Bianca and Yorick became parents last evening–this is Bianca’s second litter and Yorick’s first. Bianca delivered TEN puppies!!! One was stillborn, and the two smallest are struggling to get the nutrition they need to stay alive. Jorie is keeping them under a heat lamp and feeding them every hour. The other seven, all boys, are thriving nicely.

Rosewood's D Litter has arrived!

Little Whale

My Little Whale…that’s what I have begun to call Bianca as her belly
continues to expand.   As she has grown bigger and rounder she is
moving more slowly, although slow to a Kooiker is all very relative.
First it was our evening walks that had to be cut, for now, even as
the sun drops low on the horizon the heat of afternoon lingers and
Bianca, although always excited to go, seemed not to be handling the
heat well.  The morning walks have been the latest casualty of
pregnancy as morning temperatures and humidity climb toward summer levels. Second, the rigorous daily ceremonies dedicated to keeping the yard squirrel-free have lapsed into half-hearted gestures of warning
to the little tree dwellers.  For you see, Bianca still has the heart
of one in charge, but for the time being, she chooses to listen to the
mitigating dictates of her expanding size.

The unassembled whelping box--disconcerting for the instructionally challenged!

My office has been transformed into The Puppy Command Center! Every detail, save the pesky clamp on heat lamp for which I have searched diligently and to no avail, has been taken care of. After a little confusion over the instructions that came with the new whelping box…those of you who know me, please stop laughing….they sent the wrong instruction sheet… I was able to successfully assemble its sides and puppy guard rails. As the birth day draws closer, I will place a protective plastic mat down and top it with soft blankets. This is the haven in which Bianca will give birth and then tend to her puppies for the first weeks.

Waiting for Puppies

In the home décor department, the room has little appeal. Items of furniture had to be rearranged to accommodate the largeness of the whelping box, the open futon, made up and ready for me to take up my nighttime puppy vigil in those first critical weeks after Bianca has given birth, crowds into the center of the room, a cart full of needed equipment has been wheeled into place and a basket overflowing with old blankets perches on the top of the file cabinet.

But it is ready, and now, we wait…

Sunlit Bianca

The season of summer is slowly invading the Georgia Low Country. By noon the landscape steams in the sunshine and often later in the afternoon thunderstorms, which form and grow in the sultry air, growl and rumble through with gusty winds and flickering lightening. Tonight, as I sit at my desk, a soft rain drips a rhythm outside the open windows. Bianca and Ochie are snoozing in the living room and Coriander and Saffron are, as cats prefer, out hunting the darkened yard for chameleons, voles and insects. It is hard to believe that soon, Bianca’s puppies will be welcomed into this peaceful scene. But, believe I must! Bianca’s belly is swelling with new life and is much larger now than with her first pregnancy…are we having more puppies? Or is she suffering the common mama fate of stretched-and-never-to return-to-its-original-size-and-shape belly? Whatever the case I have begun preparing for the “blessed event.” A new whelping box arrived earlier today and tomorrow I will go to the attic to retrieve the puppy gear that I stored there more than a year ago…heat lamp, the ragged but serviceable old blankets for puppies to snuggle into, puppy dishes…wow! I better get to bed so I can do all that tomorrow!