We Have Eyes!

Yep, the pups are a little over 2 weeks now and have eyes and ears open. They are starting to look more like puppies and less like little hamsters. :) They are starting to toddle around and are very curious everytime someone goes in or out of their room. We spend a lot of time everyday out with the puppies, like it or not. Which of course we do like it. :) Jaycee is absolutely wild about them and can tell them all apart already. I can't wait for another couple weeks when they are really mobile and get to see her enjoying them. When Josh and I took her out there Mon. evening and their eyes were all open you'd have thought it was Christmas all over again. She hollered and jumped up and down and said, "Momma, I can see their eyes!" Then of course that called for every pup to have a thorough exam by Jaycee to make sure they could see well. Having pups was always a ton of fun for me in the past, but now getting to share this experience with Jaycee makes it incredible. More pics next week.

Salon Pics

Wow! I'm on a roll. Two posts in one day, I'm sure that's probably a record!

The View From the Front Door

No Picture of Foo-Foo Dogs in My Salon! LOL

My Cage Banks

My Grooming Area With a View to Jaycee's Room

The Bathing Area

Puppies!

So I'm a week late updating the blog, what else is new? Puppies! That's what's new. Tess gave birth to 6 beautiful pups on Feb. 7th. There are 3 males and 3 females. Three of them are black and white and 3 of them are black and white tricolored. What a perfect little litter they are.

Tess got started about 9:30 that night and I was watching her on the monitor from the house and knew she was having hard contractions and starting to push. I let her be and didn't bother her for a little while and I decided I needed to go check things out because as much as she was pushing, there should have been a pup. So I bundled up and out I went and sure enough there were back puppy feet and nothing else. I let her alone and seen if she got any further on her own and I decided to take action when those tiny toes started turning blue. I grabbed a towel and pulled when she pushed and after a lot longer than I was comfortable with we finally got her out. She wasn't breathing and I was fearing the worst. I did all the puppy shaking and slinging skills I learned from working at the vet's and assisting in c-sections and finally got the little girl to take a couple breaths and then that was it, I thought she had given up on me, but I wasn't about to give up on her without a fight. So I continued on and within another couple minutes she finally came around and started breathing regularly. At the time I was so focused on getting her going that I didn't have time to panic, but after she was laying with Tess getting cleaned off it finally sank in that I'd almost lost her. I was so releived! The next 2 pups came without any assistance and it was smooth sailing. She took a rather long break between the 3rd and 4th pup and the 5th pup came about an hour after the 4th. At this point, I was completely exhausted and decided to leave the rest to Tess since all seemed well. I knew she had at least one more pup in there, but I figured it would come when it was ready and headed into the house around 3 or 4. When Josh got up to go to work (I had already scheduled the day off) he told me she still hadn't had it. When I woke up that morning I figured I'd be getting dressed and rushing Tess in to the vet to get that last pup out, but thankfully, there was the entire happy family nursing and doing well. So to all the folks that think I'm crazy for staying up with my girl and not "letting nature take its course," I would have lost the first pup for sure and possibly the rest had I not been there. I planned the breeding, I was there when it happened, and I take full responsibility for all the lives I had a part in creating. So what's a few hours of lost sleep when there are 6 healthy pups because of it?

So without further wait....

The Happy Family

The black and white girl I almost lost.

Tri-colored Male

Black and White Female

Tri-colored Male

Black and White Male

Tri-colored Female

One Very Happy Jaycee!

Pregosaurus Tess

Yep, that's Tess' nickname these last couple weeks. She is huge to say the least. I couldn't wait any longer so I took her in Tues. to have her x-rayed and get a head count. The tally was... definitely 6, probably 7, and don't be surprised if there's more than that. There wasn't much room left in Tess' belly so the pups were stacked on top of each other pretty good and made it difficult for the vet to see them, but they counted 6 skulls for sure. There was a blurry place that they thought might be another pup, but couldn't tell 100%. So, my hopes of a small litter are gone, but I can't wait to see these little rascals! I've never been so excited about pups before. I've been wanting to see what Blaze and Tess would produce for so long now and knowing that I'll get to meet the little guys in the next couple of days has put me over the edge. Did I ever mention I'm not the most patient person?
So, business at the grooming shop is going good. So far the amount of clients I've been having come in have far exceeded my expectations for just starting out. Have pics on the camera of the shop too. Maybe I'll have some free time this weekend to get them uploaded.

Stay tuned, those pups are due any day now and I fully intended to blog about them on a regular basis!