The First Sorting of Available Puppies

So this process may very well be the death of me. I can honestly tell everyone why every single one of my puppies is the very best, most special puppy in the litter. Now that I've finally tried to think with my head instead of my heart, I was able to do the first sorting of the puppies, and post the three puppies who are available. I see loads of potential in all three of these babies, they are fearless, attentive, light on their feet, and have great curiosity. I envision each of them running through tunnels, racing toward their owner for a drop on recall, or maybe even telling sheep where to go and how to get there! Then they'll collapse and sleep velcroed to their people, big corgi smiles on their faces. :-)

And now I'll tell why each of them is the very best, most special puppy of them all. And I'll probably change my mind and say, "NO, you can't have him, you can't have her, I have to keep them all." Then the people in white coats will show up at my door and take me away to a padded room...


I guess I can't stall any longer, so without further adieu, and with lots of sniffling...


Mr. Brindle

I'm sure nobody who has ever read this blog needs an explanation about why THIS is the very best, most special puppy in the house. Born at just 6 oz., 5 days prematurely, and overcoming an almost certain death sentence at 2 weeks old, this little man is the happiest, sweetest boy I've ever known. His "fairy kiss" marking on his head has lingered on, even when I thought it would surely blend into his blaze. Nobody would ever know this puppy spent so much time being zipped into a blue cooler bag, riding back and forth to the vet, enduring needles, needles, and more needles to help him get better. He's a true champion, my little comeback kid!

Brindle Girl 1 aka The Screamer

This is my "sleeper" puppy that seems to fly under the radar most of the time. When the pups were "born" via c-section, this little girl came out screaming. I didn't even have to ask, I think I told Michelle and Laura that the screamer was surely a bitch! While the other puppies were behaving, laying in their warming box like good little newborns, concentrating on breathing in and out and getting warm, THIS little girl was crawling over the other puppies, diving down further into the warming box, and generally creating mayhem! For the first couple of days, her mouth was always the loudest, and she protested anything that disturbed her sleep or nursing schedule. :-) But then, she abruptly stopped with the screaming, and she became a mush-puppy. Sweet, snuggly, hardly making a peep. This was the little teddy bear, the puppy you could cuddle up with for hours.

These days, this little girl is so funny. She has such a gusto for everything she does, and it makes me laugh because her face and sweet expression mask her curious nature. This is the puppy who says, "Who me? I couldn't have possibly done anything wrong." And you'll believe her! Her favorite game is hiding under furniture and leaping out as anyone walks by. She's quick and agile, and she responds to people so well. This girl's quick start, and joie de vivre from the moment she came into the world is what makes HER the very best, most special puppy of them all!


Annie, Sweet Annie

Oh Annie, you stole my heart from the beginning! I've known for almost 7 weeks that Annie would not be staying here permanently. And it's because of her relationship with her mother. This is the first I've posted about this, because I already had so much drama with the litters, and by the time this adventure rolled around, I was still dealing with Mr. Brindle's illness, and I literally started laughing uncontrollably at the vet office when I thought about this last bit of "icing on the cake" for my first litters!

The day I showed up at the vet clinic with TWO coolers, the staff knew it wasn't a good sign! But Annie was checked over thoroughly since I was sure that Breezy knew something I didn't, and that Annie would get sick. She was healthy, and possibly a small white deposit on her iris when her eyes opened alerted Breezy that something smelled different about Annie and pushed her away. Her eyes cleared, she CERFd clear, and the opthamologist told me that was perfectly normal for newborn puppy eyes.

So, when Breezy's girls were 10 days old, and Breezy was an exemplary mother, I heard a low growl from her room. I thought one of the other dogs had slipped into the room, so I went to investigate. Bree was growling at little Annie. She had a terribly confused look on her face, and she would clean Annie, then sniff her over, and when she got to Annie's head, she poked the puppy with her nose, then growled briefly, and then pushed her away. Long story a bit less long, I tried everything I could think of, and several things Norma suggested, but Breezy would not take Annie back. She was almost afraid of her. So, Annie was my very own from 10 days on, so she's the most social puppy of the group, and has been playing with Darby from the time her eyes opened. Annie was an equal opportunity nurser, and both of the momma dogs were very good about letting me use them for their milk, so Annie was able to nurse several times a day. I'd put one of the moms on the bed, flip her over and hold her head until Annie was nursing. Then I only had to rub Syd or Bree's ears, and they relaxed and accommodated baby Annie. When I couldn't be around to have the moms nurse Annie, I toted her around town with me in her little plastic file box. She came to the office with me over Christmas week, and I had on-the-go formula mixing down to a science.

Breezy is just now getting more comfortable being around Annie again. Bree has been such a good and devoted mother to her girls, and she still wants to spend lots of time with her puppies, so I do believe that she felt something was really wrong to push Annie away.

Because Annie was my very own baby before her eyes even opened, and she was the only puppy who was out of the box and investigating the world at a week old, SHE is surely the very best, most special puppy of them all.

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These are the three puppies currently available. Stay tuned for further sorting of available puppies, and soon you'll probably hear word that I'm hiding in the attic with all the puppies.