I am so pleased that Zanna is turning out to be just like her mother in the fact that she is such a relaxed mother.




She cleans them with such love and confidence.

she doesn’t get upset by screaming puppies that can’t get to the milk supply because they are behind their mother. She just patiently lets them do their thing till they get to their destination. They are strong puppies building up muscles due to their “hardships” ha, ha.

Here you can see how the pups suck themselves airtight. After getting a hikkie on my chin from Zanna when she was a puppy of about the same size I have total respect for these little suckers ;-)






Zanna spends hours and hours in the whelping box, but is confident enough to also know they are safe to leave alone when we go for walks.




But there is one thing she is very different in than Tieka was with her own pups. Tieka would stay in the whelping box with her puppies while I prepared her food, she knew she would get “room service”. But Zanna just can’t wait. If the puppies are drinking at the time… well that’s just too bad cos mums food comes first. And she just stands up and lets the pups drop off her.

Zanna’s always been like that, just loves her food. When I train with Zanna the best thing to get her motivated is FOOD!!
When I train with Tieka food is ok, but to really get her motivated I have a tennis ball. Tieka just LOVES tennis balls.

Must show you how sweet Sweetie is



And to finish off the photo session today…. I gave Hippie a good talking to and said he really has to do something about his image cos if he keeps this up no one will want him HA, HA, HA, HA….




Tomorrow I think Sun Bear will be our victim of fun.

Tieka is interested in the puppies, and up till now sometimes quietly enteres the whelping box and quickly leaves again. Sometimes she would stare over the side of the whelping box to get a better look at the puppies. Her happy tail wagging with joy.
And always Zanna tolerated it. I only heard her growl softly once and that’s a mothers prerogative.

Then last night Tieka couldn’t stand it any longer and carefully walked into the whelping box while Zanna was feeding the pups, and laid down. She stayed there for about 5 minutes so I think this was a big step in her "getting closer to the grandchildren" approach.




Today I clipped the pups nails for the first time. All went well, didn’t chop any toes off LOL. Their nails grow so quickly, I wonder how wolfs cope with puppy nails massaging on there bellies?

The grown-up dogs had a luxury meal today. I picked up a bag of duck and dove carcasses. The duck looks pretty much like a chicken carcass, just about the same size, except its a darker colour and the meat is left on the leg bones. On chicken carcasses the meat is removed from the legs… but chickens have much bigger legs so I guess its more worth the extra work to get the meat of them.
Thought it would be fun to shock u with a photo of them. Left is the duck, right is the dove. The dogs eat them as is.
I guess you could say that indirectly the pups are in for a luxury meal too ;-).

Finally I have 2 hands again to type the next insert for all you puppies fans.

Its been awfully busy here since Sunday evening…..

You would think that having only 4 puppies would be a breeze… a first litter for Zanna is excellent with only 4…..

Well that’s not totally true. Cos these pups found out from the first drink of milk that the best pace is at the back. All the other nipples come second place…. I didn’t notice till Sunday evening that these cleaver lazy little sods were only using the back 4 nipples, while Zanna was really producing so much milk to all the nipples.

And then the nightmare happened and the other 6 nipples clogged up and along Zanna’s sides it was one hard mass of milk. I nearly died how quickly this happened. So I spent allllllllllllllllllll evening and till the early morning, about 0300, massaging Zanna’s milk glands, milking her (yes I found out how to milk a dog :-) ), and placing puppies on these nipples to get them working normally again…..

I have to say that Hippie is my hero, he is a “healing dog”. He didn’t make too much of a fuss when I placed him where I wanted him… he is a special boy. All the others yelled in protest and were very difficult to get to drink from anywhere but the last 4 nipples…. But they didn’t have much choice cos I spent all Sunday evening/night and all Monday, till I went to bed again late at night, with my hands over the “easy nipples” so they had no choice if they wanted a meal… don’t get me wrong, plenty of milk was coming out of the other 6 nipples but they are just not good enough for choosey pups LOL.




And it worked!!! Zanna is totally back to normal thank goodness!!!!!!!

Zanna has turned out to be the same sort of mother as her mother and is not a possessive mum. She is very pleased to show her pups. We had our first “strangers” come today, 3 crazy ladies I study with LOL. Zanna greeted them with much enthusiasm at the front door and lead them to our living room where the whelping box is.

Of coarse they are the most beautiful puppies they had ever seen ;-) but that’s not what everyone would say looking at this photo LOL.




The happy family back to normal, what a pretty picture huh!!




The waiting for us here now is to hear news from Kendra, as she has a very, very cute cross breed girl that sould be giving birth right about now way over in the US!!! Good luck Kendra, hope our stories help you in some way :-)

Pixie says hi to you all.

Introducing the puppies

First born was a boy now called “Sun Bear”. He arrived at 05.20 in the morning and weighed 260grams.
Called sun bear because thats the first thing I thought of when i saw him “walk” his way to his mothers belly.




Second born is Hippie, another boy. Born at 06.33 and weighed 302 grams.
I call him Hippie cos he looked like the cutes little hippopotamus I’ve ever seen.




And yet again, more than an hour later at 07.57 the biggest puppy arrived. A girl called Sweetie, simply because she really is such a sweetie. Weighed 316grams!!




And then the smallest arrived, also a girl. Weighed 190grams and arrived soon after her big sister at 08.25.
Her name is Pixie, see looks like a pixie, little ears stikking out and she has a lot of character for such a little dog!




The first 3 were born… not in the whelping box, not in the chair… but in our old fashiond whelping place…. My bed ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Pixie is the only one that arrived in the whelping box.

They are very beautiful puppies… well thats my opinion.

By the way, I give the pups the name that first pops up in my head when I see them. Its also easier to talk about them when they have a “name”. But don’t worry, these names are chainged once the owners think of one themselves. he, he, he.

The only negitive thing about it all was that it was “only” 4 puppies as we had more wonderful expecting owners than puppies. I am so sorry to the people that followed our adventure with as much (or perhaps more) excitement as me, and unfortunatly wont be getting a puppy from us. It broke my heart to have to tell these people the “bad news”. But hopefully the adresses I supplied will be positive for them.

Just a quickie photo so you dont look for nothing.

Everyone sleept well this eveing, and all puppies are drinking themselfs bigger.

I was very surpised yesterday that we had so many visitors to our site that we reachted our visitors limit! Actually I didnt even know we had a limit!!

Oh, maybe nice to know the sexes.. the 2 left are girls, the 2 on the right boys.

Too tired to tell you all everything. Saturday at 05.20 the first puppy was born and at 08.25 the last of 4, unless Zanna surprises us with just one more. But at this moment I don’t think so.

We have been awake for 2 days so I’m off for one day. I’m going to sleep while my mother keeps an eye on things….

Update and story when I have come back to earth…

Looks like were in for a long night…. Sorry still no news. Vets aren’t worried… and Zanna isn’t worried either…. And that’s the main thing.

Still waiting…. Zanna’s “breasts” are growing by the hour.

So this could be the next historical “first puppy whelping place”……

Waiting…….
Look at that cheaky look she has!!!

A bit of information while we are all waiting for things to happen.

Here are Zannas temperatures from the last few days. She really dislikes “the thermometer in the bum” thing so I didn’t want to bother her too often.

Maybe usefull information for you Kendra ;-)

Temp:
17-10-04 - 13.30 = 37,55
2400 = 37,55
18-10-04 - 0930 = 37,50
1200 = 37,95
2330 = 37,45
18-10-04 - 1000 = 37,65
1800 = 37,70
19-10-04 - 1000 = 37,25
1600 = 37,65
2330 = 37,80
20-10-04 - 1000 = 36,75
1300 = 36,85
1900 = 36,70
21-10-04 - 1200 = 37,25

(I just found out that all new posts on the same day apper under the "old" posts of the same day. So scrol down to see how the day progresses)

Zanna spent the whole night sleeping with my mother. So much for loyal Zanna…. Hahaha

Sweet Tieka did stay with me….

So this is how I found my mother and Zanna this morning




At 07.30 I got out of bed and sat with them, Zanna started panting so perhaps she was waiting for the whole family to be together.

At 08.30 the dogs and i went for a short walk, Zanna had such a happy step in her manner of walking, very cute. She was glad to wee and poo.
Flecha checked her out with a look of “hmmm its going to happen again”.

When we got back Zanna went back upstairs to my mothers bed, but now we are all downstairs and Zanna goes into her whelping box, sometimes with Tieka too.




One thing i have never seen my dogs do is give the other dog their chicken carcass… But just now while Zanna was laying in her whelping box Tieka walked in with a carcass in her mouth, dropped it in the whelping box and walked away!!!!
Well Zanna didn’t want it and when she left her box to lay on the cold floor Flecha came and stole it LOL.

Zanna is eating brown bread and pieces of banana with honey, she has taste ;-).

Well the pups must be born today, Zanna is panting so much. She wanted to go into the garden, I thought to wee, but she started digging a den so I called her in again and have places a ton of towels in the whelping box to hopefully satisfy
her digging nesting urge.

Its nearly 11.00 in the morning. Zanna is sleeping peacfully in her whelping box, so no puppies expected for a while...

My mother and Zanna "the night before".

Zanna has had a temperature drop!!!

So if nature takes it usual coarse Ill not be having much sleep tonight and tomorrow Zanna could very well have become a mother.

Zanna has really taken a liking to the whelping box so I’m hoping she will settle for this place to have her puppies. But it wouldn’t surprise me if my bed is the place where the first puppy will be born….. I’ll have to get all my waterproof sheets out.

A great friend has lent me his digital camera so if I am cleaver enough to work it and even cleavererder to get the photos on my computer…. Then I will be able to post photos fairly quickly… but no promises….

I hope to be able to give you great news tomorrow!!!

These will probably be the last tummy photos before the pups are born.

move mousecursor over the photos to see how many days Zanna is pregnant.

Its funny to see how different Zanna is pregnant than Tieka was.

Tieka seemed to carry her puppies outwards, so looking from above he had a bulging tummy.

Zanna seems to be carrying her pups below her. If you ask me that’s probably more comfortable ;-) . Zanna used to have a slim figure, looking at her from the side her belly went up so to speak. Now if you look at Zanna from the side she has one straight body from her chest right back to between her back legs.

In Zanna terms she is fairly big, not as big as I expected her to get a few weeks ago as she gained weight much sooner than Tieka did in her pregnancies. Zanna just grows slow at the end I guess.

I think Zanna looks very pregnant, but a lot of people don’t see it as they are used to “normal” dogs just being fat. And that’s how she looks ha ha ha.

But once she lays down there is little doubt about her condition.

She has had a happy pregnancy. A few days halfway though were not so good for her, she was quiet and sleepy. But all the rest of the time she is just as happy and energetic as always. Ok I’ll admit she is a bit slower runner now….

Just a few more days and we will get to see what has been doing all the dancing around inside Zanna. I can see very clearly the puppies moving while watching Zanna sleep, Zanna in her basket, me in my chair.

I’m also very curious what grandma Tieka will think of it all and how she will react to the puppies.

This photo shows what Zanna has to injure while having her tummy photographed. Since she can’t get away I grab the opportunity to cuddle her no end… poor Zanna, lucky me!!!