Puppy Pictures

It's been a couple of days since I said that I would put photographs on and I've finally gotten round to sorting them now. Believe me, it was hard to tell which puppy was which given that they all look remarkably similar front on.

These collection of photos were taken to show how they had just opened their eyes properly for the first time! As I didn't want to use flash, I used a relatively slow shutter speed which was hard to use when you are trying to capture squirmy puppies. But, I'd rather have some slightly blurry photos than blind puppies from a flash any day.

I know that they'll all look the same to you (they do to me in these photos!) but I've really studied them to be able to tell you exactly who's who. Enjoy!



Barney

Clover

Koura

Lola

Milo

Nutmeg

Riley

Tilly

So there you are! Do you have any favourites?!

Puppy Update

Photos to follow I promise but as I've taken so many, it's taking a fair bit of time to sort through them all!

In the mean time though, I thought that I'd give an update to how the are all doing as I haven't done that for a while. Well, all is good and they're still continuing to do really well. It's starting to get quite exciting now as one of them has actually opened their eyes today!! A couple of others are peeping a little bit which is quite cute.

They are also trying to tentatively work out whether their back legs are used for anything better than just dragging them around. I've seen a few of them definitely up on all fours even if it's just for a milli second before landing splat back down, legs splayed out like Bambi!

Jenna is doing well too but I can see the strain that having puppies has had on her. She seems a little run down with her paw rather sore after she pulled out the fur. (I know, nice right?!) Along with a slightly infected eye, her regime consists of a three times daily salt foot bath, an eye wash followed by a calcium tablet. Oh, and she also has her ears cleaned twice a week!! The things you do for the animals you love eh! It all seems to be working so that's rewarding in itself.

Anyway, I'll stop boring you with all my doggy nursing stories. Some pictures to follow of all eight of them soon!

Art Interview!

Well it's been a big week for me. Not only have I got little puppies in my life, (which by the way, are all doing really well stilll) I also had my art interview today for the foundation pre degree course that I've been applying for.

It went really well and I've been offered a place on the course which is so exciting!

The lady that interviewed me who I already know due to the fact that I'm at the college already was really nice. Together we looked at my portfolio and discussed exactly what it was that I was wanting out of the course and where I saw myself going. It's exciting and daunting to think that this time next year, I might be getting offers from universities!

As I said, I'm really happy that I've got on the course. I think this will be a great to chance to really push myself in art and to hopefully gain some pretty cool skills and improve my work.

So yes. Just thought I'd share that little bit of news with you all!

The Naming Ceremony

Last night was spent properly assigning names to each of the puppies. This was a cause for much confusion as they all look fairly similar! However, after getting our heads round each marking of the puppy and assigning a name to it, we got there.

So in no particular order, here are the names that we've chosen:

Nutmeg

This is the orange roan girl that I had to help bring to life. She's doing ok at the moment although I was slightly concerned about her last night.

Barney

An orange roan boy who has a spot right in the middle of his back.

Lola

A sweet little one with a love heart shaped marking on her side as well as a zigzag on her shoulder.

Koura

This was a name that I chose at 3 am in the morning. I love the names that the New Zealand places have so was keen to try and squeeze a name out of that somewhere. I started thinking of the place Kaikoura and thought that shortening it to Koura sounded like a nice girl's name.

Milo
This was a name that was suggested by somebody that we know. As soon as we heard the name, there was a chorus of 'aww' sounds floating around the room from all of us. So it was agreed. Milo for the last boy.

Tilly
But Matilda if she's naughty! Have always liked this name and thought that it really suited the little puppy. This one is my Dad's favourite as she's one of the smaller ones so he likes to watch out for her, bless!

Clover
My sister's name choice which fits quite well as she has a large patch on her side that vaguely resembles a clover.

Riley
The first one to be born and the largest. He certainly makes it known when he's not happy!

So there you are. I think I got them all. Now that we've names for them, it is actually easier to tell which one is which. This works great as we'll be able to keep an eye on each puppy's progress better. Put it this way, when we go to weight them again we wont get so confused this time...well that's the theory anyway!

They all seem so much more settled today which is good. It's amazing how in just a couple of days they seem to have gotten into a routine. As I said above, a couple of them are a slight cause for concern but nothing major.

Will keep you posted as always.

The puppies are here!

As I'm sure most of you know now, the puppies are here. Eight of them to be exact!

As promised, my next post would hopefully contain some puppy pictures so here they are:

Here is the first puppy being born. At this point, he was just a couple of minutes old. His arrival took us somewhat off guard though as she just produced him without any real warning!

The birth went fairly well. We had some problems with the first puppy being born and in particular the last one. It was touch and go for a while with her whether or not she would survive. However, after a bit of resuscitation from me, we managed to keep her.

I think this is one of my favourite pictures of the puppies so far. I love how they line up and suckle like this!

Here's the first born called Riley this morning having a cuddle from Jenna!

As I mentioned above, a couple of them have names already. We've now got most of the names lined up but we just have to assign them to a puppy!

These next few days are pretty important so I'm holding my breath at the moment as there is a possibility of losing some of them. For now though, they seem to be doing well so lets hope it stays that way!



Not something you see everyday!

Nature gave me the perfect opportunity yesterday lunch time to use my new camera!

A bird not normally seen in your back garden, decided that it would swoop by and eat it's lunch with us. Dad says that it's a buzzard so I'll take his word for it. I'm not that much of a twitcher but did quite enjoy trying to capture a nice shot of this pretty impressive bird of prey.

Here is the best picture that I managed to get before he then decided that his privacy was being invaded too much and flew away prey and all:

Pretty cool I thought!

Still no puppies to distract me from my work yet! Although, she has been acting very differently today so it's looking good for the birth to take place in the next couple of days. I will of course, keep you posted. Hopefully the next time I do update, it will be to show you some pictures of them safely arrived!

Still Waiting!

No signs of the puppies coming yet which is getting a bit frustrating! Now that Jenna is in her due date times, it's just a case of waiting until the moment comes.

 It's given me the chance to get as prepared as possible though and at least it means that my twin, who is coming back from University tomorrow, (YAY!) will most likely be here for the birth. So as with most things in life, there are pros and cons to the situation. 

That's all the update I have on Jenna for now. I acknowledge that that must be pretty boring for you to read and that you would much prefer pictures of puppies but so would I ... so would I!

All set up and ready to go!

Hey guys! Time for some much needed catch up time.

I had a scan done on Jenna the other week and it has been comfirmed, Jenna is definitely pregnant! The scan was pretty amazing as you could see the little puppies with their hearts beating and everything!

So with her due to give birth sometime next week, I've trying to get as prepared as possible for their arrival.

This leads me onto the whelping box. I remember saying weeks ago that I was building one but with one thing or another, just haven't got round to posting on here about the finished piece. So here goes:

Tah Dah! And there's the Mum to be trying it out happy only to be in there because she's being bribed to with treats.

I'm quite pleased with the result as I had designed it from scratch. After measuring out on a scratty piece of paper on the way to the shop to buy the wood, I think I got away with my slap dash approach. Ok so the floor wasn't quite measured right but this was fine as the lino helped seal the gap in!

But no, I did spend a lot of time researching whelping boxes so it was fairly thought out.

As you can see, the front comes up and down so Jenna can walk in easily. Once the puppies grow up, I've got another bit of wood that goes on top to keep them in. 

Big thanks goes out to my Dad too! He helped me put all the sides together and today, we've made some more adjustments to the box which I'll put pictures on tomorrow as I don't have them right now. 

To help her get used to the box as much as possible, Jenna has been sleeping in it at night times. This has been interesting as it's meant she's slept downstairs. Up until now, she's always slept in a crate in my room. A few barks in the early hours of the morning has meant that we're probably getting a taste of what is to come when there will be more of them howling and whining at night!

 Jenna herself is well but as you can see, she's looking a lot larger and decidedly more fed up by the day! It's so funny to see her like this as the once full of beans dog now plods about everywhere walking very much slower than before. I'd worry about her if it wasn't for the fact that she still manages to jump about when it's time for dinner!

So as I said, she's due sometime next week so it's all very exciting. Watch this space as in a couple of weeks, I should have some puppy photos providing all goes well.

Pregnant or not pregnant?!

Hello! A little update on the doggie front here. For those of you who maybe don't know, I've have recently mated my dog Jenna in the hope that we will have some little puppies!

I would say now that I am fairly sure that she is pregnant! All the signs seem to be there pointing towards a positive answer anyway.

I wish though that I could be able to say a definite yes or no. At this point if you know what you're feeling for, you can actually feel the puppies but as I don't, it's a bit hard to tell and have figured that maybe my clumsy fumbling probably won't help matters so have kept well alone from the prodding and poking you see the vets do.

Speaking of the vets, as I would quite like more of a definite answer, I have booked her into the vets to have a scan! This way I'll get that definite answer I'm looking for and maybe an idea of how many puppies she's having if she is!

All potentially very exciting. Another thing that I've had to start getting ready is a whelping box for Jenna to hopefully give birth in. After seeing the range of boxes available to buy, I decided to make my own! So I've been out today buying wood and lino and have made a start on making a Jenna Box as I call it.

I know that you might think that I'm getting ahead of myself and that I should wait till I've had the scan done but the thing is that you have to get them used to the whelping box a couple of weeks before the birth. Jenna at the moment if all goes well, is about two and a half weeks from giving birth!

I'll put the photos of the box once I've finished making it on here so you can have a look shall I?!

Let them eat cake!

As Marie Antoinette famously didn't say! I thought that I'd post some pictures of the cake in action along with the party that went in tow.

It was a really nice party actually with a lady called Wendy Moore coming in to do some henna on the girls. She did a great job creating beautiful patterns on our hands and she was such a lovely lady so thanks Wendy for coming!

Henna in action!



A party of henna hands! The black paste you see on most of the hands eventually dries and flakes off revealing the brown dye.

I then got one! As I wear a tribal style ring, I thought it would be cool to get a pattern that would go nicely with it.



Depending on how skanky you are, the henna lasts for a couple of weeks.

After the henna was tidied away and the girls were off playing games, I went to go and collect the pizzas. I don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon! As a newly passed driver, I found it a somewhat scary experience driving with pizza that was quite hot causing the car to fog up from the inside. Not even the fan seemed to help much so I ended up driving home with the window down!

With the pizzas precariously delivered, these were quickly gobbled down.
Cake time I think!





These were special candles that burnt the colour of the candle. They burn stronger colours than in this picture here but you can see definite shades of greens especially popping out from the flame!





So pleased with the size of this cake! I got good comments on the texture too which was light and fluffy. Still though, I don't think it quite lives up to my Nana's sponge which is a classic!

Needless to say, the cake has now all gone. Cake as I'm sure is the case in most households never stay around for long!