2 weeks old – where has the time flown?

Well, the last 2 weeks have FLOWN!

Pepsi gave birth to 7 beautiful puppies on Sun 6th Feb 2011.

She had 2 yellow girls and 5 boys (2 black, 3 yellow).

Their names are:

Amy – named after my god-daughter

Ashleigh – named by Pepsi’s puppywalker

Arthur – named after my grandfather

Angus – named after Pepsi’s dad

and 3 sponsored pups called Blade, Beacon and Marden. Not so sure about those names but as they are sponsored, we didn’t get to have a say in them!

the whelping went really well. Pepsi spent weeks before the birth wrapping herself in the lounge curtains so I was concerned she would try and have the pups in them. I was determined she would have them in the whelping box in the kitchen. On the night she had the pups, Pepsi wrapped herself in the curtains again so I took her out and made her go into the kitchen. 5 minutes later her waters broke and 2 hours later she had contractions. The first pup was a bit of a challenge. Pepsi is strong-willed and didn’t want to have the pups in the box so she wandered round the kitchen squatting, whilst I followed her with a towel in case a pup shot out!

Eventually, she saw sense and moved into the box where she had all 7 pups. The first pup, Amy, was born at 1am, 2 hours after Pepsi’s waters broke.

She then continued to deliver them until 4:30am when the last pup was born. This one was Beacon and he came out with a blue face and completely lifeless.

I’ve had one like this before so I knew what to do. I held him firmly and shook him between my knees until the fluid came out of his lungs and then rubbed him vigorously for 10 mins until he eventually came round. It was weird because when I rubbed him, his face turned pink and as soon as I stopped, it went blue again!

At this point I dragged Paul out of bed to help because it gets exhausting rubbing them so hard!

Pepsi is a natural mum. when the first pup was born, she wrapped herself round it and wouldn’t let me check it over. She just knew instantly what to do.

She has been going crazy trying to build a nest in the whelping box which has involved her digging the newspapers up and once caused a pup to go flying across the room with the vet bed! Thankfully after 2 weeks, she is doing that less and less. She is pretty chilled out with the pups and although she’s a good mum and keeps them clean and fed, she doesn’t stress about them like Gracie used to.

Last week was an interesting week as Pepsi got an upset stomach and eventually ended up on antibiotics.

She even refused food for 2 days and when Pepsi refuses food, we know something is seriously wrong!!!

We don’t have many visitors in the first 2 weeks to keep the risk of infection down so we banned everyone from going into the kitchen, I turned into a woman with OCD as I scrubbed the kitchen floor every 5 minutes. Thankfully, 5 days on, Pepsi and pups are all fine so it looks as though we caught it early before it took a hold. And the mop is now getting a rest and only being used twice a day.

I am surprised to say that Pepsi pups are really chilled and laid back! This really surprises me because Pepsi is a livewire and apparently her dad is a fun-loving golden retriever called Jamie so I did think their pups would be crazy. I’ve not met Jamie but I know his gorgeous brother Jim who is a dark toffee colour.

So watch this space. At the moment, life is pretty calm and quiet but we start the pups on solid food tomorrow so that’s when the fun starts.

The pups weighed 450 – 500g each when they were born which is a really good size. In the first week, they doubled in size to 1kg each. They will be weighed again this afternoon when the Guide Dog supervisor comes to visit. Let’s just say they are pretty big!

More photos to come soon.

A big hello to Yvonne who is Amy’s  puppywalker  and who made contact with me via facebook! It’s great to be in touch and I hope she’ll keep me posted when Amy leaves us. I get far too attached in the 6 weeks we have them!

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