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!!

More scrapbook pages

Scrapbooking was my late night, I-can't-sleep, stress relief for tax season. I hope you enjoy the pages of the kids as much as I do!

Pug In Violets

What a difference two and a half weeks make!

Ellie and Isabelle have found their happy medium. Ellie has regained control of her babies and Isabelle is the faithful and much needed assistant. The girls are working together and even giving each other kisses while the puppies are feeding. It's nice to all be on the same page again!

Tiki's puppy is thriving, but she's so much more tiny than the boys! You can see her as the speck in the picture. But the boys are so fat and happy that the little girl can crawl circles around them right now! I had to get the boys out on the bed and make them do laps for their milk - lol. They'd head for the teat and I'd put them back on the other side of the bed. It was most unfair, to be sure, but they are walking much better and are more lively and rambunctious. In fact, I heard the first bark yesterday. Two of the boys were playing and one of them told the other what was what! Very bossy!

Daisy made me feel better tonight. She was sitting on the floor barking at an unknown threat. Then I figured it out - she barked at the featherduster!!! Hahahaha... she was just trying to make me not feel so stupid ;)

The featherduster and the coup

Ellie's boys are 3 weeks old now and they are so incredibly cute!!! But man are they fat. And I do mean FAT!! I knew that they'd be getting extra milk since there were only 3, but we've had to take the boys out and literally exercise them and make them work for their food to keep them moving around.

Well, the mystery of why they are so big has been solved. Isabelle was going through a false pregnancy and she would watch over the boys when Ellie went out to go potty or went to get a bite to eat. She faithfully sat by the whelping pen, staring adoringly at her charges and chasing away any other dogs who tried to sneak a sniff of the little fuzzies. But then watching turned to active participation. Before we knew it, Isabelle was jumping into the pen with the pups and feeding them EVEN MORE!! Holy cow, it's no wonder we can barely see their legs.

However, feeding the pups has kicked in Izzy's maternal drive. So after working with the three milk-bearing females yesterday to get one of them to permanently adopt Tiki's (with no success), I finally gave in and we're back to the bottle. I was tired and needed a good night's sleep. But at midnight, Izzy decided to stage a coup to take charge of Ellie's pups. I was wakened by growls and posturing. Amazingly, Izzy won and she stayed in the crate with the pups as Ellie slept by my head and stared longingly at the whelping pen with a big sigh. I told her to enjoy the break and I'd take care of it in the morning. After a few more skirmishes that night, Ellie managed to gain control of the whelping pen, but Izzy jumped in after her. There they were, two mommas and 3 babies, all squished into the pen. So I brought Izzy to work with me to give poor Ellie a break. Those crazy girls!

Between their skirmishes and the little one's feedings, I don't think I got much sleep last night. So this morning as I walked through the house with closed eyes, I walked by a chair with a big black feather duster in it and I patted its head, thinking it was a pug. The next step is the loony bin!

Tiki Surpise!

We thought Tiki was experiencing a false pregnancy, but as it turns out she gave us a tiny little baby girl on Wednesday, March 12th. The puppy came out breech and as a result, took in some fluids in her passageway. It took a concentrated effort to remove the fluid and get her breathing properly and by the time we got her up on her feet and knew she was out of danger, her scent was different than Tiki expected. Tiki is still trying to figure out exactly where her puppy is. She will nurse this one if we sit with her, but she is not identifying with it. We have to bottle feed it to ensure she gets enough to eat. I wish I would have taken pictures when she first came out to show how small she was, but she is 4 days old here and has stamped her little pawprint on this world with great fervor. The first 24 hours, she would not open her mouth to nurse, so we had to force it open each time. Then she started accepting a bottle better. Now on day 4, she has learned that Momma's milk comes in 3 different scents and flavors (Isabelle has pitched in a couple of times with her false pregnancy milk), and rubber nipples come with several different human scents. And the source doesn't matter as long as there's a nipple within reach when she demands it!! You would think with three available nursing females we'd be in the clear, but that just isn't the case. None of them will feed her unless they're curled up on our lap getting pets and kisses while they nurse. Other than that, they ignore the little girl other than to chase away the other non-nursing females in the house. But we're making do and the little girl is thriving! She's a doll.