Technology Dependent

Yesterday the Internet stopped working – before the pictures got posted! This blog is a group effort. I can post the text from my Mac computer at home but not the pictures. So on days that I work I post the pictures from my office computer, and on the days I do not go to campus I email them to Kim in Utah and he posts them for us. Well, Kim is here in Montana for the weekend so you can probably see the problem!

Yesterday I worked out a plan to email the pictures to Terri in Portland so she could post them but the Internet went down before that all happened. All should be well now and Terri will post yesterday's pictures as well as today’s pictures for us -- thanks Terri! Given that the good camera is not working and we cannot post the pictures from home, I think we are doing a pretty good job of this!

We have news today! Last night the big dogs heard something and started barking – and Rosebud startled!!! Do you know what that means? She can hear! Can you even imagine how strange it would be to live in a silent world and then suddenly you start hearing things?!

The puppies, who will be three whole weeks tomorrow, are so fun! They groom each other and have now started to be able to scratch. For a couple of days a puppy would lift a rear leg to an ear and that was it – but now they can move the leg and scratch the ear! They can see well enough to recognize a person and will walk over and crawl in laps. They are playing more and more, and stay awake for longer periods.

We are now weighing once a day and last night Rosebud was the decided victor among the Heavyweights – she is over 73 ounces. Do you realize that means Rosebud weighs over 4.5 pounds!? On the other end of things, Lolo weighs 2.5 pounds – sigh. But Kim agrees she is cute and seems perfectly normal in every way – just petite.

Edie asked in the comments if I plan to keep a puppy – and the answer is yes, I do. I have this litter’s full sister, Asia, and she is a lovely girl with a great temperament. She earned her Tracking Dog title at eight months and her championship at 12 months. I love Asia’s littermates also – and just yesterday I got word that sister Lucy was in a show this past weekend and earned two “legs” (out of three) for her first obedience title. Given that Lucy, Asia and their littermates are 14 months today, that is quite the accomplishment! Congratulations to Lucy and her family!

Sharon asked about my goals for this breeding, which is an excellent question to ask a breeder. The main reasons I repeated this breeding was because I like the pedigree for health and longevity and I really liked what we got in the first litter; my goal was/is to get another girl from the combination. I was worried that my desire for a girl would mean that the litter would be all boys but instead it would appear that we have an abundance of little girls, which is wonderful. And Edie – at least one of these puppies is headed your way! No, I am not sending Edie a puppy but the new owner will be training with Edie in Salt Lake City.

I took these pictures this morning with yet another digital camera – Kim’s work camera. I put the puppies out in the Great Room to nurse and then wander around – I only had two puppy puddles to clean so not too bad! Rosebud and Dawson are playing together in one. The one puppy with his mouth open is Ledger. Darby is the puppy with the kitten. The one sitting alone is Sula – she was resting after peeing on the rug and exploring under the chair. I thought you might enjoy seeing what all eight look like when they are nursing – I think a collective, “Poor Halo” is in order, wouldn’t you agree?

As always, your interest is appreciated – thanks for visiting!