Bobbe (our vizlsa) is the proud mom of seven little ones.
Here are some photos of the puppies born starting May 5 and finishing May 6.
The first babe was born at 11:15 p.m., just minutes before the BIG MOON which affected tides. Interesting!
Currently the puppies are 10days old. We can see that their once sealed ears are opening. The eyes are showing signs of changing, too.
Every once in a while, we’ll hear squawking. When we race to the whelping box to find out what’s going on we see one of the puppies separated from the group, “crawling” away from the puddle of puppies and calling for Mom.
Generally speaking Bobbe is pinned down by the six remaining pups who are nursing. We pick up the lost puppy and return it to the pile. The squawks subside and all’s right with the world, whew!
In another week one of these sweeties will “go over the wall” of the whelping box and that’s when the entire nursery is moved from the seclusion of the bedroom to the kitchen. Until Bobbe had her first litter all previous moms started their litter in the kitchen and kept residence there for the entire seven weeks we have the puppies. But Bobbe didn’t like the kitchen.
She wanted a more remote, quiet place for her little ones. Her sanctuary is upstairs which has greatly increased our fitness level, what with the climbing up there MANY times every day to see how she and the redheads are doing.
As each puppy was born we attempted to weigh it. This was quite challenging due to the incredible wiggle power of the newborn. However, we did decide on an approximate weight and were quite surprised to learn that the smallest puppy weighed in at 14 ounces and the biggest at 17. This is a tight cluster of weights. It’s not unusual for a litter to contain an eight ounce puppy and a hefty 17-ouncer.
In the next few days we’ll start taking weekly photos of each babe so that the new owners will have a photo album tracing the puppy’s development.
Meanwhile, it’s time to head for the barn
