We have puppies

Spazy Taz girl (the black dog that showed up on our property a few months ago) had puppies yesterday - The best count I can get is seven or eight. Daughter and I went to do a little Christmas shopping yesterday and upon our return, there were three or four already born. We checked her several times in the hour or so after returning and found that one of the puppies was dead - so don't know if it was born dead or died after birth.

Now here is the funny thing - she is black with some brown in her but she looks black from a distance - can't see the brown unless you are right next to her - with one white spot on her chest. Scoobee Doo was totally brown. We have had stray dogs on our property on and off but for the most part Scoobee and she have been the only two dogs around. There look to be two black dogs, two or three brown - can't tell when they are all trying to feed and some are hidden, one grayish looking (blackish with brown throughout it's fur) and one white pup with black spots. Weird. I think the pup that died was black -

Large litter for a first one

Last night I went to bed worried about the pups and Spazy Taz because she was kind of laying on the pups or who knows - the line from Gone with the Wind comes to mind - no Ms. Scarlet, I don't know nothing about birthing no (babies) puppies. I've not had a dog who gave birth to pups since I was 15 but at the time, the dog stayed in the basement and so I wasn't around when the pups were born since they were born during the night and before the first week was over, four of the five had died (three had died during the day while I was at school) and the other one wouldn't feed - we ended up taking the two remaining pups to the vets to help them feed but the little female wouldn't eat. So my puppy birthing experience is really not great.

So I got up this morning to make sure everything was good and had to call the vet for advice - Did you know it was recommended to feed the mama dog puppy chow while she's producing milk? I didn't and this is a good thing - the puppy chow has more nutrients in it and is better for the nursing pups and the mama too - so now I have to figure out how to get some puppy chow - because I just bought some Alpo gravy food and I'm strapped for cash until payday - guess I'll have to get some money from the bear and get her some puppy chow for now - oh well, so goes life.

Anyway - I'll be giving puppies away looks like around the end of January. So if you are in the area and would like a puppy, come on and get them - except one of the ones that looks like Scoobee (since he is no longer around and the kids want to keep one of them). Need to go check on the pups - they are pretty loud and whiny right now - more later (and hopefully I can get some pics of the pups put on here)