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Another Puppy Adventure Has Begun!
Rosewood’s Yorick came to visit while his family was vacationing in Florida. Conveniently, Bianca came into heat during that time and Yorick has stayed on as a working house guest. He and Bianca have been very busy making puppies and according to my gestation calculator, puppies are expected between June 9th and the 13th.
With puppies arriving and a full schedule of school work it will be a very busy summer here. Bianca is an excellent and attentive mother so she will do a lot of the work, but I will need to keep a close eye on them, especially in the first few weeks. That means they will take up residence in my office so I can be both student and puppy watcher all in one. In fact, I will be sleeping right next to them on the futon!
Check back for updates on the expected puppies!
 Yorick and Bianca To find out more about becoming a knowledgeable owner of a Rosewood puppy, click here.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, I had a visit from Bianca and Jorie, on their way to have Thanksgiving with Jorie’s son Brett who is a student in Washington DC. The last time Bianca and Yorick met, Yorick was a fuzzy puppy.
 Yorick and Bianca in November, 2010 This time, the two dogs lost no time re-establishing their relationship, and Bianca made some coy older-woman promises to this handsome adolescent about things she could teach him later!
If all goes well, the two will have a litter next Spring. Check back for more details!
 Racing through the front lawn.
 Hello, and good-bye The party is over, the house is empty, the farewells have been said and the tears have been cried. The laundry room is empty: no more ragged old towels litter the floor, the puppy toys are stashed, the bowls washed and the washing machine and dryer silent after their heroic efforts to supply the puppies with clean bedding each day. Continue reading Jorie’s Dog Blog-Puppies Leaving
 Cecily -- clean, for once Water is not only for drinking. Bianca’s puppies have discovered that bit of knowledge in the past couple of days and have had no end of fun doing so. Unfortunately water-play in the house is quite messy and when you add food (which is not simply eaten but is sort of worn full-face) and yard dirt to fuzzy fur … well, needless to say I have happy, dirty puppies. Surface wiping removes … well … surface dirt, and on a day-to-day basis that works, but before each puppy meets his/her new parents, each will get a bath, blow-dry and brushing. Continue reading Jorie’s Dog Blog-Puppy Play
 ... like Christmas wrapping paper In the past I have shared pictures and stories about how Bianca’s puppies have changed my house and my life. As you know, over the weeks the puppy command center has morphed from a large plastic tub in my office to free range of the laundry room floor, and my duties have changed from constant vigilance to general supervision and meal service. My biggest challenge currently however, is keeping up with the … umm … how should I say this? … umm, how about … puppy leavings? Continue reading Jorie’s Dog Blog-Puppy “Leavings”
 Home Crate When one chooses to love, one also chooses by default, to let go. That is the inconvenient detail, the fine print that seems so inconsequential in the beginning and so ominous in the end. It is almost time for me to let go; Bianca’s puppies have reached six weeks of age and in two weeks they will be going to their new homes. Continue reading Jorie’s Dog Blog-Happy New Year!
 Puppy eyes The house still carries the afterglow of a wonderful Christmas spent with friends. A tiny tree all sparkled with lights and silver ribbons sits on the fireplace mantel, the dining table is set with candles in brass holders and an evergreen swag welcomes visitors at the front door. I chose a simple celebration this year, but the joy lingers even after the holiday. And as I look around I realize what a fortunate person I am. Continue reading Jorie’s Dog Blog-Christmas
 Hello! One of the delights of my childhood was being snowbound. I grew up in northern Ohio in a tiny village of lake cottages that hugged the shore of Lake Erie. Winters were long and snowy and it was an unusual winter indeed that did not produce at least one snowbound episode to delight us children and frustrate the adults. What a delicious feeling it was to be cut off entirely from the world, save the old party line phone, for a few days. Silenced in a blanket of snow, life turned inward and mandated that we do other things that had been put on shelves and in the backs of closets in the rush of daily routine. Continue reading Jorie’s Dog Blog-On The Move
 Cassiopeia-15 days old  Cecily-15 days old My office has become the puppy command center these days. If I can manage to keep the clutter off my desk I can spy on the puppies in their puppy palace box through the desk’s glass top. The puppy palace is then neatly nestled, wall-to-wall between the desk and the open futon … my current “watchful mother” sleeping accommodations. In other words, style has given way to function.
For those of you who are old pros at raising puppies, the push-pull between style and function is familiar territory. Taking a puppy into your home is very much like having a new baby. Kiddy gates go into doorways, the timer warns that it is time for a puppy pit stop rain or shine and the stylish accessories are placed out of harm’s way. Thank goodness puppies grow into more “civilized” adults and the household can get back to a more normal state. But change remains. Continue reading Jorie’s Dog Blog-Change
At around 1:30 I heard the unmistakable cry of a newborn puppy and found that Bianca had quietly and secretly settled herself on the comforter in Ochie’s kennel and had given birth to her first puppy. Quickly I pulled out the birthing equipment, stationed it in the living room where there would be plenty of room and placed mama and baby in the birthing tub. With a gentle push, Bianca birthed puppy #2…another boy…and by around 4:00 she had added five more for a total of seven beautiful puppies…three boys and four girls.
I realize that the old saying about “the miracle of birth” is just that…old and trite. But if those words are stale and over-used, I am feeling compelled to find others that I can use to tell you about the emotional “high” I attained by watching this amazing process. I have watched piglets, lambs, calves, puppies, kittens and human babies being born on many occasions, but that does not blunt the sharp awe and excitement I again felt as Bianca’s puppies were born one after the other. Continue reading Jorie’s Dog Blog-Puppies Born
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The great pleasure of a dog is that you make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, he will make a fool of himself too.
– Samuel Butler
Personally, I would not give a fig for any man's religion whose horse, cat and dog do not feel its benefits. Life in any form is our perpetual responsibility.
- S. Parkes Cadman
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
- Groucho Marx
To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
- Aldous Huxley
Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring—it was peace.
- Milan Kundera
Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.
- Mark Twain
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