I am super excited to announce Sullivan's first litter of puppies have arrived! Pinkerton is a glowing, loving mama and we are all adoring the new additions. 3 male puppies we call the 3 Amigos; Ned Nederlander, Lucky Day, and Rusty Bottoms!

Things have been busy here at Taylormade with the remodel of our new home we purchased in August, Piper's puppies also went to their new homes in July and August. School started and our new Human baby was born in September. We did a huge project in our backyard and put in our new kennels and Bred Pinkerton to Sullivan in October. Our baby was blessed, our daughter turned 10 and our son turned 18 in November. Then Pinkerton had her puppies on December 10th right in the middle of all our Christmas Celebrations. It's been a busy few months for us! So here it is 2:30 am and I have a free moment to blog about this blessed event!

Birth Story:

Pinkerton ("Pinkie" for short) was definitely ready to have her puppies, here she is just before her due date on December 13th.

Pinkie in all her pregnant glory:

I started taking her temperature a week before her due date so I could be prepared for the arrival of our new little ones. It's important for a breeder be ready for puppies, because it is not unusual for a dog to lose 1/3 of her litter without help with getting puppies warmed and breathing right away. Her temperature was a steady 100.5 F throughout the week so I could relax a bit. On Friday night after we got home from a Christmas dinner party at our new friends/neighbors house Pinkerton's temperature had dropped to 99.7 F. I was on alert now and watching her carefully. I woke up every hour to check on her and by morning her temp had dropped to 98.5 which means puppies in the next 12 hours!

We had a crazy busy day on that Saturday, so I kept the webcam watching Pinkie all day. She was able to have lots of quiet privacy in her whelping box as she prepared for her precious family to arrive.

We had a Christmas party at our church to attend and while we were eating a delicious Christmas dinner my husband and I kept our eyes on the webcam. Pinkie was getting extremely restless and my husband decided to go home and check on her. When he got home he called right away and let me know I need to come help Pinkie. Fortunately, my parents and my sister were with us and able to stay with our children to enjoy the rest of the party.

Here are their party pics. I love this group:

Meanwhile, at home I was rushing around changing Pinkie's bedding, and disinfecting the delivery area. Pinkie started pushing around 7:15 and her first puppy "Ned" was born at 8:08 pm. He was cream colored with a large blaze on his forehead like his daddy!

Then the next puppy "Lucky Day" came at 8:17 pm and he was cream colored with a small white blaze on his forehead. He was gurgling on fluids upon delivery and I worked quickly to clear his airway, while Pinkie licked him vigorously to stimulate and warm him (she is AWESOME!). He recovered nicely from that and was nursing in no time flat.

The last puppy "Rusty" was born at 9:00 pm. He was solid cream colored but slightly more golden than the others. He was not breathing when he was born, so again I worked quickly to open his mouth and nose airways and thank HEAVEN he was breathing nicely in a matter of seconds, whew! Again, this is why I always do my best to attend the delivery or our dogs.

After about an hour of waiting to see if any other puppies were going to arrive, I realized she was done have puppies and we would have a nice small litter of our 3 amigos. Unfortunately, many people on our waiting list were hoping for females, so I was pretty disappointed not to have any lady ups this time. I am very happy and relieved she had a nice healthy litter though.

Here she is just after delivery:

Now they are one week old and they are growing so fast! They are already plump little pups! We started the Early Neurological Stimulation and we are loving and cuddling these sweet babies.