Waiting on puppies and a new ferret

Yesterday was Raina’s first official due date. I admit to being nervous. On Friday my daughter-in-law had trouble finding Raina and nearly freaked out. It turned out she was in a very small corner of the room sleeping. We thought maybe it was the big day. Poor dog, we have been taking her temperature twice a day. We need to get an idea of her normal temp so that we can tell when it drops a couple of degrees. I hope the puppies come soon, I think she is miserable. I remember my due date passing by and still being pregnant. At least I really understood what was going on.

Even though it was Raina’s due date, Shannon and I spent most of the day on ferret matters. Miss Bourbon, Shannon’s ferret, has being acting very bored lately. She even figured out how to open her cage. I had found an article about 2 ferret rescue groups. I had no idea they existed. We visited one of them to introduce Miss Bourbon to some other ferrets in hopes she would choose one as a friend. Hooray! She liked one young male named Reuben. We promptly changed his name to Goose and brought him home. When the ferrets started bothering Sean and his friends, Shannon and I made a fast trip to Home Depot to make a ferret-proof gate for the living room. Luckily Sean took pity on me after I had whacked my thumb for the second time and finished nailing up the quarter-round strips that hold the gate in place. The next time I saw the ferrets, they were romping around the living room.

We are positive Penny is pregnant. She should be due in about 2 weeks. We think she will have a small litter this time since she only mated twice. C.C. may have a small litter too having only mated once. I let Raina and Ray mate 6 times and I am beginning to think that is why she is so huge. I am so excited about Penny. She is a brindle color and the male was also brindle. It will be interesting to she how many of her puppies will be brindle. We have been keeping her inside during the day lately. If a dog fight breaks out Miss Penny in always in the middle of it. She usually has scabs on her face and ears.

We had a small dog visit us for one night. I was returning from the convenience store and saw a couple of neighbors out walking and being followed by a small dog. I stopped to say hello and they asked if the dog was mine. He was adorable! A purebred Shiztzu or Shiztzu-mix with only one eye and he was very well groomed. Sean and I ended up driving around showing that face to everyone we could find. Finally we gave in to defeat and brought him home. I made up signs with his picture and put them out Sunday morning. Another sign showed up shortly thereafter, “missing: dog with one eye”. It turned out the dog is the pet of one of our neighbor’s grandchildren. I’m glad we didn’t just turn him over to Animal Control. Just what I like a happy ending.

Pregancy update

Raina is getting bigger every day. Next Saturday is her first due date. Since the mating took place over several days her due date could be 63 days from any of those days. She is getting bigger and sleeps a lot. I try to feed her several times a day remembering how I would get indigestion while pregnant. She loves having her tummy rubbed. I guess it feels good to her. I can feel the pups moving and can even see them moving now. I’m guessing the litter will be 3 or 4 pups. I have my delivery supplies together including the map to the emergency clinic in Marietta in case of problems.


Penny is coming along with her pregnancy. She is getting wider where Raina’s belly is becoming more low-slung. My daughter-in-law called me a little while ago to tell me that she could feel Penny’s puppies. I ran upstairs as quickly as I could and sure enough I felt them squirming around! I thought I was excited already.


We are pretty sure that C.C. also pregnant. I have been measuring the dogs’ girth every week and there has been a steady increase for all of them.


Over the weekend my son and daughter-in-law bought a used treadmill to exercise the dogs. Penny, Hamburger and C.C. have taken to it very easily. Winston is not sure about it yet. The one we really want to use it, Jack is terrified by it. I have faith my daughter-in-law will get Jack on that treadmill.

Good luck to Ray!

Our Ray has a new home! The family has 2 pugs already and brought them along to meet Ray. He will have his own person now, a lovely teenager who cuddled up to him. I miss my Ray, but he will be very happy in his new home.

Moody Raina

I guess pregnant dogs suffer hormonal changes just like humans. Yesterday Raina picked a fight with Kippy who is bigger than her. Of course when two dogs start fighting, they all get into the act. I found out about it when my daughter-in-law brought Raina downstairs to me.


I have been measuring Raina’s belly to check her progress. The first measurement of 14 inches was taken on June 26. On July 2 it was 14 ¾ inches. Today the measurement is 15 1/8 inches. I dug up an old stethoscope last night and was able to hear tiny, rapid heartbeats. I must sound like a nut. Who worries this much about their dog? Me, that’s who.


I took measurements on Penny and C.C. yesterday. They are both showing bulges in their bellies, so it looks like we will be having 3 litters.


We have had their whelping areas set up for a while now. My daughter-in-law is very excited too and bought the playpen for Penny months ago. The dogs are all sleeping in their individual whelping areas so that they will be acclimated. Shannon got some advice from a co-worker about the set up. To keep Penny and C.C. from seeing each other, a long dresser is sitting in the center of the room. In the wild, only the alpha female of the pack is permitted to reproduce. Domesticated dogs still carry some of that instinct and will fight if they are exposed to another female with puppies.


I need to get my whelping supplies together. I’ve read two books on the subject. One recommends cotton thread to tie umbilical cords. The other says to use dental floss and never use cotton thread since it will absorb moisture. I think I will use dental floss, but need to buy some since all I have is peppermint flavored. Raina’s first due date is July 21. That is 63 days from her first mating with Ray.


Speaking of Ray, we are looking for a good home for him. We had not planned to keep a stud dog. Buying Ray was the quick answer when the stud I had arranged was not available at the time. I personally prefer female dogs. Having an un-neutered male around is causing some friction with the other dogs. He needs to be in a home with not more than one other dog. He is very cuddly and loves to sit in my lap. When he is outside and hears my voice in the kitchen, he goes nuts scratching on the door. I think he will transfer his affection to another owner easily. I will miss him at first, but I think he will be happier in the long run.

Hopefully we are pregnant

Our Cocker Spaniel C.C. came home a week ago. I am only now getting around to this entry because the day after she came home my son and daughter-in-law went on vacation. That left me home with 9 dogs, 2 cats, a ferret, a bearded dragon, several fish and my finches. The family got home last night and I was really glad to see them. By Wednesday I was ready to start adopting out dogs and releasing the cats in the front yard. Luckily the madness passed. Plus one of my son’s friends came over to stay with me on Thursday and took over much of the work.

We only know of one time that C.C. tied with her stud. Hopefully there were other ties that were not witnessed. I think it will be very exciting to have three pregnant dogs. Someone needs to develop a pregnancy test for dogs. Believe it or not I actually tried an EPT stick when Raina urinated on the bathroom rug. It did not work. We can only guess and hope at this point. Raina is behaving differently. She usually is aggressive with the other dogs thinking she is the boss. I just watched her roll over on her back and allow them to sniff her belly and “stuff”. It may be only that she hasn’t been spending much time with the others. It’s easier for me to keep the two Yorkies together. I still have to keep Ray away from Penny and Hamburger until I am sure they are no longer in heat. We should be able to feel puppies in a couple of weeks.

The "heat" goes on!

Our Penny is home! She was away from home for almost two weeks for breeding. Now comes the hard part; waiting to see if she is pregnant. Her full name is Monster Shiny New Penny. She arrived in our home about a year ago, a tiny, flea-ridden puppy. Now she is a beautiful young lady. Penny is very attached to my daughter-in-law and Shannon feels the same about Penny. When we arrived to pick Penny up, the dog began whining and straining at the leash the moment she saw Shannon.

I forgot to take my camera along to get a picture of the stud dog. He was also brindle color. His name is Bugs and he is just a little smaller than our Penny. She was away for so long because she was not ready for breeding yet. Bugs’ owner called after Bugs and Penny had managed to do the deed a couple of times. Shannon and I left the next morning to pick up our dog. When we got hung up in construction traffic, Shannon got so agitated I thought she might just park the car and start walking. She really missed that dog!

It looks like Sean and I will be going to pick up our third prospective mother on Sunday. Shannon got an email yesterday that C.C. and the cocker spaniel stud had successfully tied for the first time. By Sunday they will have had a few more opportunities. The stud is a beautiful parti-color. They should make some really pretty puppies. His picture is above.

I feel certain that Raina is pregnant. Her belly looks larger and her teats are swollen. By the end of June, we should be able to feel the little puppy fetuses. We are so optimistic that we have set up separate birthing areas for each of the dogs. We also have puppy food, formula and feeding bottles in case we have to hand feed puppies. I bought two books several months ago in preparation for this entire process. One of them is “Breeding Dogs For Dummies”. It seems that there is a “Dummy” book for everything and I felt it would be just about the right speed for me. I’ve had books on other subjects in the “Dummy” series and found them very useful. I’ve seen a calf born and tended to a friend’s cat while it gave birth, but I’ve never had a pregnant pet. I don’t think that having been pregnant and giving birth myself is going to help prepare me for this.

The way things have timed out, the births should be staggered, but the puppies should be ready to go to new homes in mid-September.

The "heat" of spring

Life never turns out the way we expect it to. I look back on my blog and see that we were expecting the dogs to come into season in January. I was really being optimistic. It is now May and all four of our breeding dogs are in heat. It must be like “dorm syndrome” where women living in close proximity will be in the same menstrual cycle.

Raina was the first to show signs. The owner of the Yorkie stud we had lined up was 9 months pregnant herself, so there was no way she could handle breeding Raina with her dog. In desperation my daughter-in-law and I began a frantic search of the Internet. We didn’t find any Yorkie studs in our area and even looked in neighboring states. We did find an adult male for sale just across town. We both fell in love with Ray at first sight. Luckily so did Raina. We should have a litter coming in mid-July.

The other females followed Raina into estrus (heat) very shortly including our youngest, Hamburger. We won’t be breeding her this time since she is still too young. Penny and C.C. are with their respective studs right now. We miss them both. Hopefully they will be coming home pregnant. We were lucky enough to find proven stud dogs.

We are all very excited and looking forward to having three litters of puppies. They should be ready to go to new homes in September. I look forward to keeping up the news of pregnancies, births and new puppies. I also expect to look back on this and think I had lost my mind at the time.