Puppies are 1 week old today!

Mudge and Squirrel enjoy a quick outdoor photo shoot.
Even though it is the end of November the weather feels like April! :)

I can not believe how fast the week has flown by! It seems like Maria and I were just sitting here stressing out yesterday and here we are already marking the first week since their birth.

We are learning to function with little sleep and spending hours just watching them wiggle around the whelping box. They are beginning to make more purposeful movements. They seem to have more control of their heads and seem to seek out Tioga's neck and face as a place for warm cuddles and soft kisses.

Mudge: aka - Mudger Pie, Smudge
weight at birth: 15.6 oz, weight at one week: 2 lbs 3.5 oz

Squirrel: aka - Squirrely-Q, Squirrely-girly
weight at birth: 15.8 oz, weight at one week: 2 lbs 7.6 oz

We have discovered a fool-proof way to tell the pups apart without flipping them over to peek at private parts. Mudge is without a doubt the "wild child", right down to his crazy fur coat! If you look closely you can see that Mudge's fur is a bit shorter than Squirrel's and sticks out like he is sporting a crew cut - it sticks straight out in all directions. Even his little tail has a poofy fluff at the base before it tapers to the end. It compliments his goofy behavior to a tee! Squirrel's has the most luxurious coa, the sheen to it looks like velvet, smooth and sleek.

The kids are head over heals for them both. It will be hard for them to head back to school after a long Thanksgiving weekend, but they are excited to bring in photos and brag about their new puppies! :)

Exhaustion setting in...

My husband and I are sharing the puppy watching duties through the night. Typically, I go to bed early and he stays up until 1am and then I get up and stay up the rest of the night so he can sleep. This is why God made puppies so cute. If they were chickens or snakes for example, I would be fast asleep by now!

It is hard to remove human baby emotion from your psyche. I hear the puppies cry and my first instinct is to want to pick them up and rock them. My heart is thinking, "oh those poor babies want to be cuddled and be made to feel secure" but my head knows the cry has more to do with basic needs - cold or hot, hungry, gas bubble. I can see that stepping back a bit and letting Tioga figure it out is benefiting us both. She was really looking to me to "fix it" when a puppy made a distress call. She would just whine and I would feel badly for them both and go cuddle the puppy, hold it to her for licking or for nursing etc. Last night, mostly out of sheer exhaustion, I gave it a few extra minutes before stepping in. As I had hope, Tioga figured it out on her own and was able to quiet her puppy by nudging them to her for a cuddle or some milk.

I feel like I am repeating that line from the movie Cast Away every morning. "Tomorrow the sun will rise, who knows what the tide will bring in" Because right around 4 am I am saying, "Why the heck did I think breeding Tioga was a good idea?"

Hittin' the Highway!

Our son, Daniel graciously gave up his matchbox car carpet to use as a non-skid surface under the fleece for the the whelping box. Today while I was changing out the bedding, Tioga and the pups took a "cruise around town". That is Mudge over at the milk bar with Tioga (They are actually laying on the airport!) Squirrel is in the foreground racing down the highway!

Personalities emerge with each passing day.

The puppies have become a regular fixture in our lives. They already have nicknames and everyone knows where each puppy prefers to sleep so they can be easily found and identified in the whelping box. We have noticed every subtle difference in the two.

Squirrel, who is now affectionately known as Squirrely Q, is our content one. She keeps to a regular pattern of eat, sleep, mommy kisses, poop. She is a glutton and will go down the row of teats emptying the milk before falling back to sleep. A sure sign that she is Tioga's girl - both momma and baby LOVE their eats! She easily settles after anything that makes her cry or whine...hunger, tummy trouble, missing mama. Squirrel is using her first born status to claim the top tier of their little dog pile when the two are cuddling. She is bigger than Mudge by a few ounces and a slight shade darker. She likes to sleep right in the middle of the box with a blanket over her. Mostly on her belly but sometimes on her side. She is the quiet one of the pair - a stark contrast to a very vocal Mudge.

Mudge, who is now known as Mudger-Pie, is our little needy one. All in a good way, he just needs a little extra loving. He is our man-on-the-move. He was the first pup that ventured away from mom to explore the whelping box. All that moving means he doesn't like to stay still for a good long feeding or a proper bath from mom to encourage a poop. He is more of a snack, wiggle, whine, wiggle, nap, wiggle, kind of man. We have been holding him in place next to Tioga to to make sure he is getting his proper eats and baths. He has a great "voice" - hums when he eats, grunts when he wriggles across the whelping box, whines when there is an obstacle in his way (or when he wants to be back by Tioga but is just to tired to get there) and makes the cutest little lip smacking sounds when he sleeps. He loves sleeping on his back and having his tummy rubbed. This makes us smile because Tioga and many dogs in the GreatMountain line also love to sleep this way!

We are dazzled by their little pudgy bodies scooting around on the whelping box floor. We are noticing little changes in them each day and are captivated by watching them grow.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving morning began with one overtired puppy and one stressed out puppy mom. Mudge just couldn't settle last night. He cried and whined and did a hundred tours around the whelping box. I tired all the tricks I could think of to comfort him but nothing seemed to work for any length of time. A recon mission on FB with Karen Hinchy determined that most likely the whelping box was a bit too warm for our little guy. Sure enough, her advice was spot-on and everyone settled in for a much needed nap while I went to prepare the turkey. Our whole family was here to celebrate the day. A very traditional Thanksgiving feast, great food, great company, football on the TV and laughter filling the house. The puppies and Tioga occupy our front room off the family room, so while it is quiet in there we can still peek in to "ooooh and awwww" at the little cuties. Tioga was very proud to show off her babies to all the cousins and aunts and uncles. She seems to be feeling more confident in her role as mommy. She isn't so nervous about leaving the pups to go outside to relieve herself and she even took some time today to share a bowl of goats milk with our other Chinook, her pal Dakota. Dakota has missed Tioga's company since her attention has been solely on the puppies. Her careful attention to them is so sweet to see and is turning them into plump, happy puppies. They are gaining over an ounce each day! With only 2 puppies, there is no competition at "Momma's Milk Bar" - happy hour, all day, everyday! So, with all of our bellies (both human and canine) stuffed and heaving contented sighs, we say good night. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Our first adventure outside the whelping box

Today Squirrel and Mudge had their first adventure outside the whelping box. A quick trip to the vet for a check up and dew claw removal. Easier said than done. Although the vet is only 4 minutes down the street, it felt like 400 miles! I had to separate the pups from mom so that they wouldn't get squished enroute as Tioga was wildly yelping and pacing from window to window. She was definitely excited to go for a car ride. As we started off, the pups began squealing for their mom and Tioga became increasingly agitated at being apart from them. The receptionist met me in the parking lot and whisked the puppies into the office so that I could stay in the car with Tioga and keep her calm. They had their dew claws removed and were given a clean bill of health and swiftly returned to their waiting mom. After they left, she fell fast asleep (don't tell the pups, they think she was crying for them the whole time) Obviously, the whole ordeal (which maybe lasted 15 minutes) was exhausting for Mudge and Squirrel because they have been fast asleep ever since!

The puppies are here at last!

Saturday morning Tioga's temp was lower but not the significant DROP that all the books I had read in preparation had told me to expect. Maria Sommer was "on call" and after a long day of waiting for some tell-tale sign, we decided she should just come up because no doubt the puppies would be born at some crazy hour of the night. Saturday night came and went! Sunday morning Tioga's temp was a full degree lower than the day before. Ah ha! This was the REAL temp drop that we were looking for. Sometime in the next 24 hours we were sure we would be delivering puppies. Sunday night came and went! By Monday morning we were all a little on edge. Had we missed some sign of trouble? Do we continue to wait it out? Were the puppies still ok? As the morning progessed Tioga's behavior was encouraging. She was pacing and panting and digging more and more with each passing hour. We were on our way! By 10:30 am it was clear that Tioga was in hard labor. She was a wonderful dog throughout the whole experience. She was pushing so hard with each contraction and quite clearly very uncomfortable but she remained her sweet self, looking to us for belly rubs and encouragement. Finally, at 11:00 am the first puppy, a girl, was born. She began nursing before she was all the way delivered. A strong, vigorous pup. We named her Squirrel (See our website for info on how we chose the puppy names: www.daybreakchinooks.com) We all were overjoyed and breathed a collective sigh of relief! Tioga began mothering right away, licking and cleaning and greeting her new baby. About an hour later, at 12:10 pm the second puppy, a boy, was born with a fraction of the effort it took to whelp the first. Again, a squirming, wriggling, NOISY pup! We named him Mudge. Oh joy! We did it! They were healthy and strong and nursing and being loved by their momma. It was so amazing and beautiful and raw and natural. The mothering instinct for Tioga and the survival instinct for the pups was incredible to see. Immediate and endearing. What a great mom Tioga is!