The Picture Place: January 2010

1.18.2010

More Puppy Pictures

The puppies are almost a month old now and they are sooo stinking cute! Their eyes and ears are open and they are starting to walk around now, and we tried puppy food for the first time today!

This is Duke, Oma and Opa Meinzer's dog (he used to be Marley)

We think that Zoee has dog mastitis, so she has been laying around with a hot rag on her for a while. We are taking her to the vet tomorrow, so she will be okay. She is just in a lot of pain and its really sad!

You can kind of see how huge her milker is- its her top right shoulder

Puppy Food! We just watch them to make sure that they don't get their feet in it, and we only do 4 pups at a time.

Ellie with milk on her nose

Morgen holding Lucy

Ellie loves Caleb, its soo cute!

All the boys-

Ellie, again. She reminds me of a bear.

Lucy

This just cracks me up. We didn't pose them like this.

They started to crawl out of the pool so this is the new setup in the garage. Its insulated and we have the heat lamp and a space heater, so it will stay pretty warm.

1.03.2010

The Late Christmas Present :)

Zoee had her puppies!!!! There are EIGHT- 4 boys and 4 girls- and they all have names. We gave them each a different colored yarn collar so that we can tell which is which. There's Finn (his name was Dug from Up but he is going to be Aunt Amy's dog, so they named him Finn instead) Ellie, Marley, Carl (also from Up), Lucy, Noni (we called her 'no name' forever, and then thought of Noni), Joey, and Roxi.

Zoee was due on New Year's Eve, but they came a little earlier, on Monday, December 28. On Sunday night, Zoee was acting really weird, but we thought it was just because there were a lot of people over for Sunday dinner. She would be shivering one minute and panting the next, and she was really restless. Plus she wouldn't eat anything. So, we borrowed the neighbor's plastic pool and put a bunch of leftover carpet and sheets in it, then put it in the piano room. That was the 'birthing pool.' But Zoee didn't like being in the piano room and she kept going up to my parent's room in her crate, so we moved it up there for the night. Monday morning came and she was really in labor. We were all awake by about 8 o'clock and it wasn't until 10:30 or so that the first puppy came. My mom and dad were downstairs and it was just me, Morgen and Nathan in their room with Zoee. We couldn't get her to lay down in the tub but she was in her crate, and then all the sudden she squealed and out popped a puppy! She didn't know what the heck just happened to her, so she ran out of the crate but the umbilical cord was still attached, so she dragged the poor little puppy out with her and the cord tore off. By then my mom and dad were there, so we cleaned the puppy up, but Zoee was almost scared of it. It took a lot of coaxing to get her into the pool to nurse the puppy, but she finally did. The next puppy came half an hour later, and we just had to tie the umbilical cord off for her. After that, Zoee did everything herself and had 6 more pups. She eats all the 'stuff' because it has a lot of nutrients and its really healthy for her, so we don't really have to do much for the first 3 weeks. So far its been really easy. We just get to cuddle them and love them and Zoee does all the dirty work!

The puppies are back in the piano room for now, and she takes care of them. She is a really good mama and the puppies are adorable, obviously. Even though they are so little, they each have personalities and its sooo funny to watch. Finn is a big bully and when they are eating, if he doesn't have the teat he wants, he will knock all the others off their teats until he finds the one he wants. He is the biggest eater, too. Noni is the loudest eater. Ellie is a sweetie and she sleeps all the time. Well, they all do I guess. Carl is my very favorite- he never cries (yes puppies do cry) and he loves to snuggle. But they are all adorable. I'm going to be really sad when they are gone.

Here are some pictures. I sent an email with some other ones, so I'll keep sending emails, but I'll update the blog too. Let me know if you didn't get an email and you want one.

This was taken a few days before she had the puppies. She wasn't very big, but that's probably because she is such a skinny dog to start with.

The whole setup

This was puppy #5 or so but all the earlier pictures were a little bit gross...

This is puppy #1- Finn

They find the funniest positions to sleep in!

Nursing- Zoee is much skinnier in this picture than the one when she was pregnant! Haha i guess there's a reason... what I'm trying to say is that if you compare the pictures, she looks pregnant. Otherwise, you wouldn't know.

All 8 of the puppies-

When we were moving them from my parent's room to the piano room we transported them in a basket. Its like a huge heap of gold fur. I love it!

Random Christmas

Decorating the Christmas Tree-

For my Young Women's Project I did a blanket/winter clothing drive. I had an open house with lots of food and people could come and drop stuff off and eat. It was really fun planning (not just to make all the food) and we had tons of clothes! We dropped them off at a homeless shelter in Salt Lake City called the Road Home.

Me and all the food. I told you there was a ton!

Nathan was Scrooge in the 3rd grade play this year! I had only heard Nate practice his lines at home, so it was so cool to see him act for real and see everything put together. Everybody calls him Scrooge now, even his teachers, and its so fun to be Scrooge's older sister. I love this kid sooo much!