Jolene had her babies - 7-6-10

Little Miss Jolene had a great pregnancy, but a difficult delivery. After the first pup was born out of the sac and breech at home, it was two hours of contractions later that we gave up and went to the vet for a c-section. On the way to the vet, I was watching her and driving straight, but the road curved, and we had an auto accident that totalled the car out on a country road. A very caring farmer came to our aid, though, and finished rushing her to the vet where she had one more puppy naturally, one that didn't make it, and the final one being delivered via c-section. Her litter goes down as the most expensive litter EVER, at least in my books. But the good news is that she's fine, I'm fine, and we have 3 beautiful babies who are eating, sleeping and snorting their way into the world with much gusto!

I've mentioned on my facebook page how often the pugs use my phone. Every time I turn around, they're buying ringtones, or doing something sneaky. Well, I finally captured them on film. Miss Jolene is so proud of her pups that she was texting all her friends! See for yourself!

Using the kit Angels Among Us by Dancing Princess Designs sold at GoDigitalScrapbooking!

scrapbook pop

Created for the creative team challenge at GoDigitalScrapbooking. It was so much fun to document the little guy's day! Used a kit called A New Day be designer Christy Skaggs.

Big Day for Little Pop!

It was a big, big day for little Pop (of Snap, Crackle and Pop). He was the one who got to come outside and help me with my chores today! It was his first time outside and his first time without mom or brothers within hearing distance, but after he got over the initial surprise, he took the yard by storm! He got to meet the shepherd puppy through the fence. He got to frolic in high grass and run with the chickens! He also did very well finding me no matter where I walked in the yard. No small feat when you legs are that short.

Here's our cutie in action!

SNAP

CRACKLE

POP


Meet the boys!

Snap is the oldest by at least 5 minutes. He has a tiny stripe on his chest which will likely disappear as he nears 8-10 weeks old. He has monster sized paws and is a big ole cuddler. Fromt he beginning, he has gravitated toward me. Toward my breath, my touch, and now toward my voice. He loves his cuddles and snuggles from wherever he can get them, and now that he's more mobile, he was the first to try to climb out of their whelping box. So Monday night they got moved to the larger whelping pen! He reminds me of his Papa. Cooter was the largest puppy in his litter, but he turned out to be a very nicely-sized small adult.

Crackle is the middle boy. He loves lazy days, Momma Rizzo's tender care, and plenty to eat. He lolls around, rolls over slowly, yawning, giving ample opportunity to tickle him and kiss his belly. Life is good for ole Crackle.

Pop is the smallest came out full of vim and vinegar. Within hours he had discovered that his tiniest sounds would gather the attention of everyone around, waiting to meet his every need. For the first week he really used this to his advantage and I thought he might turn out to be quite demanding. But already he has mellowed out and is kicked back like his brothers. He doens't roll on his back as much as the other two, preferring instead to tuck all his paws underneath him into the cutest little fluff ball. But when there's loving to be had, he'll expose that belly in a heartbeat.

All 3 boys are moving around pretty good now, getting up on their feet to eliminate on their own. They are starting to interact with each other as more than just mutual aid heating pads. They are more snuggly than playful, but the play will develop over the next week or so as they become even more mobile. They are starting to make things out with their eyes and soon we'll start testing to see how well they're tracking.

Rizzo has turned out to be one of the best moms ever! She was VERY good about not smothering them the first two weeks (a frequent hazard with pug moms, unintentional, but usually requiring constant supervision). She tells me when she needs something, or something extra. She gets saved the best treats and gets the best meals and loves the extra pampering!

Video of Tiki's Boys

Isabelle is panting in the background. She had just finished a good, hard run on a hot and humid day! The pups had so much fun playing in that tall jungle grass till it got cut down. Kind of like playing hide and seek :)

We had hoped that Tiki would be in her retirement home by the beginning of 2009, but she had an accidental pregnancy that kept her here longer than we anticipated. But with being in the busy season at work and living in a house with 6 people at the time, 2 of them toddlers, sometimes these things happen. At least it was with Cooter, the preferred male. She had a litter of one puppy when she was 5 and she rejected it, which is the main reason (combined with health issues) we decided not to breed her again, thinking she was no longer interested in breeding. But just as she turned 6, she mated and this litter with two boys has been a true joy. It's almost as if she knew we were retiring her and she wanted one more litter. I've never seen her play so much with her puppies before. Not that she didn't play with previous litters, just that she seems to take special pride and joy in this final litter, and she never, ever gets tired of them or wants to be away from them. The boys are 3 months old now, and the three of them are playing at my feet as I type this. Tiki walks through the house proudly and I'm sure she's bragging about her boys and flipping mental photo albums to all the other dogs she meets along the way. We have been so busy with work and with projects for the Village that we haven't spread word about the boys, but here they are!

Tiki in the Sunshine

These pics were taken just the other day when Tiki was helping me with the mulch pile. Actually, I got to work and she got to close her eyes and put her face to the sun and soak up all the good rays. We had moments of sheer bliss. It was definitely a good day.

Just a reminder - I'm having all this fun on godigitalscrapbooking.com. I just finished up a BUNCH of layouts this month using kits from Dancing Princess designs. And since I hurt my foot in the parade yesterday, will probably get many more done today!!

Petunia & Her Greenie

No worries - this picture was taken several years ago before the dangers of greenies were known. Even though they have been reformulated, we haven't been brave enough to try the new ones. But this is still one of my favorite pictures of a carefree Petunia, running through the yard on a summer day, as happy as it gets!

Takeover

The full story is somewhere in this blog (try key words for storytime, Isabelle, or Ellie Mae), but this page's journaling talks about when Isabelle was having a false pregnancy and tried to take over Ellie's litter! Int he end, Ellie, won, but welcomed Isabelle's help feeding and caring for the little ones.

Hey, folks! I'll be catching up the blog next weekend, if not before, but to tide you over, here's a picture of Daisy in front of a bed of hyacinth at the local bulb festival this past weekend. It was a beautiful stroll through all the gorgeous flowers! Spring has definitely arrived.

This was created for another challege at www.godigitalscrapbooking.com. The challenge was journaling and I also did a scraplift (where you find a layout you like and use it as the basis of how you place your elements.

Vet Bills

When it rains, it pours. It all started about 6 weeks ago with Rizzo the pug getting attacked in the back yard. She had some serious wounds on the underside of her chest and was found close to dead in the back yard one winter day when the temperatures were low. She was rushed to the vet and made an amazing recovery, but required sedation on two different days and multiple stitches. The at-home care was rigorous for a few weeks as necrotic tissue disappeared and her body began the rebuilding process. Her wounds required flushing several times per day, but she was a good sport.

And to top it all off, the security cameras weren't at the correct angle to pick up what happened and it was a mystery what happened to her, but unfortunately all indicators pointed to Yoshi, the older german shepherd female we opened our home to when she was retired from breeding at her former residence. Yoshi is an incredible dog, worth her weight in gold, and very non-confrontational, so why the attack? After 3 years of peaceful living?

A week later, we noticed two masses on Yoshi's abdomen that were very tender to the touch. They weren't there two weeks prior, so that would explain the attack if she had been under the weather while these were developing. A preliminary visit to the vet with x-rays to see if it was cancer and perhaps if it were widespread indicated that the removal of the masses might be sufficient. So she underwent a mass removal and spay. Her body looks horrible with all the stitches and a big drain tube coming out of her abdomen, but her eyes are bright. She seems happy and very thankful to be on the other side of that procedure.

In between this, we took in a german shepherd puppy who was rejected by his mother at birth. He had some huge obstacles to overcome, including battling a systemic staph infection, being bottle fed, and the loss of one of his feet. He was the runt and is still far too tiny for his age of 4 weeks, but he is strong and vibrant, with a great appetite and is developing on course other than size. He's been into the vet at least 6 times in all this, getting his paw re-wrapped with bandages and being on anti-biotics.

Back to Yoshi, on day 3 of her post-spay care, we went through the two-man procedure to administer her medications. When she doesn't want to open up her mouth, there aren't many who can make her and successfully get medicine down her. And she was too nauseous to fall for the ole "wrap it in hamburger" trick. So on that morning, two of us got the anti-biotics and the rimadyl in her, but then were distracted and walked away from the scene of the crime, for which we paid dearly later.

That same day, coming home for lunch, it was discovered that 5 pugs had opened up the rimadyl (left on the coffee table) and scarfed it down. The culprit gave himself up when he started puking all over the sofa. He was rushed to the vet for 2 days of IV's because rimadyl can cause liver damage.

So roughly $2000 later, I hope we're done going to the vet several times a week. I almost refused the rimadyl because I have some great natural pain relievers that don't have harmful side effects. Wish I would have followed my gut!!

I'm just glad that everyone is ok and on the mend. But man, I need a vacation...

Fabio's scrapbook page

The scrapbooking challenges at godigitalscrapbooking.com have been keeping me busy. It's so much fun to relax at the computer, putting pieces of beautiful artwork together in new and creative ways. The best part is that I can walk away from the project and there's not a whole table that has to be dedicated to scrapbooking stuff!!

Here's the latest with Fabio made up primarily with pieces from the Plumbago Kit and the February Collaboration Kit.

More Scrapbook pages

Can you tell I'm having fun with the new digital scrapbooking pages?

The elements, papers, etc. for these pages came from the designers at godigitalscrapbooking.com

More pictures of Buzka & Fabio's puppies

Buzka's mom sent me more pictures of the cutie patooties today. She said both the boys are chunks. Big balls of pure luvin. Check 'em out.

Digital Scrapbooking fun

More fun with scrapbooking. The layout with Kangee is a template and paper kit from No Reimer Reason at www.godigitalscrapbooking.com and was the product of a challenge to do a multiple photo layout.
Jolene's is also from a challenge on the same site from speedscrapping night, but using a paper pack from www.shabbyprincess.com called Promise.

Fabio & Buzka's pups

Buzka and Fabio had their puppies at the end of November. I got to visit with the of the pups a couple of weeks ago and they were absolutely precious. The parents are in the top picture, the little apricot male was sleeping in my lap, and the little fawn girl and fawn boy were with their mom in the final picture. The boys are sweet and lazy, perfect cuddlers. The little girl is sassy and bossy and already tells the boys what to do. They are absolutely beautiful!

Christmas Tree Woes

The three calamities I expected with the Christmas tree this year (animals eating tinsel, ornaments breaking, tree tipping) have amazingly not occured. But in an house with dogs, cats and toddlers, the poor Christmas tree is still suffering its fair share of mishaps this year.

This past summer was one of the worst we've had for fleas in Ohio, and during the worst of it, the pugs learned that if they get underneath the decorative bushes by the deck, that they can rub their backs on the lowest branches. Oh, heaven! So when we put up the tree, they naturally thought we had installed an indoor back-scratcher just for them. It stinks when the branches pop out of the little holders and fall out. Kind of defeats the purpose. And it's even worse when the german shepherd puppy grabs said branches and takes off around the house with them, dragging streams of icicles, tinsel and ornaments behind her.

Now that the weather has turned cold, the cats have been training me to let them in and out. They enjoyed the fall weather outside so much that they don't want to return to a totally indoor experience, so they go out for a bit while the dogs use the potty, then they come back in, too. They also decided that the upstairs was too crowded with the toddlers, so they're trying to create a comfortable spot downstairs where everyone can live in peace and harmony.

Winter, the more sociable of the two, decided that any laundry pile or the master bed was good with her, and that's where she can usually be found. Luna, being more reclusive in nature, has gone through a number of hiding spots, but just hasn't found her niche. Until the tree went up. Turns out that the bottom two rows give too much (they're sagging very nicely now), but the third row from the bottom is just right. Not too weak and the branches not too far apart. It evidently makes a perfect perch and sleeping spot for a reclusive cat. To her credit, she somehow manages not to disturb the ornaments in her mount/dismount.

With the cats formerly living upstairs or outside, the dogs haven't been around either of the cats in a significant way for quite a while. So to help establish her place in the house, one day Winter hid on a chair and as unsuspecting pugs went by her, she smacked them with her paw. Didn't hurt them, but the sheer surprise of the sneak attack served its purpose and now the dogs don't know what's around the next bend of their formerly perfectly safe house.

Luna is totally black, so when she hides in the tree, there are very few dogs who know she's there. Last night, the german shepherd puppy was sleeping on the living room floor (a miracle in itself, with all that puppy energy) and the tree wiggled. Her head snapped up and it wiggled again. A threatening low growl was emitted at the same time Petunia came around the corner to find herself a cozy place to lay. When the tree wiggled a third time and more vigorously, Petunia jerked around, ran out of the living room with the german shepherd on her heels. No one wants to live with a haunted Christmas tree, you know.