppies. Hopefully the ads generate some traffic.

Things my 6 months old grandson can do.

So I’m here waiting for Hiedi to give us a sign that this could be the night and have her puppies already. I have my grandson Cubby on my bed and he is currently rolling an empty 2 litter pop bottle over and over. Earlier today he discovered that he could make his thumb disappear! Yes that’s right folks, he’s a regular magician. Okay so he really just figured out to fold his fingers over his thumb. Then he waves it around in the air and twists and turns it, showing any and all who are watching that his thumb is gone! Yes, magic. He is also pretty good at hand to hand transfer and if you blink your eyes real slowly you can’t see the exchange at all. He has also mastered two words; mum mum and da da. Since I am not either of these people he keeps talking about, I am working on getting him to say Jana. If he can say Jana, then I will have to conclude that he is a genius on all counts. Especially since I can’t seem to get anyone else to call me that, including his 21 month old brother, Bear who calls me Mike. Mike is his dad and he should be calling him dad or daddy. At least once or twice a day I’m saying; “I’m not Mike and I’m not momma.” Other grown ups seem to keep forgetting that I’m not his momma either. After all I think that everyone should have his own name. They already have a grandma, granny, grandpa and poppa, calling me grandma is too confusing for these little minds. I just checked on Hiedi for extra occupants in her crate, just her in there looking like a big momma pig. She just wags her tail at me and rolls over even more on her back to see if I will rub her belly for her. Cubby is getting around more than ever, he has a combination of rolling over this way and that with a little wiggling and he gets himself from on place to another. He can sit upright for short periods of a time until the weight of his head gets the better of him and he tilts over. Cubby is also making rocking motions that are precursors to crawling. He is constantly moving around so that he burns thru the calories he consumes pretty fast. His wonderful Dr. says that he is at 65% range for his length and only 10% for his weight. Nice and long and lean and since he is a good eater not to worry about his weight being on the low side. By the way, over the weekend I replaced the tile in my kitchen with laminate flooring and as soon as I get the door casings put back on, I’ll post before and after pictures. Next weekend I’m hoping to do the floor in the bathroom, if nothing else comes up. Did I mention how good Cubby is at smiling?