10 Days

It was an absolutely perfect day here in NW Iowa, which is pretty hard to come by in the spring.  Sunny, 75 degrees, and NO wind!    We thought it would be a good day to open up the shed door so we could get some extra lighting for pictures.  All the pictures are pretty bright, so the true color of the yellow puppies isn't very accurate.  Goldy is the darkest of the yellow's and then probably Aubie.  I feel like I can literally see these puppies grow overnight.  When I went out this morning several of them were getting up on all 4's and scooting around their box.  

Truman:  He almost always sleeps with his mouth wide open!  SO cute! 

Charlie: the smallest so far of the yellows

 Goldy:  You can kind of see in this picture that she is slightly darker than Charlie.  It is more noticeable in person.   

Will and Lady:  You almost never see Will alone.  Many times the puppies will be spread about the whelping box, but Will is always laying on or under another puppy.  He's a snuggler!  

Scarlett:  We are not sure yet, but we have a feeling she is going to be a laid back puppy.  Cade (our 16 year old son) says that she is "chill".

Aubie:  She was carted around in a basket most of the afternoon.  

 Herky:  He also seems very laid back and sleeps a lot!  

Stella:  You can't see her collar, but I thought this was a cute picture of her, because you can see how her muzzle is turning from that light pink color, to the dark brown.  I love it when that happens.  They start to look more like a puppy, than a rat:) 

One Week

It was a week ago today that Hazel was pacing around the yard, looking for a comfortable place to have her puppies.  It is amazing how much the puppies grow and develop in just one week!  They are starting to move around the whelping box very easily on their bellies.  As soon as Hazel jumps in, they move very quickly to the source of food!  A couple of our kids commented today on how soft and fuzzy they are getting.  They all have beautiful short coats, just like their mommy.  We have put colored whelping collars on all of the puppies so that you can see better which puppy might be yours, but this will also help us keep a better eye on the puppies and keep track of their individual personalities and tendencies.  We have also given each of the puppies names.  It is always fun for us to hear their forever names, but in the meantime, the kids love to give each of the puppies a name.  Like I mentioned in one previous blog post, they have all been named after a mascot.  We had to look pretty hard for that many female mascots...and who knew so many colleges do have mascots with female names!  With a family of 4 girls and 1 boy, we thought that was pretty sweet!  We tried really hard to represent all the Power 5 Conferences, but just couldn't find that ACC name!  We did feel it was only right that include a name from South Dakota since Hazel roots are there, thus "Charlie" the USD Coyote.  I hope you have as much fun reading them as we did finding them! I snapped a few picture of the puppies with their collars on when I got home from work.  When the kids get home and I have a couple sets of hands we will see if we can get individual pictures of each puppy.

Yellow Female (pink) AUBIE {Auburn SEC}

Yellow Female (purple) GOLDY {Minnesota Big 10}

Yellow Female (green) STELLA {Temple University Big East}

Yellow Female (blue) CHARLIE (USD Missouri Valley Conference}

Yellow Male (black) TRUMAN {Missouri SEC}

Black Female (red) SCARLET {Rutgers Big East}

Black Female (orange) LADY {Baylor Big 12}

Black Male (yellow) HERKY {Iowa Big 10}

Black Male (white) WILL {Villanova Big East}

Day 4

Well, the puppies are 4 days old and are growing and developing great.  My dad-in-law, who is a veterinarian, stopped over last night to check on his favorite grand dog.  Hazel loves her grandpa, because when grandpa stops over he always brings meat, a bone, or a special doggy treat.  Last night was no exception!  After he gave Hazel some love, he went and checked all the puppies.  He couldn't believe how well they all looked.  He commented several times on how much they had already grown and filled out...he hadn't seen them since the morning of the delivery.  Tomorrow we will try and get a few pictures of each of the individual puppies, but for now, here are some pictures of the puppies at 4 days old!

Puppies are Here!!!!

At 9:30 on Monday night Hazel delivered her first puppy, a black male.  We think it was very fitting that Hazel deliver her first puppy in the middle of the NAAC national championship game!  We are huge college basketball fans, and love the game of basketball!  She also may have heard we are planning to give each puppy a college mascot nickname to try and keep the puppies separate.  The kids are still making final decisions on names, but we feel like their really has to be a "Will" for "Will D. Cat", Villanova's mascot.  

She continued to deliver one puppy after another in a very timely manner.  At 5:00 a.m. she had a completed litter of 8.  So we thought!  Hazel slept most of the morning away and around noon, we decided it was time for the new mama to go for a little walk and have some lunch.  She ate all her food in her dish, walked around the yard a bit, and proceeded to hop back in her whelping box and deliver a "bonus puppy"!  We couldn't believe it...almost 7 hours after the last puppy and 16 hours after the first.  16 hours of labor...that girl deserves an award!  We were so excited!  

 Hazel is doing well and so are all 9 of her little blessings.  They are all about the same size right now.  We don't have any visibly smaller or larger than all the rest.  We look forward to watching them all grow and develop personalities of their own!

 For now, I will leave you with one of my favorite pictures of the night.  I absolutely love it when the puppies do this!  Maybe because it reminds me of when my newborns would quiet as soon as I would nuzzle them up close in my neck.  I don't know.  I just think it is so sweet!