Well, we've got quite a few photos of the birth - even some little movies - but I don't know if they would be appropriate! But I'll try to chronicle the babies' progress. Not much to see right now... they are just tiny and eat and sleep all the time. Typical for babies. But, let me tell you a bit about the birth.
The mother is officially named Princess Jasmine and the father is Prince Aladdin. They are not related except distantly; the male was named by the breeder at my request so they would be a "set." We call her Jazzy and him Laddie. Not very creative, I know, but easy when you are calling them for dinner!
Jazzy's due date was Feb 7th, and the vet predicted three puppies, max. We all noticed how big she was getting - she really waddled! Anyway, she was spending a lot of time in her crate for a couple of days and we knew that the time was near. It was about 10 p.m. when the definitive signs came that delivery was going to be within a few hours. We had all our equipment ready - string, scissors, surgical gloves, towels, rubber syringes in case anybody got "stuck" - that sort of thing.
Jazzy was in her crate and I suggested dropping the curtain over it (a rug) so she could be private. So, she was there and we waited and waited, sat around the table and talked. All of a sudden, Jazzy gave out a sharp yelp and came tearing out of the crate and ran around the kitchen like she was being chased by the devil. Joe said "Grab her, the baby's coming out!" She stopped and looked at us and, sure enough... we took a towel to Jazzy, laid her down on it, and her first baby was delivered by a cardiac surgeon! My daughter and I assisted.
We had to deliver the second one also, but after the two of them were cleaned up a bit and put to nurse, that must have kicked on the hormones and by then, Jazzy was figuring things out, so she handled the rest of them all by herself. I think she was just SO surprised when she had this bizarre stomach ache thing going on and then out popped a puppy!
The first one came at 5 minutes after midnight. Then the second at 12:53, (after this I went to bed and the rest of the details are from the girl's "nursing notes") 3 & 4 came between 2 and 2:30 am. and number 5 at 3 am and 6 at 3:06!!!
As I said, the vet only expected her to have three with her first litter so, six was a big surprise. They are all pretty much equal size and vigor, doesn't appear to be a runt among them. There are three tri-colors and three sables; two males, four females.
I'll see if I can get some of the images resized and uploaded over the next couple of days; have to be careful with our limited bandwidth.
Meanwhile, here's some stuff from other recent events:
As ya'll know, we had a terrible storm here on 24 January. A tree fell on our barn and destroyed half the roof. I don't have the immediate aftermath photos available, but Ark did put a few later shots on his blog that I can snag.
In this first photo, you can see SOME of the mess but only after we've done a lot of work clearing:
In the next one, you can see the barn with a tarp over it in the background. The tree that fell on it is still partly in place though we have cut away a lot of it and cleared a lot of the piles of limbs and tiles that fell down all around the barn.
As you can see in this next photo, we are creating the world's biggest wood pile. We haven't done half the cutting up and clearing away and it is already five rows deep:
Ark works on one of the trees that blew half way over, but didn't quite fall. They are dangerous and the ground is soft, so we take them down when they are like this:
I managed to get a shot of the tree as it fell:
Next, it has to be stripped and then cut into fireplace sized lengths to be stacked in the ever growing woodpile.
Our baby collie, Cherie, likes it when we are all outside working though she does NOT like the chain saws!
Cherie:
One tree fell into the chicken yard. We cut it off the fence, repaired the fence, and left part of it inside. The chickens seem to like it. Maybe we will leave it there - the latest in chicken coop decor!
And finally, our geese started laying recently...
...here is our first goose egg:
I just love puppy pictures 
There's just never a dull moment at your house is there? :)
