Farmington Valley Golden Retrievers

The last few days have been frenetic with visitors, website upgrades, more visitors, and puppy travels. I will try to give everyone a synopsis of what we have all been up to in this past week…

First the big news! Emma got to reunite with her family today. Off antibiotics for 24 hours now, her milk supply has dried up with medication, and it is safe for her to be with her pups again. A very long two+ weeks of recovery, she wasted no time getting reacquainted.

The change in her demeanor is so heartwarming. She is content again. That last photo says it all!

We’ve had lots of visitors to the whelping box in the last two weeks, but with the upgrade changes to the website, I had to learn some new steps to doing this blog. I finally have the know how thanks to Dana Rockel of our website team.

So here are many of our initial visitors, family, clients, friends.. If you don’t see your photo here, it is only because the shot did not do you justice for the world to see.

Friday was a special treat for me. After I got home from call, I picked up Mr Red and Miss Silver and we visited my offices and the hospital. The nurses on the various floors where I work knew I was coming all week, and the excitement was palpable. The puppies were just their simple selves, but just look closely at some of these photos to see how much happiness people inhaled from their hugs and kisses. Amazing! And that is what keeps Barb and I doing this work… So much goodness for such a small price of time and work.

All my medical friends in the above photos have seen life in its full spectrum of colors. From the darkest blacks to the brightest blues. They know how hard the daily struggle of this life is, and how short a time we are given to make a difference. Many of these folks are golden owners themselves, and have experienced the extreme sadness of a beloved companion passing. That is why I felt this visit to the hospital was so important. To bring healing to the healers. It became almost a mystical experience..

Now on to today.. We started the day like any other day we expect visitors: up by 5:30 AM, breakfast for all, and then baths.

Then it was outside for the first time for this litter. The back patio made a nice enclosure for the pups and all the visitors today.

And the day still wasn’t over. My cousin Ron and his wife Barb always come over to see our litters. They are special to us for more than our bloodlines. They have had faith in our breeding efforts from the start. Their first golden, Emma,  from our very first litter, has passed away.  Sandy and Maggie though, were in fine form for their visit today.

Our big girls are very territorial so we left them in the house. They managed though to crowd around the window watching…

We let Lucy out to see if she remembered her litter mate, Maggie.

Sadly enough, dogs do not have long memories for that sort of thing. They may know their masters forever, but not their kin.

Now it is evening and the pups are back in their whelping box resting. This has been an extra long bit of story telling. I have now caught up with the goings on here. Tomorrow brings another day full of different families coming to visit. You can see how this breeding business takes over your whole life for the span of eight weeks. Still, if I count the number of smiles that we brought to young and not so young this week, it would far exceed the number of minutes that it took me to put this together tonight.

I will leave everyone with the picture that Claudia brought for Barbara today. She is five years young and wanted to give Mrs. Bourque her rendition of the whelping box and our puppies after her visit the other day..

Priceless..         Thank you, Claudia, for your gift to us.

Goodnight and puppy hugs to all.

Despite the threat of drenching downpours this weekend, we have had a nice flow of clients, neighbors, family, and friends to the whelping box. The socialization skills of our pups are developing nicely, and true to their golden heritage, they exude major cuteness and cuddliness. Emma is still forbidden from seeing her pups. She is almost well and we hope by next weekend she can return to them. Her milk is drying up nicely and her antibiotic course is almost done. She still looks longingly at the cellar stairs, but she is not crying as much now thankfully.

Barb has to work extra hard to keep the box and puppies clean for company. Usually a visitor day starts with baths for all and then a manicure. Trimming 200 little nails turns out to be quite a chore as well. We want to be sure that none of the pups scratches anyone.

We just had an upgrade to our website and email system at the end of last week. I haven’t learned the new system so I can’t upload all the photos of everyone I was expecting to show off. The email system is new to me also, so be patient if you don’t hear back from us as quickly as usual.

We expect another full day of golden lovers today. I expect everyone will leave a little happier in spirit and with a smile in their hearts from the good vibes these little creatures give off. I will leave you with one photo of a very clean and fluffy puppy, waiting to be held and loved.

It has been an interesting week. With Emma involuntarily sidelined from the care of her pups with her breast abscess, Barb and I have had to put most of the week’s plans on hold and just do puppy care. Due to the excellent veterinary care of Dr. Steve Feldman and his associate Dr. Dolan, Emma is thankfully on the mend. Her abscess is resolving and her energy and spirit have returned. She still doesn’t understand why we won’t let her go down to her pups. She mournfully cries every so often and listens for sounds of her puppies at the basement landing. We thought hard how to help her. My idea of bringing up a pup for her to smell and lick didn’t work. So I gave her a towel that we used to wipe off the pups after their milk bath ( see later in blog). She walks around the house with this, and sleeps with it on the bed or in a crate. She still cries but this makes me at least feel a little better.

It’s hard to know if the pups miss her constant attention of licks and nudges. With their needs satisfied by Barb and myself, they are growing nicely and taking more of an interest in the outside world. Their howls continue at night, but don’t worry to our waiting family clients, this is just pack behavior.

The need of a golden to bond and share your personal space is apparent the way the litter behaves. When they are not eating or drinking, they group together whether in the whelping box or the smaller white transfer box.

It is very amusing to see them crowd together for a nap. One by one they group together until there are 4 or 5 bodies on the ground floor. Then the rest climb aboard with the last few trying to get to the very top of the pile before they run out of energy and just settle where they are.

Barb is an avid Red Sox fan and the pups were introduced to a little commercial brainwashing today. They were let out of the box to romp around the little attached porch area. While I favor NY pinstripes myself, they made themselves right at home on the blue and red blanket.

Of course the puppies are not the only dogs needing their daily dose of attention. The bigger girls know something is different in our household because we are spending an extraordinary amount of time in the basement. They still demand their daily run, and fun activities. The recent sunny weather made for a nice afternoon watching them frolick in the backyard pool.

Recently Berna sent us some photos of Mulder having some water fun with his golden family. Last year he couldn’t swim because of the preparations for the National Show competition. Now that he is the ultimate champion and is retired from the show ring, he can have fun like his siblings. He is the one swimming with the white bumper. Not a bad life he has earned, studding and playing.

It certainly is a “Dog’s Life” for these lucky goldens.

As far as the pups go, with the early cool weather upon us, I doubt they will be able to enjoy the kiddie pool before they leave us at 8 weeks. That doesn’t stop them though from enjoying a little frolick in their milk dishes.

Thank god the pups have the same drip and dry coat their older brethren are blessed with. With a little toweling and a little grooming with a puppy brush, they have that so cute look again..

We are open for visitors again. Please call and schedule with Barbara.

Our lives suddenly got more complicated here this week. Emma came down with a bacterial infection in one of her breasts (mastitis). One minute she was fine, then another minute she refused her lunch and developed a temp to 106 degrees (normal for dogs around 102). A quick trip to the vet resulted in an antibiotic and extra nursing on that breast.

The pups had just started on puppy food in mush form.

Initially all went well. We brought her home and attempted to get the pups to keep her breast empty. I sat with her and now know a new meaning to the word “box lunch”!

Her temp came down and she started to act like herself. Unfortunately the breast wouldn’t empty properly and a large hard lump the size of a lemon formed. Another trip back to the vet today revealed the development of an abscess. This was drained, and a second antibiotic added. To add to Emma’s misery this meant she had to give up nursing as this added antibiotic can affect puppy’s cartilage development. So now poor Emma has to wear a hood to keep her from licking the abscess, has to stop nursing all at once, and can’t be in the box with the puppies. This means a very unhappy golden mother who has no idea why all this just went down today.

She is still an amazing sport as she manages to smile despite the hood..

Our youngest Lucy came over to me for some reassurance as Emma banged her way around the kitchen knocking her siblings and the furniture around with the hood.

We were lucky the pups were old enough to start puppy food this week.  So we just have added an expensive  milk supplement to the gruel. And then Barb decided after trying unsuccessfully to bottle feed a pup, that it would be simpler to just add this special milk to the bowls. They took to this very well as you can see.

Almost like a bunch of kittens around the milk dish. The daily weight becomes much more important now to be sure each one gets their share and continues to grow.

Obviously the amount of work just increased dramatically for us. I have to keep Emma away from her pups and occupied, while Barb becomes the new mother to the pups. Fortunately I am home this week to share the load with Barb.

The puppies though are doing great. All are growing and they just love to pile together in a snuggly group after eating.

We are sorry to announce that all puppy visits are canceled until Emma returns to good health. Her illness has no bearing on any of her pups’ health. She may have actually gotten her infection from some bacteria lurking in one of the nursing pups mouths.

Thank you for your understanding.

As August draws to a close, the pace of life here has not slowed any. Our litter has been with us three weeks already but it seems like only yesterday that Emma gave birth. All the pups are thriving.

Visitors are starting to be scheduled and come over. Other life events are unfolding…

Barb and I have had a little disagreement over the use of the backyard pool and the dogs. They love to swim, but they have no regard for how dirty they are before they enter the water. Barb works hard to keep the pool crystal clear. And I can see her frustration when one jumps in and leaves a brown dirt cloud behind in the water. So we thought of a nice compromise. We purchased a small plastic pool/tub for the puppies to use when they got bigger. After our daily runs, the dogs come home filthy from rolling in the mud and whatever smells bad on the fields. So now before we go in the house, I just fill the smaller pool and the dogs get clean as well as cooled off. And everyone is content after being toweled off; Barb, the girls, and myself.

Notice how progressively dirtier the water becomes.

Two days ago our humble backyard was the scene of an advertising shoot. Our neighbor, Theresa, and her captain of Operations (our son, Brian) have a fine jewelry business. Their company is called “One Pearl” after the philosophy of transforming a life as a result of their charity donations. Go to their website for a more complete view of their mission and products. In fact, they donate a good portion of their profits to charity causes that Theresa finds dear to her heart. The advertising company decided to to use our backyard setting, our daughter Kristen and her friend Emma, and a puppy. The weather that day was magnificent, and as you can see from the photos, the supporting cast and background was excellent. We wish their campaign much success. Thank you Graham for these excellent photographs of the shoot!

The pups are doing very well. I can’t believe I have been sleeping on the basement cot for already three weeks. Theresa is also our stand in midwife to help Barb when I am not around.

She was kind enough to babysit while we went to Boston yesterday to visit 3 of our four children who happened to be in the same place for the day. Kristen had plenty of puppy hugs before she went back to Boston.

We are down to one unassigned puppy. We hope to finalize that new home soon. One new behavior that I haven’t seen much before has been the pups howling at night before they settle down to sleep.

Emma and Mulder have been bred together before, but this seems a somewhat new activity. When one starts, several of the others follow suit. Although their volume is not loud, this vocal behavior must hearken back to some deep seated ancestry from their wolf origins. After a minute or two, it is over, and everyone lays down and drifts off to a peaceful sleep.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that today is our wedding anniversary . 35 years seems to be an awfully big number to get my thoughts around. As far as how we will spend it, well let me say that 35 years ago on this day, if I was asked what we would be doing 35 years from now, I would never have imagined to be spending my day doing.. a colonoscopy prep. Yuck.

Still..

Happy Anniversary Barb! I am very glad you said yes so many years ago.