Puppies

This post is actually really late. We have puppies...ten of 'em! And they're already six weeks old. :P

Before the puppy comes the mom. Beatrice is my baby (one of them, anyway).

She's half Great Pyrenees, half Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix.

We're not quite sure what the father is, but some kind of hunting dog. 

So I checked out a book - 'The Dog Owner's Veterinary Handbook.' I read a few chapters of it. Then, maybe a week later, we figured out that Beatrice was pregnant.

So I read the whole section 'Pregnancy and Whelping.' It was very in-depth and I really enjoyed it.

The morning started with Bea getting herself stuck under the wash house (an outbuilding that we use as a toolshed but call the wash house). We had to dig her out because she had evidently forgotten about her massive stomach. Once we had gotten her out, she paced around for awhile.

Well, wouldn't you know, I found her less than an hour later under the back porch with three babies. We moved them to her whelping box.

I won't gross you out with details, but I delivered the rest of the puppies, and happily saved the lives of three of them. I definitely recommend that book. 

In the picture above there's actually only nine puppies...that tenth one came as a bit of a surprise. I guess they all did, in a way.

The pictures below were taken a few weeks ago.

This one doesn't have a nickname, but he is definitely adorable. Has a little more of a hound look to him, especially now (but I don't have any more recent pictures)

And this one's Barbossa - he's all white with that one dark patch over his eye. He's very friendly and loves to cuddle - and eat. 

I don't normally play favorites, but this is my favorite. Nicknamed Gandalf. He is gorgeous and friendly and so sweet. Besides, it's not every day you get a mix that looks like this! He's the only 'true' gray in the litter, plus the biggest. Isn't he just so stinkin' adorable? This is a more recent picture of him (actually only taken a few days ago. :3 He's HUGE. Look at those paws. 

And this is Mademoiselle. 

She always wants to be held and cuddled and is always the first to greet me when I walk in the door. She and her sister look very similar but her sister (Penguin) is slightly bigger, sweet but more enthusiastic, and has more white on her belly.

I don't have any more 'single' pictures, but here's a few group ones.

Holmes is another one that we've nicknamed, but I don't have a specific picture of him. He's a shy little brown hound. <3

There are more puppies than those that I've listed, but they're unnamed or I don't have pictures. :)

But aren't they all so ADORABLE?