Mack & Jack

Updated pics of the puppies! They are almost a week old already, they have had their dew claws and tails done which they did not care for. They look identical with the exception of a bit of white on one of them. We aren't really calling them Mack & Jack at least I dont think we are :)

BirthDay, Tax-Day, Labor Day

So our April 15th was busy, first of all it was Dave's 44th birthday, he often thinks that at all of his birthdays he is turning 42 so I have to clear that up in case he told you otherwise :) We got him a massaging chair for his van, it attaches to his seat and plugs into the cigarette lighter so he can relax between appointments. So far he loves it! Tax day for us was no big deal because it was done months ago, although for some people (Jake) it was a big deal! April 15th was also Kady's due date. Of course it's not that simple and there is much more to the story so here goes:
It started on Wednesday morning when Suzy was acting strangely, panting, shaking and being sort of neurotic. We left her in the house when we went to work and Dave checked on her throughout the day. Wednesday evening she was totally fine, ate and went outside, no big deal. Thursday morning it was the same thing, panting and shaking and sticking to me like glue. So we left her in again, and at this time Kady was totally fine, no signs of labor. Dave again checked on her throughout the day and she was always the same-in our room, panting and shaking. Hailey got home and was worried about her because she was acting so strangely. I left work early, called the vet on my way home and arranged to bring her right in. She did not look pregnant at all and had no bag so we were concerned that something was not right. The vet examined her then decided to x-ray her, they found 2 puppies on the same side of her uterus, they ultra-sounded her and they were both alive and although bigger than they would have been had there been more, not to big to be delivered normally. So we took her home and waited. By the time I got home Kady was panting and shaking, apparently in labor as well. So this is how the entire night went: Kady and Suzy in side by side beds panting and shaking. I dozed off and on throughout the night when I could. Kady had her first puppy at 10:42, second puppy at 1:30, and the third puppy at 4:15. Suzy worked at it and pushed frequently but never produced anything. Kady's puppies were all born with a condition I learned about from my friend Jennifer as Red Bag. The way I understand it is the placenta is inside out and attached to the uterus wall. Each puppy came out without a sac or without their placenta, covered in blood. It was very strange and really messy. She has never had a delivery like this. The puppies were all very small and looked like little weiner dogs. Friday morning at 7:30 we called the vet and arranged to bring Suzy in at 8:30 for a C-section. We didn't have high hopes that the puppies would be alive but they needed to come out one way or another. I left her there and headed into work, I had some stuff that absolutely had to be done, I was loopy from lack of sleep and looked like hell but what are you gonna do?
The vet called me about 12:00, said mom and two boy puppies were all fine and healthy, phew! Big relief.
I left work early again to go pick her and the puppies up because she was very uncomfortable being there and would not pay any attention to her puppies. Big shocker I know-anyone who knows Suzy is not surprised by this.
I got home and got Suzy and pups situated in Madi's room and went to check on Kady.
First of all there were four puppies instead of three and two of them were dead. They had apparently not nursed at all. Kady's bag was huge and full of milk. I took the two remaining puppies of Kady's and moved them with Suzy on the heating pad. I then took Suzy's two big healthy, nursing puppies and put them on Kady to help releive her. It worked great, they were happy and anxious to be nursing and today Kady looks much more comfortable and normal.
The bad news-apparently one of the problems with the Red-Bag is that the puppies are born oxygen deprived which is probably one reason they werent nursing. I tried bottle feeding the two living puppies but the little male was just not into it at all, he wouldnt suck or really swallow. The little girl seemed to be stronger and got better and better at it. I finally moved her in with Kady to let her nurse. She latches on really well and seems to be a pretty good sucker, but gets knocked off easily by the bigger puppies. I got up every two hours to help her get attached and make sure she nursed. I don't know if she is going to make it or not it's hard to say right now. The other little boy did not make it, we knew he woulnd't but we had to try anyway. Right now all 3 puppies are with Kady as she has a lot of milk and is doing a good job taking care of them. Suzy wants the puppies but has no interest in nursing them or cleaning them which is a problem. I know she is sore and uncomfortable and on pain medication so we just decided to have one combined litter and give it to Kady.
For now we have 3 puppies, 2 boys and 1 girl. The all look the same a brown color like Maxx with a little white on the chest. We will keep you posted and what a way to spend April 15th.

House Progress

I just ran over to the house this morning and snapped a few pics, they have been working A LOT! It is starting to come together, the bedrooms and bathrooms are done with the exception of the carpet. The mud room is almost done and the tile in the dining room and kitchen is about half way done. There is still some cement to pour outside and the rest of the skirting to go up but it's getting closer! Dave hauled off a load to the dump today and will pick up a couple more cedar panels for the front yard which we hope to get in sometime this week. There is a ton of yard work to do but we will just keep plugging away at it until we have it looking like we want it to. The space down below the house will be where the horses will go and that will take a bit of time to get ready. Our goal is to have a couple of shelters with paddocks and a riding area at least as big as the one we have now. Kyla will probably live up above by the storage area as soon as they tear down that old house. Still not quite sure where the dog houses are going to go but at least we will have either cement, rock or grass so they should keep pretty clean :) Oh and we know our address: it is 3536 Cedarville Rd, Bellingham WA 98226.

Yard Sale Half Time Show

Lucky for us the weather on Saturday was near perfect, pretty cold and a little windy but sunny and dry. We got rid of quite a bit of stuff and made enough money to get Hailey a bed and dresser. Lindsay, Jake, Madi and Hailey were there all day, they were a huge help! At one point though we took a little break and let Madi ride her pony, lots of people got a kick out of that. Notice I said people? Klya was completely un-impressed with the idea :) and mostly tried to pretend it wasn't happening.

Getting Closer.....

The move is getting closer...Steve came over last night to measure the carpet to see how far it will go. He thinks it should do all 3 bedrooms. They are going to put our nice ceiling fan from the office in the dining room over at the new house so that will be good. They are also taking all the appliances out of the kitchen here to put over there. They have also decided that they would prefer us to keep the horses down below the house rather than in the shed, which is fine with me. So now we are going to put some sort of doors on the front of the wood building and that will all be storage. Which will solve one problem...We are hoping that by the end of summer we will be able to come up with some sort of shelter for the horses, but until then we can have them in some fencing down below. They also said the horses are more than welcome to stay over here for as long as we want since there will be people here everyday. So first thing is the moving sale this weekend where hopefully we will sell just about everything we have, second step is I guess we better get to packing :)