The reasons behind this particular breeding,why Marigold was brought here from NYC for this litter and more information on the parents to the V Litter may be found here. That said, M and I spent almost 3 weeks together learning about each other prior to delivery. I truly was expecting the litter to arrive that Tuesday, but she was giving me signs that it might happen as early as Saturday or Sunday. Nothing happened on those days, so I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact she was waiting for her actual due date. She & I were going to settle down for the night in the den just in case she had different ideas, and .... she did. Around 2 am Monday morning, the first puppy arrived. He was followed quickly over the next hour by both girls and the first clear sable & white male. At 9:30 am, the final pup arrived giving us a total of 9 puppies - 7 males, 2 females.

For a first time mom with 9 puppies, Marigold has done a remarkable job of feeding, cleaning and bringing friends in for the puppies. You can see in some of the pictures that there are a few stuffed toy friends in the pen. This is all courtesy of Marigold. 😉 Join us over the next few weeks as the puppies grow and change as they prepare for life outside the litter. This should prove to be an interesting and exciting time for all of us!

As for the naming theme this time around, we were finding it hard to come up with V names that represented both NC & NY. After throwing around several different options, we finally decided on a mostly Native American theme (tribes or places) with a few lakes from the state of NY. Enjoy!

Week 6 - What a busy week this was for the puppies! Honestly, I have lost count of the number of people who came out to see and interact with the litter over the past week. Marigold would take it on herself to meet everyone as well. If I didn't get to the storm door fast enough, she would figure out how to open it and come out on her own. I am in the process of trying to get Marigold "dried up" so the puppies are almost 100% on puppy kibble. They are having a great time romping outside in their penned area, running around on and under the porch, plus one of their favorite pastimes seems to be hanging out under the Crepe Myrtle tree. Oh, and they also take great delight in running down to the fence line to visit with Riker. This seems to be a very even litter in respects to temperament and size - not a lot of difference between them. I am not seeing one puppy as being "the" leader, nor am I seeing one puppy as being at the bottom of the pack. I am very pleased with them overall. I have been doing some work with them with respect to getting them to sit (not on command, but as an offered behavior) and rewarding either with pets or a piece of kibble. Read about how Moose went about this exercise yesterday on his page!

Week 5 - Wow .... I put out the call for folks to come and visit the puppies & boy did they respond! Thank you all who have come and interacted with this litter and with Marigold! Marigold has greeted each visitor with her "world famous" smile. With some visitors she just hung out with them and the puppies for the entire visit. Others, she visited for awhile and then decided she could have some "me time" while they were there. We are spending more time outside these days and having to share the great outdoors with flying things. So far none of the pests have tried to bite anyone, but I always keep an eye on them. Pups are mostly eating softened solid food, but will grab a quick snack from Marigold whenever they can. They are discovering new toys, new worlds, hiding in the grass, looking at the front steps & in general, growing up quickly.

Week 4 - This has been an eventful week for the puppies. First Eno decided it was time to plan and execute his escape from the small pen. Once the others saw him make the pen break, they followed suit to get to mom. Marigold was okay with nursing the pups, but she didn't want to do it in the small pen. Shortly after 3 am one night, I was awakened to the sound of puppies. I came into the den to find 6 of the 9 out and nursing on the den rug. The other 3 were still in the process of getting out. I knew then, it was time to expand the pen. So now they have much more room to get around in. They do like to sleep at one end of the pen mostly together on the bed. Puppies have discovered toys, each other, exploring places, transitioning to some semi-solid type food, plus had their first trip outside.

Also they had their first set of visitors. Marigold greeted our friends with her "smile" and then I put her back inside while I brought out the puppies. However, she was not satisfied to stay in and eventually came back out to spend time with everyone. She continues to remind me of her grandmother Bec. Bec always loved visitors to come see her pups. The puppies wandered around like they had always been walking on cement, grass, bricks and more. A couple of them even figured out how to make it up the first step. I was rather surprised by that! You can tell from the pictures that they have really done some growing this week!

Week 3 - Puppies weighed in between 2.6 to 2.15 pounds on Monday night. They are walking with grace these days, are becoming fairly vocal, hearing seems to be good as well. They received their first taste of goats milk and baby rice cereal on Monday as well. The first few days of starting to make the transition is always pretty messy. Marigold is still taking very good care of them & still allowing them to nurse, at her pleasure. Their teeth are starting to erupt as well. When I sit in the pen with them, they do try to climb up on my legs and into my lap. This is one of my favorite times of puppyhood. Nails have been cut and the pups are handled each day.

Week 2 - Puppies have been growing like weeds, putting on 1-2 ounces per day. On Sunday night (1 day shy of 2 weeks), one of the pups weighed in at 2 pounds. All of them have more than doubled their birth weight. When you look at the pictures you will see that some of the puppies only had partially opened eyes. These will continue to fully open over the next day or so. They are starting to react to sound (ears are opening as well), trying to walk around a bit and I am even hearing puppy barks throughout the day. 😉 I have been doing the ENS protocol on them each day, nails have been cut once, but need it again. They grow very fast! All in all, it has been a good week for the puppies & for Marigold too!