Smooth Sailing Now

  Just as I thought Sadie would never settle down and I would be obligated to a month of sleeping in only 2 hour increments, everything turned around!  Sadie coughed up a nasty hair ball on Sunday afternoon, was calmer that night and by Monday morning was back to her sweet self.  I took the precaution of keeping her in a crate when I needed to do an errand, then heavily supervised her when she was with the puppies.  She had stopped picking them up by their various body parts, attempting to move them, but was still scratching up the rug in the whelping box, often covering the little guys.  By late afternoon, I removed the gate from the box, giving Sadie the freedom to move in and out as she wished.  Last night, she was sleeping in front of the box entrance, this morning, she started sleeping in her crate again.  She's had a frozen treat left over from our club's event this past Saturday and a good brushing to remove all that hair that is just now coming loose, instead of before whelping as it should have!  Sadie once again wants to hassle Bootsie, the cat, as she goes in and out of the house and relishes her meals.
  The good digital scale I ordered has just arrived and as soon as I find some batteries, I'll get an accurate weight on the puppies.  I'm anxious to see how much weight they've gained since Friday!

SURPRISE!!!!!

  The last thing I said to Sadie on Thursday night was, "have your babies tomorrow if you must, but not on Saturday, I'd rather you didn't on Sunday, but Monday would be great"!  I went to bed, confident that nothing was going to happen--after all, she ate a huge dinner (finally found the right menu!), her temperature was normal and her tummy hair was firmly in place.  Both David and I thought puppies were not a possibility until Monday, at the very earliest....boy, were we wrong!  Sometime between 3:30 a.m.--when David peeked in before going to work--and my getting up at 6:00, Sadie had gone into labor, delivered four puppies and cleaned everything up!  She started barking when she heard me moving around and I hurried to her room, thinking the  remote possibility she might be starting labor but expecting she must really need to potty.  What a shock when I opened the door--two puppies in the crate, very vigorous, one puppy lifeless on the cold floor, another puppy barely moving behind the crate.  I quickly gathered up all the puppies, hoping that I could help all four.  I got the heat lamp on, towels to rub the puppies, newspapers on the whelping box floor but unfortunately, only the two pups from the crate survived.  I then sat with Sadie in the whelping box, hoping another puppy or two might appear.  We were at the vets by 9:00 for an x-ray to show that the two pups would be it.  The good news was that each was in terrific weight, one 10 oz, one 9 oz.
  The rest of the day was spent getting Sadie adjusted to her new status.  She is a terrific mama!  At least, until David got home about 7:00, when she began to get anxious and started picking the puppies up, trying to move them out of the box.  She settled back down after David went to bed, so we thought she wasn't comfortable with extra noise, however slight.  I spent Friday night on the sofa bed, checking on the new family every couple of hours.  In the morning, as the activity in the house increased, Sadie became more anxious, even frantic, which made her temperature start to spike.  I quickly got her to the vet and after a thorough exam, we decided to play it safe and Sadie was put on an antibiotic and a mild sedative.  What a difference!  We don't trust her to not accidently hurt the puppies, so she's in a crate for periods when we can't monitor her with her boys.  She's quite accepting of this, but when she's with the pups, she's the wonderful mom we had expected.  The pups are nursing well and now weigh about a pound each.  We're giving her longer and longer periods of time alone with the pups (always with one ear open to some squeaks) and she does well, as long as the house is quiet.  I made the mistake this afternoon of letting our son and daughter in law sneak a peek at the new babies, then spent the next couple of hours "apologizing" to Sadie.  I expect by Tuesday that all will be well.
  Here are some pictures from the last couple of days:

A few hours old

  Sadie and her sons

Two days old

And So It Begins....

  Sweet Sadie is not so sweet anymore!  Fat and grumpy, she's not adjusting to impending motherhood or perhaps she's just impatient with late pregnancy.  She no  longer likes any food we give her for more than one meal.  We're tempting her with various puppy foods, chicken broth, hand feeding and when all else fails, expensive dog cookies.  Tonight she did something funny--took her cookies into a crate and tried to hoard them inside the mat!  I could hear her tummy rumbling and finally Sadie relented and ate her cookies.  All the while, her full food bowl is sitting nearby. 
  Sadie now refuses to go into her special kennel yard but I think she doesn't like to be alone anymore.  She's in the nursery now, probably sleeping, and we'll indulge her every whim until  the puppies arrive.  Tomorrow I will finish cleaning her room, give her a bath and hope that Sadie won't have the puppies at least until Monday. Saturday, we're hosting an ice cream social at our house for the Northern Virginia Collie Club and I'm not planning on a whelping puppy demo to go with the rest of the events!

Puppies? Puppies! Puppies!!!!

  Sadie had her x-ray this morning and  four puppies were definitely in view!  There is probably a fifth and I'm hoping she rounds it up to an even six.  Sadie as gained ten pound since last August, which makes me wonder if the count could be even higher, that the pups were so well lined up in the x-ray that they were not discernible.
  We have one to two weeks before the mystery is solved.  Sadie is not giving us clues if she will deliver on her first due date or last so we will be prepared for the babies starting June 21--and keep a careful watch on Sadie at all times.  She's become a picky eater, doesn't care much for the puppy food we started her on.  I added chicken broth to tempt her appetite but that only worked for a couple of days.  I tried a different brand of food this morning, adding the broth for good measure, and she seemed more interested.
  Sadie's fur is coming off her belly and her coat is rather loose in general.  I'll do some trimming as delivery time nears, but in the meantime, I'm sure she'll enjoy a daily brushing!

Our Favorite Kind of Phone Call

Ellen called this afternoon with the news we always love--Dixie won!  She earned a four point major at the Cincinnati Kennel Club show in Ohio.  She only needs two more points before she has her championship title!

First Points!

What a great week-end we had last week!  We entered Gibson and Jewel in the Mattaponi Kennel Club shows in Manassas.  Gibson did much better in the ring than his last show in the fall.  Saturday's judge, Houston Clark, was very encouraging, telling me Gibson is "a decent enough dog" but he likes to see the temperament and movement of a herding dog.  When I told him that Gibson was 100% better than his last show, that his preference then was to collapse in a puddle, especially if the judge was male, Mr Clark said I must be on the right track and to keep working with Gibson.  When I took Jewel in the ring, Mr Clark said, "that's more like it"! Jewel was Winners and Best of Winners for her first point! 

Sunday's judge was not as fun to show under.  Gibson was more relaxed and confident than on Saturday, but was still startled by a sudden movement by the judge shortly after we entered the ring.  Gibson gave a quick growl, which of course did not please the judge, but was fine after that.  I was thankful he didn't disqualify us, but felt he then had us stack our dogs in Winners in a way that he knew Gibson wouldn't be comfortable.  Except for the final stack, Gibson moved so well and showed so much better than the day before that it was almost like the old Gibson was back!  Jewel was Winners, Best of Winners and Best of Variety for her second point!  She lost her composure during pictures--it was her first time, after all--and the judge grew impatient with us.  He didn't act like he enjoyed his assignment at all!  I knew he wouldn't give her any consideration in the Group judging, plus my handling skills are not up to that kind of pressure, so we packed up and headed home.

Besides earning points, the best part of showing is catching up with friends and making new friends.  We had a fun group back at our house Saturday night for a very informal supper.  David cooked chicken on the grill and everyone brought something to go with it.  We toasted those who had won that day, especially Michelle's malamute who won his championship on Saturday!  Her lucky dogs got a special treat for their accomplishments--a steak!  We had our own special treats--sinful desserts from Pastries by Randolph.

As if points, good friends and good food were not enough, Ellen took one look at Sadie and said "of course she's pregnant, look at her"!  We had started to think Sadie was expecting as she had expanded a bit and her behavior had changed that week.  She had been getting into all the show things, something she had never touched before.  She's chewed the tops to almost every spray bottle I have and ate the remnants of a jar of first aide cream that I didn't even know was in her room.  Fortunately, she threw that right back up and it's obviously not affected the puppies as she's growing on a daily basis.  She found the heat the last couple of days to be unbearable.  Poor Sadie, how will she be able to endure another month?  We're going to take her to Casanel this afternoon for some pampering and showers of attention, that should perk her up!

Exciting News!

  I have been too caught up in dogs and gardens to post!  I have many pictures to post of Gibson and Jewel, from a couple fun things we've done this spring, but this is an update about Sadie and Dixie.
  Sadie came into season in early April and after much thought, we bred her to Wyndlair Avalanche, who is at stud at Southland Collies in Tennessee.  I made the 11 hour trip to take Sadie to Southland--I had never done a trip like that by myself before!  While it was a lot of driving, Sadie was a good passenger, the countryside was pretty and it was a rather easy drive (plus I had a good book on cd to listen to!).  The destination was well worth the trip!  The mistress of Southland, Mike Cheatham, is a wonderful person, very welcoming and I knew Sadie would be well cared for while away from home.  Mike gave me a tour of her beautiful kennels and I was able to spend a bit of time with her stunning collies.  I left Southland with a severe case of kennel envy and wondering how quickly I could return to incorporate her other studs into our breeding program.  So many thoughts whirling about in my head--it was hard to settle down to sleep in the motel that night!
  David made the return trip last week-end to bring Sadie home.  He arrived shortly before that terrible storm did and he only stayed long enough to exchange pleasantries before crating Sadie for the start of home.  They got caught in the heavy rain for about 3 hours, then drove for a couple more before finding a nice motel for the night.  Sadie had her first ride in an elevator!  David said she was a quiet and model room-mate but he was so exhausted from the drive through the storm that he probably didn't hear her!
  Now, we're just waiting for signs that puppies are on the way.  While I occupy myself with puppy names and thoughts of kennel improvements after seeing Southland--with David ignoring my proposals--we are basking in Dixie's latest accomplishment.  She was Winners Bitch and Best of Winners at the Baltimore Kennel Club for her first major!!!  The day before, she was Reserve Winners at the Old Dominion Kennel Club show.  I was really hoping that would be her first major, as her mom, Phoebe, had her first major at that show in 2005.  Dixie will be going to Ohio in late May for a week-end of major shows--could she come home a champion?  Let's hope early summer brings us a champion and puppies!!!!