Tessie's Puppies

Have you ever seen a picture of perfectly lined up golden retriever puppies where all of them are sleeping and looking adorable? Me too. It's great. Have you ever attempted to get a perfect picture of perfectly lined up golden retriever puppies where all of them are sleeping and looking adorable? I have. I'm now convinced that this is only achieved through a heavy sedative. Since we have not sedated our dogs, we spent too long attempting to get a picture of them. This was the best we got. They simply won't stay still for even a moment.

They are in order, however, which is a miracle in and of itself. That's Leia there on the far left end, Chewbacca is climbing on top of Leia. Skywalker is next up. Then Jyn is on top of Skywalker. Sabine is number five with Obi on top of her. The last two are Finn and Rey.

They still haven't opened their eyes but should start in the next few days. They're still deaf. Their sense of smell is still remarkable. Yesterday, I was sitting in the whelping box between the puppies and their mama. They were asleep. When they wanted to eat, one by one they crawled behind me and straight to their mother.

Their faces have filled out with fur and they are growing soooo fast. Our biggest puppy, Chewbacca, is 2 lbs 5 oz. Our smallest two (today that was Obi and Rey) are 1 lb 15 oz.

This puppy fell asleep in Garrett's arms and his mouth hung open like that for quite some time. It was so adorable.

Speaking of my children, this has been such an incredible experience for them. I can't imagine the amount of tears that will be shed when they go to their new homes. I may be inconsolable. The children, forget about it. But NINE full grown golden retrievers is INSANE and so, to new homes they must go.

Both older boys were part of Tessie's birthing experience and were amazing. We could totally live on a working farm and they'd be cool with it. We won't live on a farm, mind you. But we could. Now, they're helpful with puppy snuggle time, cleaning up messes, feeding Tessie 82,000 times a day because the puppies are eating all her calories, and making sure Tessie gets attention from us--not just the sometimes obnoxious attention of eight puppies.

Matthew loves them. This morning, I yelled down to make sure everyone was ready to leave for school. "Matthew, what are you doing right now?"

"Oh, I'm just sitting in the box with the puppies."

This kid loves them too. He likes to say, "Puppies!" and "Cute!" And, really, a litter of golden retriever puppies climbing on a toddler...

What could be cuter?

The puppies are ten days old today. They'll be ready for their forever homes on Memorial Day. That gives us 46 more days with them. What memories we must make in those days.

Breeding Tessie: Part Two

Tessie's pregnancy was text book.

We noticed, around week three, that she wasn't interested in food. She'd take a bite here and there but was generally experiencing morning sickness. I read that on day 21, the dog's gums may appear white. This sounded ridiculous but I pulled Tessie's lips up and, sure enough, her gums were white. Her nipples changed color and then, eventually, grew tremendously in size. Finally, she began to swell to epic proportions and her breasts developed. About two weeks before delivery, if we put our hands on her abdomen, we could feel tiny flutters. Finally, about a week before whelping, the puppies began to flip and flop and somersault. Or, perhaps, they were just kicking their little legs. Either way, Tessie's entire body seemed to roll and quake with the movement of all her puppies.

Troy built a whelping box a couple of weeks before the puppies were due. Tessie showed absolutely no interest in it until the day before her puppies were born. 

I'd read countless resources about what to expect, when to intervene, what our role should be, etc. My boys had begged me every night to let them watch YouTube videos of puppies being born. This proved to be quite beneficial for all of us. The gestation period for a dog is 63 days which was Wednesday, April 4. We knew we were expecting the puppies between days 58 and 68 but I also knew that if puppies hadn't appeared by day 64, I should call the vet and have her seen--just to be on the safe side.

We had a Good Friday service (day 58) and, of course, an Easter service (day 60) that we were really hoping to make it through. That said, we were hoping they'd be born soon after because the boys and I were off this week for Spring Break. We began taking turns sleeping downstairs with Tessie on day 56.  She went off of food on day 58 except for the occasional bite. The night before Easter, I slept downstairs. I got roughly two hours of sleep. Tessie was restless. She began trying to nest right in front of our garage door. She paced. In the morning, however, she seemed back to normal and completely fine. 

That evening, around 7:00 pm, she entered the box and began panting fairly rapidly. Troy spent the night with her and said she was fine. She just panted a lot as she worked through the early stages of labor. On Monday morning (we couldn't have picked a better day as it is Troy's day off and we were all on Spring Break), she continued panting. Knowing that the first stage of labor can last a long time, and having watched many videos of the second stage of labor--often excessive digging at the box, whining, etc--I believed we still had a few hours before birth was imminent. 

Garrett and I went down to clean his closet. We'd been down there for about a half hour when I heard Troy's voice. It was steady and fairly quiet, so as not to cause distress to Tessie, but carried a command with it. "Lori!"

I yelled up, "What?" but even as I was saying it, I knew. I took the stairs three at a time. Tessie was standing. A puppy's head was protruding from her. The puppy was no longer in its sack and was squealing. Tessie's lady parts were stretched to insane proportions. I had never, in all my YouTube viewing experiences, seen anything like it. Tessie kept lying down and standing up and no progress was being made at all. I tried to massage her to provide some assistance, knowing that I could do nothing to really help until the shoulders of the puppy were out. Finally, Tessie pushed again and not one but two puppies were born. She'd had two puppies occupying her birth canal at once. It boggles the mind. The very thought of it makes me want to howl in pain and she never once made a single peep. Well done, her.

Once we'd bred Tessie, we tossed ideas around for names. We know these are temporary until they go to their forever homes and get their names. But we're big on adoption around here and these are kind of their birth names. We tossed around different themes. Finally, it hit me. Star Wars names. I've only seen one Star Wars film in its entirety. They're just not my jam. But my boys love the entire Star Wars franchise. I thought I'd be a super cool mom if I pitched Star Wars even if I would rather have a bunch of puppies running around with Shakespeare names. A puppy named Lady Macbeth, come on!

At 10:10 am, our first girl was born, Leia--marked orange. At 10:10 am, coming out with the back half of Leia, our first boy, Chewbacca (Chewy)--marked green, was born. We tried to tie yarn to their feet so we could distinguish between pups but they immediately slipped out of it. We quickly switched to a swipe of nail polish on the back of the miniature canine, near its tail.

At 10:38, our second boy was born. He was the second smallest pup and came out all by himself, as is usually the way. Tessie, who had been attending to Leia and Chewy, just suddenly looked behind her and there was another puppy. I think after having Leia and Chewy (who were the two biggest pups) at the same time was by far the worst for her. Subsequent puppies seemed to almost just appear without fanfare. We named this little guy Skywalker and marked him with blue.

Three puppies in under a half hour had to have been draining on our girl. She took a long break before giving birth to number four almost two hours later. Our boys had been alternating watching Will and watching puppies. After all this time, Will was losing his mind and Troy decided to take him out of the house to get some lunch. He missed this one's birth at 12:23. I noticed Tessie lift her tail slightly and then bear down a couple of times. I grabbed my phone and videotaped this pup's birth. It was a girl, marked with purple and called Jyn.

Nearly an hour later, at 1:18, Sabine, marked with pink, came out. Jyn and Sabine look identical and, if not for their color markers, we would never be able to tell the difference between them. Tessie went a little nuts chewing through Sabine's umbilical cord and she began to bleed profusely. We'd set up a whelping table just outside the box with gloves, towels, nail polish, nasal aspirator, scissors, rubbing alcohol, q-tips, dental floss, and our food scale. We were able to quickly grab dental floss and, while I held the gushing puppy, Troy tied off her cord. I have no idea what would happen in the wild because, realizing there was a large amount of blood, Tessie licked the puppy like crazy and would hold her tongue firmly on her belly. Perhaps this would have been enough to eventually stop the bleeding. However, we were right there and happy to use our opposable thumbs and finger dexterity to help out. 

Twenty minutes later, brother Obi--marked black--joined the five at 1:38. We had a repeat cord mangling as Tessie, trying to be efficient, caused a bit of trauma. This time we just quickly took the puppy, tied off his cord, and handed him back to mama.

The first six. Obi is still damp and not yet marked.

Tessie took another long break after Obi. We could still feel what we thought were puppies inside and she was still panting so we thought there would be more but we weren't sure. After an hour and a half, Troy decided to run to get his hair cut a mile away. Garrett remarked, "You know she'll have a puppy as soon as you leave." He walked out the door and Tessie began to raise her tail and bear down. Laughing, I said, "Garrett, go get dad before he leaves." Garrett ran out but somehow Troy had already left. 

I wish he hadn't. The amount of blood coming from umbilical cords had been concerning but we'd remedied those situations in a matter of a minute. Leia and Chewy being born at the same time was concerning to us but they were healthy and completely fine. Our seventh pup was born at 3:17 and he did not move. The others all began to breathe right away. Number seven just laid there. Tessie licked him and ate his placenta and he didn't do anything. She was agitated. She was trying to revive him with her tongue. I thought he was stillborn. Then he took a weird breath. It was labored and wet sounding. He didn't attempt to breathe again. I grabbed the nasal aspirator and shoved it into his mouth. Gunk and fluid came out. He gurgled but did nothing more. I had Garrett give me a towel and I wrapped him in it and frantically began to rub him. After about a minute, he took a big breath and then began breathing normally. He was the tiniest of all our puppies. He's catching up--today he weighed the exact same as brother, Obi--but I have a soft spot for this little one. We call him Finn and marked him with silver.

We had no sooner got Finn breathing and cleaned off when, twelve minutes later, his sister was born. The boys said, "I think she's having another one!" and they were right. Rey--marked red--was born at 3:29. At this point, Rey is Tessie's clone. The other three girls are blonde like their daddy. Rey definitely has Tessie's coloring.

Tessie continued to pant for quite awhile and we kept thinking there would be another pup but, after four hours passed, we were comfortable calling the litter at eight. Four boys. Four girls.

There really is nothing much cuter than a golden puppy.

Unless, of course, it's a litter of golden puppies.

Tessie did amazingly well. When Garrett was born, I told Troy that I thought I'd missed my calling as a labor and delivery nurse. I found the process of birthing that child to be incredible. Then, when Matthew was born, I got to the be there and it was amazing all over again. I sat in the box with Tessie from start to finish, climbing out only to use the restroom and wolf down some lunch. Witnessing the miracle of the birth of her puppies was fascinating and beautiful (and sometimes messy and scary) and completely worth it. Seeing instinct take hold as she just knew to chew through their cords, free them from the placenta, clean them off, and get them eating was moving. Seeing the pups instantly, without being able to see or hear, climb over to their mother using only their sense of smell and immediately begin to try to nurse just baffled our minds.

I remarked about this very thing to Troy and he sarcastically replied, "Yes. It's amazing how all of this just happens by random chance."

Just 65 days ago, we bred our dog. Now there are four day old puppies squeaking in my family room. They're proficient eaters now. They all gravitate to their poor, exhausted mama and drape themselves over every inch of her in blind trust and need. They've all gained at least 5 oz since birth. They're doing well.

And I'm pretty glad I let my boys talk me into this. I'll report in with their progress throughout the coming weeks. You can follow the puppies at tandtpuppies on instagram.

Breeding Tessie: Part One

When our boy, Beck, died suddenly in June of 2015, I wanted a new puppy much more immediately than I ever thought I would. He'd been my first baby and our loyal companion for eleven years. You can't replace that. But, we were grieving the loss of Kate and Beck's sudden death several months later was more than I could bear. So we bought our Tessie and, aside from eating walls when she was a puppy and the fact that she will still "Happy Potty" on the floor, she's been fantastic. She's needy and hairy and obnoxious like all golden retrievers but she behaves, she is much less neurotic than her predecessor, and she's a complete sweetheart.

Almost as soon as we brought home a female dog, my boys started asking me if we could breed her.

NO.

I did not want to deal with heat cycles and the breeding process and PUPPIES for eight weeks until they go to good homes. They persisted. They told me all the reasons we should do it. They dragged their dad on board until I was the only level headed human in the house. They wore me down and I decided that we wouldn't spay her before her first heat. I wasn't convinced but I wasn't unconvinced, either.

To make a long, two and a half year, story short, we did decide to breed our retriever. It wasn't a decision we came to lightly and we were very critical of Tessie's temperament and her health. We came to this decision based on many factors. Our older boys are the perfect age to get an upfront science lesson as well as take on some of the responsibility of puppy rearing. We believe so strongly in this breed of dog. We have never regretted having our golden retrievers. They have both been spectacular with our children and that is the single most important thing to us. If we can breed our dog and provide a great family pup to people, we're happy to do it. Once.

I have not talked publicly about this process because we have many friends who believe strongly in only getting a dog from a shelter. While we absolutely support people who choose shelter dogs, we truly don't believe it is the only way any more than we believe that adopting children is the only way to build a family. I've blogged about this before. Still, I didn't want to open up a giant can of worms with my friends. This is why I haven't blogged about it until now and why I haven't posted any pictures on Facebook. I finally decided that I would like to chronicle this process and my blog is the best place I know to do that. Additionally, unless I link directly to Facebook, almost no one reads my blog anymore. So, if you're here reading about our puppies, thank you for being one of the faithful.

After Tessie, who is AKC registered, turned two, we paid a hefty sum of money to have her hips and elbows OFA certified. Goldens are notorious for having joint issues and we absolutely did not want to breed her if she might pass down bad joints. It was a financial risk we were willing to take. Her hips came back as excellent and her elbows as good!Tessie typically went about eight months between heat cycles and so we anticipated breeding her in early December. We found a stud dog in our local classifieds and I contacted his owner so we'd all be ready.

And then Tessie surprised us and didn't go into heat until mid January.

At what we thought was the appropriate time, Timber's owner brought him over to play. He was a perfect gentleman and they literally only played. It was a great first date and it was clear that Tessie wasn't ready. He came again. Again, they did nothing but play. We waited a couple days. On January 31, I met Timber's owner halfway between our homes. Timber hopped into my van and we took off for our house. This time, it didn't take long for Tim and Tess to get to the business of puppy making.

Timber

He stayed and played for the entire day. Timber never really left her side. That night, we put Tessie in her kennel. Timber slept right outside her kennel and the next morning I let them out. We were all getting ready for the day. Matthew was eating breakfast. "Matt," I said, "Yell up to me if they get stuck together." We'd already explained the strange art of dog mating to our older boys. 

Not two seconds later he screamed, "They're stuck together."

Two successful ties. Now all we had to do was wait to see if puppies were on their way.