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Apr. 27/09 Welcome Clover! Clover is due in about a week so hopefully she'll have time to settle in before she delivers. Kristin brought over a little kiddie pool for us to use as a whelping box. As I write this, she is settled in there sleeping...good sign. :)
Clover is heartworm positive so she has a bit of a road ahead of her. She will have her pups in the next week or so. The pups will be weaned at about 6 weeks and then Clover will have her heartworm treatment. She'll have to be on crate rest for a month and then restricted activity for another month after that. She should be good as new and ready for adoption around mid to late October. The puppies will be ready to go to their forever homes when they are 8 weeks old. Stay tuned for lots of photos and updates over the next few weeks. :)
Clover and Tucker snoozing on the couch.
Playing with our foster brother Bullet.
The boys are missing their sister I think. I hear that Moki is doing well though...enjoying playing with her new big sister Cocoa.
Babies went to Lifeline for their surgeries today. Moki is having a bit of a hard time and Logan is being rough (you'd never know he has surgery!) so I separated Logan from Moki and Lancer. Moki will be heading for her new home on July 2. Donna, I know you'll have fun!
The records say that they stitched Lancer's eye socket shut but it doesn't look any different to me. Maybe they used internal stitches...
It was a beautiful day today so we took a ride in our personal carrier into the wild and wooly outside. It was a little scary but foster mama Vikki was there to keep us from getting too scared.
We're a whole month old today and we're growing so fast! Foster mama Vikki weighed us today and was amazed at how much we've gained since last time.
Lancer: 1lb 2oz
Moki: 1lb 12oz
Logan: 1lb 12oz
We've been eating yummy soft food on a plate for a few days now and we just love it! When foster mama Vikki brings it in we come running and dive right in! Sometimes we get pretty messy when we do that diving thing, but she wipes us down with a nice little towel to get most of it off.
Aunt Jenie came to visit us for the weekend. We're gonna have some fun!
One group shot and another movie today. How could anyone resist taking more movies of these little dollops of cuteness!!!
These little piglets are gaining weight like crazy! Logan is now over a pound.
Logan: 1 lb 3.5oz
Moki: 15.5oz
Lancer: 12oz
Lancer opened his right eye yesterday but the left one hasn't opened and I'm afraid there may be something wrong there. The eye socket looks concave instead of convex...maybe another birth defect showing up. We'll give it a couple more days to see if it opens. Kristin is going to check with the vet to see what, if anything, they could do but we suspect there will be nothing so we'll just have to wait and see...
They are starting to walk! Moki and Logan were up on all four feet several times today...wobbly but up off their bellies. :)
I think Moki could smell her Mom's food this morning. She started walking toward the bowl and actually wagged her little tail. It was so cute!
Logan barked yesterday. They make all sorts of adorable little noises but this was the first actual little bark so far. The other two were in his way and I think he was getting frustrated because he couldn't get to Mom so he let out a couple of sharp little barks.
Got a movie of Moki walking:
2 week birthday party for the pups! :) Kristin gave them their second nail clip and everybody just generally loved on them. Clover seemed to really enjoy all the attention for herself and for the pups. Michelle brought some tiny little toys for the babes. Can't wait until they're old enough to play with them! And thanks for the chocolate Michelle! I really enjoyed it. Bob loves Snickers and Rolos so he got those. LOL Pups are still gaining like bad weeds.
Logan: 15oz
Moki: 10oz
Lancer: 8oz.
Logan and Moki opened their eyes today! Lancer is lagging a bit behind, his haven't opened yet. The pics today are kinda fuzzy. I'll try again tomorrow on their 2 week birthday. :)
We're 9 days old now. We've more than doubled our birth weights and we really want to open our eyes and see the world! Got our first nail clipping today so maybe we won't scratch mommy so much.
Amani's folks came to pick her up today. Got a couple pics of them with the pups. I got some great pics/videos of Amani and Bullet that I'll upload in the next day or two.
Everybody is doing super! Amani (formerly Meg) came to stay with us for a few days today. It is so great to see her again! She and Bullet took up the playing where they left off back in January. LOL
Clover really doesn't like for Amani to get too close to the gate where the pups are so we set up the x-pen to block off part of the living room to give her a buffer... There is about 4 feet between where the x-pen is and where the doorway/gate is. I put a sheet over the x-pen fencing so Clover can't see Amani or the others. When they meet in another part of the house or out in the backyard, she is just fine. She just doesn't want other dogs getting too close to the babes.
We didn't notice until last night that Logan has a special leg... His right front leg seems normal to the elbow, then it splits into two. One toenail is on the thinner part and 4 toenails on the wider one. These pics are a little fuzzy but you can see his little leg.
Moved Clover and the babes into the extra room today. The door opens into the living room so she can still be "with" us. We put the whelping bed under a card table and draped blankets over to make a den. We propped the door open and put the baby gate up in the doorway. She barked at the boys the first few times they came into the living room but seems ok with them being in there now. They love that they are allowed on the couch again! LOL Kristin loaned us an xpen so we can divide things up as needed. I was going to divide the living room in half but decided for now to move Mom & babes into the other room instead since I can leave the door open and give them the feel of a den in there too. We'll use the xpen to keep them safe as they get a little older and start exploring.
Just a couple more pics for now... Everybody is doing really well. I was worried (still am a little) cuz Clover seems to have more milk than the babes need. Her teats are very full/hard. She does not have a fever, is alert, and eating so I think all is well. She is acting odd with her water bowl...wants to bite it and drag it to the whelping box...but she is drinking enough I think. I don't want her to end up with mastitis so I'm trying to ensure that the babies nurse from all teats to relieve the pressure. So far so good... Babies are all gaining weight as far as I can tell. They've all doubled their birth weight in 24 hours if that is possible? Likely some of that weight is the food in their tummies, but that is a good thing too...shows that they Clover is producing the milk that they need. :)
Kristin and Ivy came by for a visit tonight and got some pics so I'll post those when they send them on. hint..hint...hint... LOL
We have babies!
It was a bit of a long night. Clover's temp was down to 98.6 at about 10pm so I figured we'd have babies some time through the night. (Mama dog's temp drops below 99°F a few hours before they are ready to deliver) We went to bed at about midnight. Clover slept on the couch, Bullet slept on the blanket in the corner, Tucker slept on his body pillow, I started out on the couch with Clover but wasn't comfortable so ended up making a pallet on the floor for myself. We all dozed (somebody moved or barked every half hour or so most of the night and woke the rest of us up) until about 6. Bob was in the bedroom at the other end of the house but could hear us cuz I had the baby monitor on and forgot to turn it off. Sorry Honey! I didn't mean to keep you up as well. A little after 6 Clover started getting very restless: serious labor was beginning. The boys disappeared...
I tried to get her to go to the whelping box but no dice! The only place she was comfortable and not giving me grief was on the couch. So...lots of sheets and towels on that end of the couch and off we go... Clover was a real little trouper, only letting out the occasional little moan during the whole process. Once babies started coming, they came fast and furious!
Normally there is a 20 to 30 minutes time lapse between puppies, but Clover did it all in double time. Less than 20 minutes from first birth to third.
A few hours after they were born, I was able to move everybody to the whelping box without too much trauma. Clover seems to need to be around people right now so I didn't put it back out in the extra room. It is under a table that Bob built for me which sits under a window by the fish tank. We have a blanket draped from the table edge over the pool to give them some privacy and keep things cozy...seems to be working great for now. Clover won't let the boys in the room at all though so we'll have to work something out in the next few days. Bullet and Tucker can't be banned from the living room for the next 6 weeks!
**If you're squeamish**, you might not want to click the first thumbnail. It shows Logan before Clover got the sack removed.
Clover loves the pillow! It isn't a full sized pillow so it might give an idea of how small she is. She weighs 12 pounds right now and some of that is puppy so I'm guessing she would be maybe 8 or 9 pounds if she wasn't pregnant. The leash is on because she will chase the cat whenever she sees him...gives me something to step on and stop the chase if needed. We'll work on that during the coming days/weeks... Poor Zip is more than patient with all these "hunters" coming into his house! LOL
Some of these are a bit better than yesterday's...
Clover is such a sweetheart and a real ambassador for DREAM! We went to Pet Smart tonight. I put a blanket in the bottom of the cart and she rode into the store while we picked up some kitty litter for Zip and some dog food (Blue was on sale...I try to get some whenever it is on sale). People flocked to her and wanted to hear her story. She already has people interested in adopting her or one of her puppies.
I'm sorry they aren't the greatest but we'll get some more over the next few days.
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