Bad Monday

I'm grieved to report that despite best efforts from me and from Dr. Malphrus, we lost Handy's Pink-Collar girl this morning. Besides being sad and depressing, this is very serious bad news for DFA. We need girls. These are rough times for our program.

SHE of the Ms

Since we have only one little girl among the M pups, a pink gingham ribbon collar seemed appropriate. :-) Her name is "Mercedes," in honor of Mercedes Bartow, who played a significant role in getting DFA adopted as Leadership Greenville Class 35's project for this year. I hereby give a disclaimer on any comments about Little Mercedes....that may or may not accurately reflect her namesake! However, Little Mercedes has definite opinions on all issues and does not care much for being restrained. Her overall philosphy of life is illustrated in the photo below: UP WITH ME, DOWN WITH BROTHERS! This picture does not show perspective very well, but the pillow is propped against the wall, and Mercedes cannot be content with any resting place except at the very top, brothers be darned, and she'll be happy to climb on their heads for a boost. In this photo she's perched (and sleeping soundly) about six inches above the rest of the gang. Don't worry about her falling. She's quite aware of where the edge is, and her reverse-gear seems to work just fine. This is going to be one very interesting little girl. I have to wonder if big-sister Imme has already been sending her Doggie-O-grams on attitude.

Back to the Ms

The M pups registered a complaint tonight that they don't feel they are getting their just share of air time. So I figured you all would like to see a fresh shot of that crew. As you can see, they have grown just a bit in the last week or so. I'm going to try to get some video of their hilarious attempts to walk. Eyes are open almost all the way now and these kids are getting terribly cute!

Glimpses of Puppies!

This video clip is a little less than four minutes of newborn N pups. :-)

First glimpse

More photos later, but this one at least shows eight little black blobs. :-)

It's amazing how big Jazzy's babies suddenly look!

Waaaahhhh!!!!!

I'm very sad to report that the 10th and final puppy was a girl, but was stillborn. All the best efforts, including much puppy CPR, could not keep her with us.

But we have three girls and five boys seeming to be healthy and thriving at this point. If everybody makes it through the first 48 hours okay, all will probably be well.

Surprise!

#9 is a girl! Way to go, Handy!

I'm not yet convinced there isn't another one lurking in there--suspicious bulge on flank. Have certainly been wrong before, but I hope it's another girl. :-)

Maybe the last?

At about 9:10 a.m. number eight, a male, was born.
This may be the last one. A little more time will tell.

YAY!!!!!

Number seven is another little girl, born about 8:55 a.m.

Puppy number six

At 6:25 a.m. the sixth puppy, a male, made his appearance into the world.

Another boy!

Puppy #5, another boy, arrived about 5:50 am. Big surprise....he's black! :-)

We'd really like the rest to be girls, okay?????

Lost one

Puppy #4 was stillborn around 3:45 am. :-(

Third arrival

2:30 a.m. #3 is a boy.

Babies arriving!

#1 is a little girl (well Julie says it's a BIG little girl!) Arrived 1:45 a.m.
#2 is a fine little boy.
This is Julie's Mom standing in for Julie.

Ta-Da....

Okay, here we go. Real labor. Let's hope things go better for Handy than they did for Jazzy.