Day 7

Well its groundhog day here! Everyday I come home from work and weigh the puppy and every day he's put on over 100gms. Today is no different and he now weighs 1070gms, yes one kilo at 7 days old. Kes's litter were 16 days when they hit that milestone!

At the weigh in! This is a chocolate container left over from Christmas, I think you can imagine how big he is!

He has been doing his "Early Neurological stimulation" exercises and is just reading up on whats coming next. He is a clever pup, can read and everything!

Mum thinks he should be getting his sleep and comes to the rescue :O)

See those naughty spots!!

Smiling already ;O)

Night Night

Spinney on day four

Well Spinney and Miya are both very well. Miya has had some time out to have a play in the snow and to do a little shaping. She loves working things out and she enjoyed a few minutes learning to lay on a piece of carpet.

Spinney on the other hand seems to love nothing more than spending his spare time at the milk bar!! I was suprised at yesterdays weigh in when he tipped the scales at a whopping 703 gms!! You should have seen my chin drop at tonight's weigh in. I even checked the scales!! He is now 840 gms!!

We have been using soft toys to imitate litter mates, Fen had a meerkat for Christmas that he has kindly donated (don't tell him as he hasn't missed it yet!) Its a brilliant tool to try to push Spinney off a teat, he is so strong I haven't actually managed to get him of one yet but we do manage to get him to fight for his place at the milk bar!! Well he needs some exercise.

We are finding him cuddled up with his toys more and more, after he had spent his first 2 days hiding under Mi's back legs! He started is training today, spending 3 seconds on his back in the palm of my hand and having a cotton bud gently rubbed between his toes.

Spinney's second day

Well today has been a lot less traumatic than his first. He is very content and is feeding well.

His mum doesn't leave him unless forced to go out for a toilet break. She is very devoted bless her. She has a little hardness in one teat so I'm trying to make him feed from it in the hope that is doesn't turn into anything nasty, all the others seem fine.

Spinney seems to be enjoying his feeding. He was 530grams when born and is now 560grams.

He briefly met his dad yesterday afternoon, poor Fen is terrified of puppies and wouldn't make eye contact at all, he just wanted to run away!! He is such a softy!! Miya told him off for looking at her first litter and he hasn't forgotten it.



You can just see his little tri bum under his tail!! I think he is going to look just like his mum for tri bits.

He loves his wheatbags!

A tired pup, I can't get him to move far right now :O)

Here comes mum to the rescue!

Meet Spinney - AKA Spinach!!

Yes his second name is spinach!! Not my name for him but his family to be :O) I think that they somehow knew what was coming! I wish I had.



Miya went into labour at 8:30am on Friday 8th of January and at 8pm after a lot of huffing and puffing we finally had a waterbag. Last time it had come between pups 4 and 5 so I thought this was a good start!



At 9pm she started to push again. After an hour I could see a foot. On further investigation it turned out to be a back foot. Not ideal for the first puppy I thought. Well we only had that foot for a while so I started to panic. The book says its not good and that calling the vets a waste of time as the pup will be dead by the time he gets there and that the owner should do all they can to help. OMG did I try, nothing was working, at 10:20pm I decided drastic action was called for and did my best to find the other foot that was not quite out and started to pull with Miya's contractions.


Nothing seemed to be working, KY, pulling, but still no progress. I didn't want to pull too hard but decided I was going to have to.


At 10:30pm Spinney was born. Still and limp. I wasn't going to give up on him that easily. I rubbed and rubbed, Miya licked, we both worked hard. I swung him gently downwards in a towel to try to get the fluid out of his lungs. I thought I heard him take a breathe but couldn't be sure, my heart was willing it but my head was saying it was just me pushing the air out. I decided to blow down his nose to see if I could clear it. Instantly he coughed up a load of fluid and took a raspy breathe. I just kept rubbing and he took another one. Gradually they became stronger and at 11:50pm I was happy enough to put him in the ready box whilst I had a look at Miya to see if she was OK.


I couldn't feel any more pups and she wasn't bleeding so I was happy to reunite them. Well, when I pulled the blanket off him I couldn't believe my eyes. He pushed himself up into a sit and then tried to stand and fell flat on his chin!! There was no keeping him still. He was soon sucking on a teat and quite content. He is such a strong pup, I weighed him and to my horror he was 18oz, that's the weight of 2 good sized pups! I later measured his ribcage as this had been what was stopping him coming out. It was 8 inches around, poor Miya, I think we were very lucky to get him out. She is only a small girl after all.


Anyway we struggled through the snow to the vets this morning and they were both given a check up. Miya was a bit sore and has some antibiotics just in case! Spinney was looking great, very content to be handled and didn't make a fuss. He seems to have his dads calm nature. His lungs were fine so I was very pleased.


Both mum and baby are doing well, and here he is -

El's Crufts Story 2009

I've been putting this together for ages but have finally got the last photo I was waiting for.

I hope I haven't left anyone out.

Dave Alderson and the lovely Bandit!!

Here is the lovely Bandit's first run, she is a Fen & Popi pup.

She is very clever!!