Astro Reminiscing....

Astro my pup from the Space Litter LOVES the puppies!!  He's very curious and wants to be a good big brother.  But he also notices the puppies are getting all of the attention.  So the other day he thought if he got into the warming box he would get some extra attention!!  Well, we were painting the pups so Henry asked what color he was....Brown...
              

2 Weeks Old!!

2 Weeks old!!  Can you believe it??!!!  Several are over 2lbs and half of them have their eyes open already!  These pups are growing getting big so fast...  Momma Bella is doing good...She's eating a lot!  Have to keep up with the supply and demand!  Here are some pictures...
 
 

 

 

4 days old!!!

 

It's hard to believe their already 4 days old! All but 1 already weigh over a pound. This was the heaviest she has had. When she whelped she weighed 87.6 lbs! Her "normal" weight is about 62 lbs... Poor thing no wonder why she couldn't jump up onto the bed! These are going to be big puppies!! Above and below are some photo's over the last couple of days.

The PUPPIES are HERE!!!

Hi all!

If you hadn't heard already, Bella whelped her puppies on Thursday, June 9th.

On Wednesday night her temperature dropped around 10:30pm. When their temp drops it means they will whelp within 24 hours. With Bella's past experiences she will whelp within 12-14 hours!! Cathy wasn't due to fly in until Thursday night at 9pm!! I knew Bella wasn't going to be able to hold on. So, I called Cath (she's a night owl like me...) and at midnight she changed her flight to the earliest available for the same airline. It got in at noon. We hoped Bella would hold on until then.

Bella and I were up all night. She was panting and very restless... I just kept giving her belly rubs and back rubs...It was the only thing that would settle her. I also have her a "mani" and a "pedi" so she would look pretty for her babies. She actually fell asleep as I was trimming the fur between her paws. It's a golden thing...

Bella and I crawled into bed at 4am, in hopes that we could take a little nap. She couldn't jump onto the bed anymore as her babies were weighing her down. So I lifted her onto the bed...Henry couldn't sleep any longer and had to call into work to let them know that "his" Bella was going to have her pups. The texting started at 7:15am... Everyone was on alert that Bella was going to have her puppies!!

We dozed off for a bit and at 10am Bella couldn't handle it any longer and jumped off the bed. I jumped out of bed like there was an earthquake... I knew we were close. Henry took her outside and I hopped into the shower. The entire time I was praying..."please wait for momma Cath!"

Kelly and her sister Erin arrived at 11:30am. My mom also showed up shortly after to pick up Zim and Astro for the day. We definitely didn't need added distractions. Henry was acting like a nervous "meepaw"! He was pacing and trying to keep himself busy, but falling over his own feet!!

Bella's water broke at 11:10am. She was panting, drooling and leaking...But it was like she was holding them in. She knew "momma Cath" wasn't there yet.

At 12:03pm we got a text from Cath saying she was at the curb waiting for us. At 12:04pm Bella had her 1st contraction! Henry couldn't drive fast enough to pick up Cath. Thankfully Long Beach Airport is 5 mins down the road!! Cath came in washed up and we took our positions... Bella delivered her 1st pup at 12:54pm! WHEW!!

I truly believe she was waiting for Cathy. From that point Bella delivered 5 puppies within 60 minutes! Really unheard of! Way to go Bella!

Everything was going fine and then after puppy #8 you can tell she was getting tired. These pups were the largest she has ever whelped. I was getting nervous as it was 1 1/2 hours later when she delivered puppy #9. It was 6:02pm and we knew there was at least 1 more puppy in there. (We had xray's done to confirm the number of pups...) She was having contractions and I could feel the pup on her right side, but the puppy was stretched out and not going anywhere!!

Finally at 8:30pm we packed up Bella and the pups and headed to the reproduction vet. The ride is 40 mins away. I was hoping she would have her last one on the road, but no luck. Once we got there they took Bella back immediately and did an xray to confirm how many were left in there. Just as I suspected there was just 1 left. He was completely stretched out. We also did an ultrasound to make sure the puppy was still alive. The next step was Oxytocin to make her contractions harder.

They gave her Oxy at 9:55pm she was having contractions but not hard enough to get that puppy out. At 10:30pm we were talking to the vet tech about giving her another shot. She must have heard us because she had one HUGE contraction and she curled up and pushed with all of her might! The last pup came sliding into the world at 10:35pm. He was a little slow to start but by 11:30pm we were cleared to go home.

We brought home 10 healthy puppies!! 6 girls and 4 boys!! Woo Hoo!