Pretzels

Grace made us home made pretzels with homemade cheese sauce for dinner last nite.  They were AMAZING!  They were better than AMAZING!

Day 3 - Puppies

Day 3 is much better than day 2!  Hops is settling in and she actually seems calmer with the other 3 pups gone.  It makes me think she knew something was wrong.  She has to be forced to leave the pups to go for a swim, which she does numerous times a day.  Then she comes in and has a nice nap with her pups.  The breeder just texted me telling me she is snoring!  I love when I look at the webcam and see her and the pups sound asleep in the same positions - on their sides, legs sticking straight out!

Day 2 of Puppies

Day two was a rough day.  Three of the puppies were not latching on and were clearly deteriorating.  They were brought to the vet and it was discovered they all had cleft palates.  They all had to be euthanized.  It was a big shock to all of us and was extremely upsetting.

Hops seems unfazed by the missing pups and is a top notch mama to the two that are left - who are thriving!  So we now have one male and one female.

I am now an overly concerned dog Grandma, watch the puppy cam all the time and alert the breeder anytime the pups are missing, under Hops' leg or otherwise look compromised!

Puppies!

Helping "red" feed

Puppies were born between 3:30 am and 9 am on Monday June 27th!  We got a text around 3:30 am from the breeder saying the first pup was born.  Jim didn't hear it come thru but heard another text at about 4 am.  He woke me up and I jumped up taking about 1 second to decide I was going.  Then her got Grace up and off we went!

It takes about an hour and 47 minutes to get to the breeders house but at 4:30 in the morning it took about an hour and 15 minutes.  We made it in time to see the last three born.

Total score:  2 females, 3 males and 1 stillborn female :-(

This is Grace delivering number four, a male. He had some trouble nursing at first.  He had a weird technique where he was chomping instead of sucking.  We helped him out quite a bit and by the time we left he was finding a nipple by himself and sucking/chomping more vigorously.  In pics, you will see that the tip of his tail is red so he is marked as the one with some trouble at first.  This way he can be watched extra close.

Here Grace has removed the puppy from the birthing sack and Hops is chewing off the umbilical cord and eating the placenta and sack.  Grace had to hold the puppy's leg back so Hops wouldn't accidentally chew it while chewing off the umbilical cord.  This all happened really fast because Hops felt like this was an emergency type job!

Four of the pups waited here while the fifth, a girl, was born.   After the 5th was born, we could tell she was still in labor.  After a little while with no action, we took her outside to go potty as that sometimes speeds things up.  She delivered the last pup, a female, on the grass.  We could tell right away that the pup was the wrong color - she looked bluish.  The breeder quick got her out of the sack, swung her up and down to clear mucus, rubbed and pinched her....then did some breaths.  Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do.  Luckily we were easily able to distract Hops with her other puppies so she didn't notice that this one was gone.  A couple hours later this little pup was buried out under a tree where their other family pets were buried.  May she rest in peace.

Hops was great thru the whole event.  In hind sight, when we dropped her off yesterday, she was in labor.  And, in fact, I think she started going into labor on the way to the breeder's house from the cabin.  I looked back at her in the truck and she was looking back at me with big wide eyes....which is unusual for her as she usually sleeps like a rock in the truck.

You can see she is wet from her post birth swim

When we go to the breeder's at about 3 pm she was unsettled but didn't have other signs of being in labor such as nesting and a drop in her temperature.  But when I went to bed last nite and was watching her on the webcam, I was pretty sure she was in labor because she couldn't get comfortable.  So she ended up giving birth about 12 hours after we dropped her off!

Sweet puppy faces

Hops knew just what to do when the babies were born and was totally calm thru the whole thing.  She rested between pups and even got up twice to eat (a lot!), drink and go potty.  But when she was done with that, she wanted back in to see her pups!

This is "red", also known as Arlo, finally finding a nipple on his own!

Such a sweet mama!

After her final pup was born and we were pretty sure she was done, she wanted to go for a swim!  So we let her go in the pool and then she came back to her pups and took a well deserved nap!

All in all, an amazing experience.  She will now stay with her pups for about 6 weeks to feed them until they begin eating puppy food.

Mom and Dad - then and now

My folks were just in Illinois for a family wedding and a visit with friends.  One of my mom's friends had this picture of when they were young and took a picture today of them holding the picture.  Such a cool comparison!   And a real treasure for me to be able to have!

When my niece, Mimi, looked at the old pic, she thought it was me and my brother!

Babymoon

Hops is on her babymoon this weekend at the cabin.  She gets to do fun stuff all weekend and gets extra loving.

Last night we took her out on the boat after it cooled off and let her fish!  She loves to watch me fish and spent about an hour an a half on the front of the boat watching everything!

She loves to smell, lick and try to bite the fish I catch.  But she is very gentle!

She has also gone for a very slow walk and laid around on the deck!

She heads to the "home for unwed mothers" tomorrow.  She is not showing any signs of labor yet (leaky nipples, nesting) so it probably won't be until Tuesday or Wednesday).

World's biggest blue gill!

Maternity Shoot Countdown

3 days to go

On her babymoon at the cabin

Still a beauty

Hot and tired in the 101 degree weather

Sweet, sweet pup!

CCI Dinner and Pups

Two week old pups

Grace and I had dinner with a bunch of CCI folks and dogs.  We met at San Pedro Square, had dinner and chatted for awhile.  One woman with a working service dog told the story of how her dog was attacked by a pit bull on Father's Day!  They were in Carmel on a family outing when the pit bull attacked her dog without warning.  Her husband kicked the dog while the owner tried to pull it off.  The service dog was left with puncture wounds on its neck and was not at the event because she was home recovering.

After dinner, we went over to our friend Ann's house where she is watching 6 two week old service dog pups for a week.  We got to take pregnant CCI pup, Nicole, with us in the mini.  It was fun to put the two pregnant pups in the little clown car.  We figured between the two of them we were probably carrying around at least 12 pups and two dogs!  :-)

In the mini!

Maternity Shoot

This is a maternity photo shoot from about 10 days before her due date.   She was still spunky and getting around well.  Now that we are 4 days from her due date, she is really slowing down.

Volunteer gig

Grace got herself a volunteer gig for Canine Companions!  She is stuffing little plastic bags with one dog biscuit and one card advertising their dog fest.  This one is for the dog fest in the east bay but there is also one in the south bay.

Rush Creek

We went up to the grand opening of Rush Creek today.   It looks like a cool spot to stay when visiting Yosemite.  We talked a worker into letting us see a room and they are really nice.  They are supposed to have a nice tavern and restaurant but they were not opened yet.  Although it was the "grand opening", they don't seem quite ready yet.  There was still a lot of work to be done.

Head Lamp

My coworkers gave me a new headlamp for my birthday.  I put this tea bag next to it to show scale. It is tiny....and light weight!  Can't wait to take it backpacking!

Are You My Mother

Maternity shoot - 2 and a half weeks before due date.

Ouch!

Let's hope G's brain doesn't look like the back of her leg.

Ski Camp Update

Ski camp ended a bit early (2 days) because G fell and hit her head resulting in another concussion! UGH!  I got a call telling me she had fallen doing a trick and hit her head (she was wearing a helmet). She was dizzy, had a headache, had light and noise sensitivity, had balance issues but was oriented.

I asked that she be taken to the ER and evaluated and headed to Tahoe to meet up with her.

On the way up, I talked the the person at the camp who did the first concussion assessment twice and then talked to the ER doc twice.  ER doc said that they would not normally do a brain scan for a 16 year old female presenting with her symptoms as it seemed like a normal concussion.  But due to her history and the fact that I was going to pick her up and be driving her home for 4 hours, I wanted the peace of mind that there was no bleeding or swelling in her brain.  The doc easily agreed.

Thankfully the scan was clear so she was released from the hospital.

I got to the facility at about 3:30, loaded her up and we headed home.  She was comfortable and chatty on the way home which was a great sign.

The concussion seems to be very mild.  The headache was gone by the time we got home, although there was still evidence of balance issues.

Based on our experience, the key to this is NO more concussions for at least a year and  half....or better yet...for the rest of her life!

Grace and her concussions may be the end of me....I got 100 new grey hairs yesterday....and muttered a number of choice cuss words when I got the call from the camp!

Ski Camp

Getting dropped off

Grace is at ski camp this week in Truckee.  They have an indoor gym where they learn and practice tricks and then they go out on the snow to try it out.

G and Allison's son Matthew in her bunk house

My friend Allison was going to Truckee for the weekend so she took G with her and checked her in for us.

This is the pic from Grace from her first morning at camp!