Puppies - The First Week

     I can't believe how quickly the puppies are growing!

    
     This is the same box we used when the puppies were born when we needed some space in the bigger whelping box.  If you look back to the previous post you will see that the pups only filled about half of the box.  Just three days later they nearly fill the box!

     Bella thought the whelping box was too small though, and started feeding the pups on the floor.  We put a towel down because the poor pups couldn't get any traction on the smooth floor!  They are five days old here, and are even bigger.

 

    
     Rosa (the runt) likes sleeping with her head on Mom's leg!  We make sure she and the other slightly smaller pups nurse first so that they don't get pushed out by their bigger siblings.

     Awww, Wallace and his sister Jessie snuggle together while sleeping! 

    
     Though these guys do require some extra work for us, it is worth it to watch them grow and develop!

 



Puppies!

     Bella had her puppies last week!  It's been a bit hectic here, so this is the first chance I've had to update the blog.  We were told she had six in her first litter, so we were expecting about the same amount this time. 

     After a little over half an hour of labor the first pup, a nice big tri-color male, was born.  We named him Brutus!

 

 

     Next a petite sable female was born.  She is runt of the litter, but is very active and likes to "sing!"  We call her Rosa.

     Number three was a male sable merle pup.  I love his markings!  Since he had so many little black spots we named him Chester Cheetah, or Chester for short.

 

 

     A similarly colored female was born next.  She's already trying to stand!  We named her Jessie.

     A blue merle female was born fifth.  She is gorgeous and looks a lot like her mom!  We named her Willow, though sometimes refer to her as Bella's Mini-me!  Bella took a little break after this puppy and we weren't sure if she was done or not.  

 

 



     It's a good thing we kept an eye on her, because she then had two more puppies within a few minutes of each other.  They are both sable males and have similar markings.  At first we just called them "the twins" but later named them Tug and Duncan.  At this point, it appeared that Bella's labor had stopped.

 

 

     Here's mama Bella feeding her seven pups.

 

 

     However, a while later we had to take the pups out because she needed to deliver one more!



 

     Puppy number eight was another sable merle male.  He had a sort of lop-sided heart marking on his rump, so we named him Wallace (Braveheart - William Wallace).  And that finally completed Bella's litter.

 

     I'll try to post updates more often now.  Be on the lookout for all the cute puppy photos!