HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY

The I litter turned two on Sunday so I wanted to wish them a happy belated birthday. All are doing great from what Mama Halor tells us.I was able to go out a few weeks ago to visit with Irish and he is doing great. According to his handler, Irish celebrated his birthday by a morning run followed by a mid day swim and topped off the day with gifts and cake (doggie cake).

Irish reported that the weather in the desert has finally cooled down a bit so he is able to get outdoors more often and he is extremely happy with his new working life.

Izzy applies for a new job

We have had a fabulous summer with four and a half dogs at our house. Izzy came home from advanced training the same day Laurie joined the family as our newest (8th) puppy in training. I say 4 1/2 because we are co-raising Laurie with Kerry and Paul who live about 90 miles away in Chico, CA.

But, as summer is coming to an end and we look forward to one more litter with Halor, we have come to the conclusion that as much as we love Izzy, we raised her to have a job and if she can get one (in this tough economy), she needs to become a productive member of society - not just a fun and entertaining free-loader.

Through some very complex connections, I was put in touch with a woman in Carlsbad who is very active in the Delta Society, Paws4Healing and HOPE AACR. Susan had two Goldens she used for these activities and unfortunately, lost one about a year ago. Susan has been on the lookout for a female Golden to do this work with her and her male Golden.

So, keep your fingers and paws crossed that Izzy's paws are big enough to be able to fill the huge void left by Jasmine and this new career works out for her.




Friday night we had a mini-going away party for Izzy. Laurie's sister Lovey was in town with her puppy raisers, Janice and Dan - who graciously agreed to allow hitchhiker Izzy to tag along with them in their 5th wheel to Southern California. Jeff and Kathy joined us in the festivities with their pups-in-training Monroe and new baby Tessa.

In this photo: Piniella and some members of her family (left to right) - Piniella, great grandson Monroe (x Randy), granddaughter Halor (Kittredge x Martine), great grandaughters Laurie and Lovey (x OMSI), and great granddaughter Izzy (x Sequoia).

Here's Dan with Izzy and Lovey as they get ready to leave. Good luck, Izzy!

fyi:

http://www.deltasociety.org/

http://www.paws4healing.org/

http://www.hopeaacr.org/

I just can't explain it!

I forgot about the blog, or... I haven't made time to blog, or... I have too many dogs to blog, or... I really have no good excuse for not blogging. For any of you that have been checking this blog for something new, I totally apologize for ignoring the blog.

So, some news ~ CCI seems to have released every single "I" puppy. Halor and Sequoia's gorgeous and entertaining I-pups just didn't cut it, I guess, and have gone on to way better things, having much more fun.

Two of the "I" pups have actually found meaningful employment outside of CCI. Congratulations to their puppy raisers and to them for continuing to strive to provide service to their communities. Irish, as you know, is working at the Betty Ford Center in Palm Desert. Ingrid, has become a hearing dog through training outside of CCI and with their blessing. I received the following note from Frederick and Adrienne, Ingrid's puppy raisers:

Finally, some photos of Ingrid in her new cape in her new role as Frederick's personal Hearing Alert Service Dog.

At 9:00 AM on June 30 -the toast was burning; Adrienne ran into the kitchen; Fred ran after her asking "what's wrong?"; She said, with her hands over her ears, "THE SMOKE ALARM IS SOUNDING!" Fred said, "I don't hear a thing; I think it is time for me to get a hearing dog".

Fast Forward to 2:00 PM on June 30 -The phone rings; (Fred didn't hear that either)

The CCI Puppy Program Manager called;"I'm sorry, we are RELEASING Ingrid";

Why? "FEAR ISSUES" We both replied, "she is welcome to come back home!" Sooo, with CCI's permission and the assistance of a professional trainer from Best Paw Forward, we are clicker training Ingrid to become Fred's personal Hearing Alert Service Dog.

Wag, Shake, Woof, Lick, Sluuurp!

Fred, Adrienne and the happy, healthy Ingrid III

some say it's done with museum wax...

And, I could show you the other 80 or so photos, but this is about as good as it gets on an eight puppy-butt bench with nine puppy-butts. We got by with a little (lots, really) help from our friends: Cindy came over and was the official photographer while Thann and Bruce helped Dennis and me wrangle puppies. We all had a great time and the puppies were totally worn out after their "puppytography" session. I think Bruce actually mastered the "pot-banger" job. Many thanks to all, it does take a village.

From left to right: Lillith, Locke, Laurie, Louie, Lupe, Linus, Leah, Lovey, and Loralee (who only fell off the end about five times!)

Oh my gosh - they are so fun!

What a bunch of chow hounds!

In order, left to right ~ Laurie, Lovey, Lillith, Locke, Loralee, Louie, Lupe, Leah, and Linus

6 weeks old and too cute!

Gotta love 'em at this age!!

"L" pups are almost 6 weeks old!

"L" Puppy Line-up

I put the visiting college students/grad to work last night and lined up the pups...

In birth order, from left to right: Laurie, Lovey, Lillith, Locke, Loralee, Louie, Lupe, Leah, and Linus.

Holding them are Anthony, Chris, Jon, Jack, and Kendra!

Finally ~ some new photos

I apologize right up front for not updating this blog a little more often. I'm taking photos on a regular basis, but they just don't seem to get out of the camera, through the editing process and up on the blog. By the time I have some photos, the pups have changed so much, the photos aren't very good representations - cute puppy photos, though! I'm going to throw a few random photos up now and hopefully, I'll have some photos from this weekend and a video up by Sunday night. They will be 5 weeks old on Monday and everyone is weighing in between 3.5 and 4 lbs.

pups in a bin

Lillith


pups playing

pup on a frozen water bottle

puppy pile

pups eating first meal

pup in a dish

aerial view of first meal

Hal's kids are getting busy!

Turf Wars

Halor's large "L" pups will be 3 weeks old tomorrow - what an amazing group! As you can see, they are beginning to outgrow the feeding trough. Seems like there is always one looking to steal another's spot.

Loveable "L" Pupdate with NAMES!!

Our dogwood is in bloom, so what better backdrop?

Miss Red

aka "Laurie"

Miss Blue

aka "Lovey"

Miss Purple
aka "Lillith"

Mr. Neon Green

aka "Locke'

Miss Neon Pink

aka "Loralee"

Mr. Brown

aka "Louie"

Miss Light Pink
aka "Lupe"

Miss Turquoise
aka "Leah"

Mr. Orange

aka "Linus"

Some Random L shots

Seven Mr. Magoos...

Mr. Brown

Mother/daughter shot


Puppy toes


Miss Purple and Miss Neon Pink -
they're all at 2 lbs and wearing kitty collars now!

Lively "L" pups are one week old

These kids are thriving!

I just couldn't resist the big blue surrogate mother!


Litter photos are such fun and so elusive! The "L" pups had their first real photo shoot last night - they are in birth order from left to right (supposedly matching their associated pastel toys)

Counting Halor's babies before birthing

I finally got around to downloading my flip videos and this turned out better than expected. This is an x-ray of Halor's mid-section about a week before her puppies arrived. If you look closely, you can see the spines and skulls of the puppies. During the first count, you can see that my friend Mo puts a dot on eight skulls. She went back to double check and found one that she missed, so we had a good idea to expect nine puppies. We do these x-rays just to get an estimate as to how many puppies to expect at whelping time - sometimes the count is one over or one under, but it's a good idea to be prepared.

Halor delivers... on March 30 - three days late

Mom Halor

Dad OMSI III

Resting between labor sessions...

First six puppies - that big blue girl was 20+ ounces


making progress!



and the beautiful 9th baby, a boy...

Announcing, Halor and OMSI's new litter ~ 9 lovable "L" babies

Nine golden retrievers - in CCI colored yarn collar birth order:

red - girl

blue - girl

purple - girl

neon green - boy

neon pink - girl

brown - boy

light pink - girl

turquoise - girl

orange - boy