Two weeks old and not very cooperative – seems like they all had someplace to be today other than getting their picture taken. Tripp is up over 2 pounds with the others right behind him. He also has his eyes open, as does Libby, Quinn and Sirri. Dori and Sirri are so similar I often have to refer to my notes to know who’s who.

Good friends will: (over the course of 9 years) take a chance on a totally clueless newbie and sell me my first show dog who becomes my heart dog and opens a whole new world to me, sell me my second show dog who finishes several championships without too much effort because he’s very pretty, although he does have his own agenda – LOL!, and offer up her lovely young boy as stud for our girl, all the while offering mentoring and friendship above and beyond. Thank you is completely inadequate, Marian!

Good friends will: when I loaned her an as yet unused whelping box “kit” (ahem, apparently missing some key parts), bring it back with a linoleum floor, paint it a lovely shade of lavendar (purple is the Winners color, you know!) AND stencil my kennel logo on the side, not to mention filled with the good luck and happy vibes of the stunning litter she raised in it, do endless hours of unpaid website work, and give up a precious Sunday with husband and small children to help deliver puppies not even remotely related to her. Thanks so much, Jeri!

Good friends will: make a three-hour round trip on a work night to band tails of puppies not hers and be kind enough to say that the majority of the litter might be show prospects, not to mention offer practical help and knowledge borne of years of experience. Linda, you’re a treasure; thank you! Thank you as well, Janet, for your help too.

Good friends will: take a week of precious vacation to make a 2800 mile round trip, get no sleep for 3 nights running, sit around doing nothing until something happens, listen to my incessant rambling about everything and nothing, dog related or not, my fears and triumphs, my worries and dreams, and only ask to be kept in Diet Coke in return. This and so much, much more I could say, but she knows and I know, and that’s what matters. How could I ever do without you, Jinnie?

Good friends will: let this hobby of dogs take your wife away from home for most weekends along with a lot of your money, make her speak a foreign language sprinkled with words that would make a sailor blush, force you to share your castle with more dog hair than ought to be legal, girls in season, crazed boys because of girls in season, rescue dogs of dubious temperament, health, and training who take more of your money, dogs who refuse to sleep late on weekends, and make you clean up more bodily effluence than anybody should have to face in a lifetime as a daily matter of course. Bob, my love, your support means more to me than anyone will ever know and more than I could ever put into words.

It takes a village to raise a “dog person”. To you all, and to so many others who mentored and advised, offered help and reassurance, congratulations and cheers – THANK YOU!!!

A glimpse of things to come – the pups’ sire at 2.5 weeks. Now we just need to nag Marian into taking some newer photos to show off Chris in all his manly grownup-ness!

Photos to follow, but all tails are gone, resulting in the traditional cute, cute, cute Pembroke butt. Yippee!

Here they are – a week old already! By this time next week their eyes should be open. All but little Quinn are over a pound already. Cheery’s taking very good care of them. (By the way, these are just puppy names – we had to call them something other than “red girl” and “green boy”, etc.)

Here are Cheery and her babies doing what they mostly do. So sorry for the delay in posting; it’s amazing how much time you can waste just watching puppies eat and sleep! If you want to waste time too the “puppy cam” is now functional.

http://keelmtn.selfip.net

Your login is “guest” and the password block can be left empty. Happy viewing!

(I will warn those with small children at home that we will be banding tails this evening and it will be another 4-5 days before they drop off. If you think this may upset them, you might not want to turn on the cam until later next week. I’ll let you know when they’re all done.)

Cheery freewhelped 8 healthy babies yesterday – 6 girls, 2 boys, one each tri, the rest sable. Weights were 10 oz. – 13.6 oz. Cheery did a great job!

Naughty number nine was last and there was no way Cheery could have gotten him out on her own – he was 18 oz!!! My vet took him by c-section this morning and we said a sad goodbye.

That said, everybody gained weight last night, seems to be recovering from this morning’s excitement, we are all back home and warm and eating, and poor Cheery is getting a well-deserved nap. (Me too, I’ll post more soon!)

Yes, that’s right! Cheery’s x-ray showed NINE skulls and spines! All very evenly sized; no one big one to hold up the works. Cheery started this adventure at a svelte 26#; she is now up to 44#. Doc says she is fine, the puppies are fine, and all should go well. I’ll try to post the x-ray for your viewing pleasure tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Today is day 55 and right on schedule we can see and feel the puppies moving around. Cheery is doing great and we’re looking forward to getting a headcount when we go for an x-ray on Wednesday.