Our Five New Arrivals

Holly & her 5 adorable puppies...

(This picture is from this afternoon after she was done feeding the puppies, the two with the most white on them had hiccups.)

(Exhausted Holly laid down while I was petting her and the pups are feeding...again)

We went out to dinner last night because it's too hot to cook anything at home. Yes, that has been my excuse the last two weeks. We got a pretty late start and didn't end up getting home until about 11:30. I walked inside the house first and it smelled like poop.

I was thinking, "oh great, I took them out before I left, ugh" All the lights were off, so I bent down to see who did it while Tom fetched paper towels and the flipped on the lights. I could tell it was Holly so I was getting ready to clean her up when I opened the crate there was only one little poop so I figured she was sitting on the rest which really didn't make me happy. I guided her out of her crate when I noticed something else half way inside her...it was puppy #1!!!

As fast as we could we put together a little make do doggy labor bed which consisted of gross old towels and blankets on top of a tarp. Holly sat down on one of the towels and finished pushing out the first puppy and continued licking it off. They are so small and so adorable! She then would take the baby in her mouth and carry it around to different parts of the towels and blankets. Finally she set him down inside the towel and started using her teeth and paws to wrap him up, I'm assuming to keep him warm. She then walked around the towels for a few more minutes and laid down. She would breathe really heavy for about 30 seconds and then a couple minutes after she would have another puppy. This happened between each one where she would spend time licking off all the goo, and then toting the puppy around until she found the perfect spot for him while she gave birth to another one. It ended up taking about 30-45 minutes in between each puppy and I fell asleep on the floor while Tom watched them to make sure everything was alright. My biggest fear was that they would come out too fast and she wouldn't have time to lick off the membrane and they would die. Luckily all the pups are healthy.

The second must have been the bully of the group. He is significantly bigger than all the others...mainly in the belly area. It was really funny because right when he came out he was trying to crawl away or latch on for food and he never stopped making noise. Both Tom and I agreed that he is definitely Champs baby because that is exactly how Champ is...he never holds still always makes noise and loves to eat anything and everything. Hide your socks if you ever come to my house!

(The second one is on the right, unfortunately you can't see how fat he is!)

She finally finished up about 2-3 hours later. I really can't remember how late it was, all I know is that I was exhausted even though we didn't do any of the work. We planned on leaving them in a sectioned off part in our basement, but Tom decided it was too cold down there and that it would be better to keep them upstairs in the office. So we blocked off half the office with tall sturdy stuff to keep them all in during the day.

We were downstairs getting ready to transport Holly and the puppies upstairs to their new home for the next few weeks and we realized how protective Holly is. Tom brought a laundry basket downstairs to carry them in and I was going to carry Holly. Well Tom put the pups in the basket and Holly freaked out. She ran over to the basket and was trying to pull one of them out of it. We ended up setting her in the basket too which there really wasn't enough room, but she wasn't having it any other way. She was perfectly fine after we put her in the basket with the pups though. We carried all the towels and tarp upstairs before we set them in their new space, and put them all in next. She has been there ever since and its the cutest thing ever! I was in there a couple minutes ago and she was done feeding them, so she backed off while they all just laid there and two of the pups had hiccups which is so stinking cute! Holly just looks so exhausted. I think it's amazing that she just instinctively knows how to take care and nurture them. One of them wasn't eating earlier so she nudged them down one by one so the little guy had room right next to her to eat. So adorable. I'm pretty excited...I talked about it all day at work.

(This is Holly in the basket covering most of the puppies because the basket is so small)

So we have to keep the puppies for the next like 8-12 weeks...depends on what the doctor says after 6 weeks. I think we have two called for right now, but if anyone wants a puppy let me know...it will be first come first serve! Keep in mind if you are out of town, we go to Idaho Falls, Boise and Seattle a lot so it's no big deal to throw a puppy in the back seat for a little car ride!

Here are a few pictures from the experience last night and today. :)

This was the first puppy that she had...she carried him around for the longest amount of time because I think she was either a little confused or just trying to get comfortable with her surroundings. The little pink stringy deal is part of the umbilical cord.

Its hard to see in this picture, but by her upper right leg there is the second puppy that she is covering with the towel. The other one is already covered on the other side. It's so amazing to me that she would know how to do that!