The Arrival of Bit' O'Honey's Snack Cakes Litter

 

For those who have been waiting for word of this litter's arrival, I have to apologize for the delay. 

The litter came on a Saturday night and finished on Sunday Morning. The area of the Farm has been without electricity for a few days at this point so we had been working without power and I had been working to make do with this by stretching our generator to its limits since early on Saturday. By nine in the evening, bed time for us, when the puppies began arriving, we had already been through a long hot day. The puppies coming was exciting, but by three in the morning Sunday we were pretty well spent. It is my habit to do as little work as I can on Sundays. Say what you will about Sabbath days . . . past sixty years along life's paths you need a day off which is meaningful. So we do nothing on Sunday which might have a work output so I didn't write this page until Monday morning.

 Beatrix (Bit) O'Honey AKC and Rocketdog Rockford (Rocky) Rhoades AKC have given us eight beautiful tri-colored Basset babies. They began to arrive last night at about nine p.m. and the last arrived around three in the morning. We use puppy names on the Farm, something to keep them identified until they go to forever homes. Always these names are on a theme, always something sweet. We decided on the theme for this litter just last evening and decided on snack cakes. 

The Sire, Rocky, was the smallest of his litter and so far he's become a full sized Basset with very good qualities. Rocky carries the combined genetics of our ClarkeBar Griswold AKC and Grizelda Laffee Taffee AKC, both are fine examples of the breed and throw exceptional pups, so their offspring is at least a very good example of the American styled Basset Hound. Bit O'Honey is a good "pet quality" dame. Her ears are sub-optimal, but her offspring (from ClarkeBar) are very good. Of the eight already produced by Bit O'Honey, two have had juvenile jaw set issues, both self corrected upon emergence of adult teeth and have not been a serious issue.

	At seven p.m. Bit' O'Honey suddenly began showing signs of hard labor and we moved her into the whelping bed set up in our Pantry. At nine fifteen she began showing signs of whelping and quickly gave birth to an eight ounce baby Basset which we called Moon Pie,because he was so yummy and we wanted to eat him up. Moon Pie was tiny, but very active.
	Things happened pretty quickly and at nine thirty-five another little boy popped out and we named him HoHo, a little roll of yumminess. He was a healthy eleven ounces, a much better weight, and he came out running for breakfast. He has since shown sings of failing to thrive and we have begun hand feeding him. So far this morning he is doing quite well and we are trying to put him back on his mother.
	At nine forty-five another boy came out quietly and we named him DingDong. He immediately went to wrok finding him Mom and is a bit quieter than the others.
	At ten o'clock another little boy Basset showed up. Though he was no bigger than the others, he made him mother chirp. We named him Twinkie and he weighed 10.1 ounces.
	There was a pause between the first four and the next bunch. It always makes us nervous when things are not regular, but natural birth is how we do things. At twelve twenty our first baby girl Bassset made her move into the world. She was smaller, 9.1 ounces, but seemed a fast learner as she found her mother right away.
	At twenlve fo rty another little girl showed up, this time Honey had to complain at first because Little Debbie wasn't all that little. She weighed 10.7 ounces soaking wet.
	Cupcake took her sweet time coming out. She lingered for quite a while before showing up at two twenty in the morning. She weighed in a healthy 10.2 ounces.
	Again, there was a pause. We checked Bit O'Honey carefully before deciding that she had done all she could. I went out and shut down the generator, putting out the lights. We didn't weigh him right away, but on Sunday morning he weighed 10.5 ounces. We always keep a careful eye on newborn pups. The thread of life is so thin at the beginning, even for a robust breed like Basset Hounds, so we keep a vigil over them for until the eyes are open and they are moving around on their own. I sat on the couch nearby and listened for sounds of distress. At about three o'clock I hear a puppy complaining, so I went to look using the flashlight on my phone and found Chochodile, a male and the last of this litter, sitting near his Mom. So we cleaned him up and went back to giving everyong some rest

We napped in shifts following this; one hour on, one off, until the lights came back on the next morning and we could get things started. Mom and her pups were doing well and, on the whole, this was a litter without a lot of drama' though it is always emotionall taxing to bring puppies into the world.

For those interested in adopting one of our babies; there is some guidance about joining our Wait List  by clicking here. And there is a Wait List email thing to the left of this so that you can get in touch, ask questions, or join the Wait List. We are opening Reservations today so it is a good idea to get on the Wait List even if there is no longer any waiting to do. I will send you all the information once I have an email address to send it to.