The Diary of Katie’s Puppies

Two days before the end of the year, we rescued four adult and five puppies, all Border Collies that had been dumped at a kill shelter by a backyard breeder. They arrived sick and gaunt. By the time they were healthy enough to be spayed/neutered, we realized that one, Katie, was pregnant. We never even considered aborting the litter.

Note: Updates are being made on Katie’s blog page as well!

Lynne offered to whelp the litter. She bought a deluxe whelping box, beds, toys, food, …. oh yeah, she had a blast pampering Katie.

On January 30th, at 2:30am, Katie went into

labor. Panting, shaking and crying, she delivered her first puppy. (Lynne was crying too). Over the course of several hours, more puppies came. At 6:30 there were seven beautiful puppies and a tired momma. Exhausted, having not slept in 28 hours, Lynne laid down for a nap. When she woke up a short while later, she was shocked to see two more puppies. Nine total!!!

They are all healthy and doing well. Lynne is keeping a close eye on this little family and not letting anything disturb them, including her two Border Collies who are pacing on the other side of the door. She hasn’t even looked yet to check gender. That’s okay, Lynne, we like surprises!

We will update this post every week, keeping everyone up to date on their progress. Next week we’ll know the genders. It’ll be a couple of weeks before they are named, after all, it’s good to know a bit about their personalities first.

We have so many photos of these little angels, the first photos can be viewed here photo album 1 and updated photos are in photo album 2.

Katie’s puppies will not be ready to go to their forever home until the beginning of April at the very earliest, and most likely closer to Easter. We will not be accepting applications or deposits for them until about two weeks before that time. We believe it is vital to know the personality of the individual puppy before we can place it in the right home. We will post both here and on our Facebook page when they are available for application. Please do not contact us about them before that as we do not have the ability to keep applications on hold. Thank you for this kindness!

February 1st Update:

Lynne called me this morning, concerned about one of the puppies. This is one of the smaller puppies, the seventh born, the one with the little white spot on her lower back. She gets pushed out of the way by the other puppies and by the time she gets to a teat, she seems to exhausted to nurse.

Lynne had already run to the pet store and bought a nursing bottle. Having bottle fed newborns myself, I encouraged her to make the slit in the nipple big so to make it as easy as possible for the little one. Better to clean up formula that dribbles out than to have a weakened puppy struggle to nurse. While we were talking, Lynne heated the formula, and offered “Number 7” the bottle. She near ‘nuf wrestled it from her, sucking down the formula like there was no tomorrow! Good news!!!! Lynne then put a little formula on one of Katie’s teats and put the puppy up to it. She started nursing again, but then stopped.

Lynne doesn’t think Number 7 is using her tongue correctly. It may just be that she isn’t as hungry as her larger littermates or she might be a wee bit physically immature. Either way, I’m not too concerned since she is drinking from the bottle. I expect that after a few days she will have put on weight and have enough umph to win in the battle for the teats! Exciting times!

February 4th Update:

Today was a sad day. Number 7 has continued to struggle with nursing. Lynne brought her to her vet this morning and was heartbroken when an exam revealed the
puppy had a cleft palate. With no options available, the decision was made to put our little angel to sleep. She was given endless love and care during her short life, but Lynne is hurting right now. Such is the pain of rescue and fostering….

February 7th Update:

The eight puppies are doing wonderfully. We now know that we have 3 girls and 5 boys, 4 black and white puppies, and 4 white and black puppies! Lynne is holding off on naming the puppies but we’re playing with the idea of naming them after drinks since she is the owner of the Corner Bar and Grill in Clearwater. That would make the biggest puppy Magnum. Unfortunately, we’ve referred to him as Moose so many times it may be impossible to change his name!

The puppies now recognize Lynne’s voice and get up when they hear her. They even have discovered their barks! They have gotten pretty good at walking around too, although it is more like a waddle. They are huge! And why are they huge? Because Lynne if feeding Katie a gourmet, calorie rich diet: turkey, chicken liver, hamburger, cottage cheese, hard boiled eggs, salmon, rice, …. Oh yes, and nursing supplement milk. She’s supposed to be supplementing the puppies with it, but they make a terrible face and won’t eat it, so Katie laps it up instead! lol

Katie is a good little momma, preferring to nurse the puppies outside the whelping box where she can lie by the fan. Lynne massages her back while the puppies nurse. Do you get the feeling that this is more like spa living???

February 9th Update:
The puppies are finding their little legs, and Lynne is having a blast!

February 11th Update:

The puppies have started opening their eyes!!!! This is always so exciting. Lynne whipped out her camera to share the moment with us.

February 23rd Update: We have Names!

Asti

Bacardi

Brandy

Emma

J.D.

Moose

Shandy

Whiskey

March 20, 2011 Update: I traveled to Clearwater on March 15th to meet Katie’s puppies. We had a blast! Please remember that at this time, these puppies are NOT available for adoption, but we estimate that around April 10th, some will be ready. Maureen and Kelly met me at Lynne’s place for a photo shoot, and the only caveat was that Maureen could hug and kiss every one of them! We complied!

Here is Asti. See all of their photos by clicking on their own Facebook photo album.