Sherry Lindsey writes:
We want to thank the foster volunteer who stepped up to whelp
BLUEBELL's litter (Airedale x Airedale).
It was a prolonged labor on Tuesday, 7 August,
that resulted in six premature puppies who weighed in at 4 to 7 ounces.
With premature litters, it is not unexpected to lose puppies.
By day four, the litter was down to four survivors;
unfortunately BLUEBELL, a young and inexperienced mother,
had totally rejected her puppies. An SOS was sent out to the volunteer
who has ALLIE and her puppies because that volunteer,
in addition to being a retired nurse,
is very experienced in hand-rearing puppies.
Here are the "bitties", as their second foster dubbed them,
at four days of age. A styrofoam ice chest with a fluffy towel
served as a warm snug way to transport the puppies
the two hours between the foster volunteers.
Thanks to the dedicated breeder/foster,
who is bottle-feeding the pups around the clock,
all the puppies are gaining weight. The three larger puppies
had tripled their birth weight and were at 15 to 20 ounces at two weeks.
The tiniest was only three ounces from tripling his weight.
Here are BLUEBELL's puppies. Ribbon color listings
give the original ribbon color followed by the new ribbon color.
First is STAR, the orange/peach ribbon girl . . .
The second girl, light blue/blue ribbon, is BELLE . . .
The biggest puppy is a male, green/yellow ribbon, named BUBBA.
He goes with the flow . . .
The tiniest, a male and always a gentleman
who knows exactly what he wants, navy/black, is JACKSON . . .
Having been premature, these puppies are delayed in opening their eyes.
Only little JACKSON is looking at the world so far.
Even so, these babies are routinely moving from their bed
on a thick towel over a heating pad to the newspapers to potty.
Once all of them have their eyes open,
they will move to larger quarters and the puppy litter box will be introduced.
Look out world! The bitties are coming . . . after another nap or two. Or several.
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