Welcoming Pricilla Pixesticks (Pixie Stix)

 Thinking long term in the breeding business is difficult. There must be a number of females to give us puppies, while at the same time there is an upper limit to how many dogs we have here. Our girls are limited, though not strictly, to three litters spaced two years apart and starting at two years old. So if things go as planned (and they rarely do)  our last litter is at eight years old and then the girl retires. We once thought it a good idea to rehome our girls when they retire, but this only worked once out of the two attempts so we gave up on the idea. We have her spayed and she will stay with us as an aunt to the other girls. Right now we have Laffee Taffee and Bit o'Honey retired with Abba Zabba with her third litter today. But this proposes a scheduling problem if we are to be both a good home for our dogs and a thriving business as well. As of yesterday morning our upcoming litters would be  from Dulce DeLeche (Lilly, who had her first this year) and Lemonhead Lucy (who is one and a half years old). 

But we found a third girl to bring to the Farm and she arrived yesterday. Welcome Pricilla Pixisticks (Pixie Stix) to our Rocketdog Kennel. She comes from a breeder in Port Angeles, Washington who took her back from a family which, for whatever reason, did not wish to deal with a minor health issue. The Brothers gave her to us and requested only a transfer fee and transportation in return. This was both a good business move and also a good humanitarian act, worthy of praise. They found a good home for her. we found a good girl to bring into our tangle of hounds. 

The health issue spoken of earlier is something called "Cherry Eye", which is a problem with the interior eyelid. It becomes swollen and protrudes from under the outer eyelid and becomes red in color. It looks much worse than it is, and is a problem of structural significance with health outcomes, but mostly is cosmetic if left uncorrected. We took her with the agreement that we would have it taken care of and she will see the vet this week. But this post is about showing her off.

I deliberately took her profile so as not to show the Cherry Eye.

This is the problem side, but it doesn't get in the way.

She took only a short while to raise her tail and wag it a bit.
But this morning she was running with the dogs.
She was also wondering how it is that they sing together.

Issues

 We are in the middle of what we call a "bad" litter. Not that the puppies are "bad", but usually they are a whole bunch easier. And as easy and wonderful our last litter was, eight wonderfully healthy and bouncy Basset babies who received full marks on their evaluations, it is entirely possible that none of this litter will do so well. But this doesn't mane these are "bad" puppies, or that they will not make "good" pets for families. We have a responsibility to keep our puppy parents, and potential puppy parents informed honestly.  So here I am saying the same thing I tell all of our potential new puppy parents the same thing, but with proof that they ought to listen to our advice. Wait to choose your new baby if you can. Here's an analogy . . .  

Few people having children would rush out to have them if they knew the baby would become colicky. A word to the wise. None of the parents of a colicky baby loved the experience, except after the baby returned to health and the family to a better life. A colicky baby is nothing but work and nothing about the work is pleasant. By contrast, a normal healthy happy fat little baby is nothing but nice smelling in our memories.  So before choosing a puppy from this litter, know what is happening, believe us when we say if a puppy is perfect, and read when I say the puppy needs something to stay perfect.

In this litter, Abba Zabba's last, we have two with serious troubles. Ho Ho was failing to thrive and Ding Dong has developed something that may become more serious. 

Ho Ho began wasting a few days after birth. Failure to Thrive is when a puppy fails to become a successful eater. We always weigh the babies at birth and then again a few days later. We weigh them every few weeks to make sure they are growing properly, until we can see the progress and the puppies feeding themselves. Ho Ho never got the hang of eating. He would mess around and not find a nipple. Then, if one of the bigger pups wanted that nipple, Ho Ho would easily get pushed off. Some might call him the "Runt", a term more suited to pigs which usually come out one or two more than there are nipples on the mother. In dogs and Basset Hounds, this is a rare condition and we expect all will have a place at the breakfast table. Ho Ho simply couldn't get the food he needed and so in Failure to Thrive fashion had begun to give up trying. We have seen this before and it usually leads into a sad puppy situation. But weighing and watching in those first few critical weeks give us the opportunity to help out. We arrange feedings, train the puppy to find the food and vigilantly check to make sure things are moving forward as they should. We caught this problem and did some work, the puppy began feeding and things were looking good. But the bottom fell out of the endeavor once more and we had to move the puppy onto the bottle and feed him ourselves. Today he is gaining about a half an ounce a day and is overly energetic when it comes to eating. Only time will tell if he makes it, and how he develops having lost a few critical weeks of progress, but he is easily a third the size of the bulk of the litter (and I mean bulk) . For now he is doing well, but a bit behind the curve.

Ding Dong developed a problem with eating and sleeping a few days ago. It is possible that she was stepped on, or that something natural occurred in the development of her throat. We thought it might be an allergy to mother's milk so we began moving her onto the bottle with her smaller brother. But she cannot swallow well, has no suction, and the process causes her great discomfort. Feeding is a problem, but she is still healthy in other ways with a good body weight to carry her through some short termed troubles. She will go to the Vet today and be checked out. We are staying up with her twenty-four hours a day, working in shifts, to try to get food into her and to keep her comfortable.  This morning is an improvement on last night, that's all we can say with certainty. 

The balance of the litter is having another issue, but one which is much more manageable and even normal in its own way.  They are all quite large. They are being overfed and under worked. We see this every once in a while and have begun training them to walk and to stand properly. In every litter we tell people about "stance". The way a dog stands has quite a bit of meaning in how the puppy will grow and perform through life. Hip and back structures can degrade or fail to develop, so we often say that a dog will need a lot of exercise throughout life to stay healthy in their bones if they have a sub-optimal natural "stance". So, with every litter, at about two weeks, we really become active in checking to see how they are learning to walk and stand. This litter is lazy and so we are beginning to work with each puppy a few times a day to make sure their posture is correct as this is the critical point at which hips and legs are developing.  We are not worried about these five large babies, they will be fine, but the time it takes to do the work is being spent on our two troubled babies, so it is lucky for us there is no sleep in our lives these days. 

We have been extraordinarily lucky to have had one full marks litter recently, but they are usually a bit rare and this litter is why we do the evaluations every time. And, if it were not always true that we breed a female three times and then retire her, Abba Zabba would never be bred again for the problems of this litter even though her other two litters were easy. We are responsible breeders and care about the breed, the health of the puppy, and the life of every dog we bring into the world. 

This litter will likely develop into fine pets and require no special care, but there have been better experiences with the early stages of litters at Creekside Farm.  When our puppies feel pain, we feel it too. When we sell a puppy we make sure it is healthy and as happy as we can make it. We don't mean to tell people there are real problems and they ought not look longingly at this litter at all. We only wish to keep everyone informed as to what is really happening as honestly as we can so that they can make an informed decision.   

Two Little Indians Remain

 We have had three families making their important decision this past few days. One of the lucky decided on two boys, HoHo and Zinger. One family decided Cupcake was the winner. The third found Little Debbie irresistible.  This means there are only three little beauties remaining. 

She is progressing nicely and looking very good.
Pretty happy around people, she figured it out.

She is so darkly colored she can get lost in the pile in low light conditions.

This one loves her food. She is quite a bit larger than most.

This one does not like being taken away from her siblings.
She is quite infatic about being put back in the pile.

The Snack Cakes Litter has Arrived!

 Friday Night was a long one, but Abba Zabba (Abagail Zabba AKC) made a quick and easy job of birthing seven wonderful Baby Bassets. There's a story that comes with this and I'll get it out of the way first.

We just had a litter a few months back with Lilly (Dulce DeLeche AKC) and the last of the pups left for her new home just a few weeks ago. Believe it or not, we really talk things over with our dogs. They are often like four year old children in the way they approach life's challenges and achievements so patience and persistence is what passes for training in a breed that refuses to comply with training. One thing we have learned is that Basset girls become much more clever when pregnant and it really shows once the time for whelping comes closer. In this case the lack of an available whelping space, had Abby worried. She expressed this every time she was in the house and looked at the place where we host our puppy's arrival. She was concerned that there were puppies in there for a time. Then she worried that the space hadn't been properly cleaned up as we dragged our feet for a while getting it ready. And then things really got concerning for her when we tore the old pen down entirely last Friday to prepare for the possibility of an accidental second litter from Lucy (who had begun expressing milk mysteriously on Wednesday last). Abby was talking all the time and getting louder every day. But we figured there was still time as we redesigned the whelping bed and got it built last Friday. At about six on Friday evening we brought everyone in for supper and showed Abby around the new whelping beds. She decided they were pretty good and walked into her choice of the two open spaces and birthed a puppy named HoHo right then and there.  (We were expecting the litter on the eighth so this was quite a surprize.) Six hours later we had seven pups sharing their first breakfast together.  For Abby this was all quite easy; no signs of labor, other than the usual extra demands for cuddle time, and the incessant worry that we would not have our act together before the babies came. She came into the whelping bed and went to work. Not a peep out of her.  She is a professional, after all is said and done. She had a job to do and she did it. So endeth the story. So back to business.

We always pick a theme for each litter. Something which helps people, especially us, keep track of each puppy as they grow and give them all a little help in developing their personalities. Each litter is named for some sweet treat, this is the central theming device for all of our pups. For this litter we decided to re-use a theme and named each puppy for a snack cake. The sort of treat that comes individually wrapped for lunch boxes and keeps you from wanting to eat the whole box in one sitting. 

Click on any picture for a larger view. Please click here for information about take one of these puppies into your family. Click here to see the Contract that will be signed when you pick your puppy up.

HoHo has been chosen.	HoHo will live with his brother Zinger.
HoHo came into the world as something of a surprize at exactly 6:00 P.M.and was quite small, weighing 9.5 ounces. He has since had a bit of trouble competing for food with his bigger siblings and we worried about his failure to thrive. So we have begun helping him get the food he needs to bulk up. HoHo is not afraid to tell us when he wants something and is the principle noise maker in the group. Certainly a tri-colored Basset, like his Sire, even if much of his fur is black and white.
Zinger will go to Canby	Zinger and HoHo will stay brothers for life.
Zinger arrived soon after his brother at 6:10 as we were trying to get the necessary stuff together to both assist Abby in birth and do the pictures, weights, and documentation we find useful in keeping everything straightened out and easy later on. He weighed in at a healthy 14.1 ounces.His black coloring already shows a bit of red throughout and so he is likely to be a black and red tri-color.
CupCake has been Chosen.	Cupcake is not available.
Cupcake is an inky black little girl who arrives at 8:40 P.M. She was very wriggly and awfully strong, at 11.4 ounces, when she came into the world. She was also quite hungry and ready to get going on the food. Cupcake seems destined to become a black and tan tri-color Basset, having a stripe of white between right down the center of her belly. The break between the second and third Snack Cake gave us time to get everything set up and working.
At exactly 9:00 P.M. a wonderfully pretty, 10.6 ounce female, named Ding Dong arrived and headed straight for the cafeteria. It became apparent that this was going to be a highly mobile litter of pups, since they all seems to have good noses and a strong desire to get moving right away.
Little Debbie will live in LaPine.	Little Debbie has a furever family.
Little Debbie arrived at 9:25 P.M.. hot on the heels of her prettier sister. Not to be outdone, Little Debbie came prepared in her very fashionable black coat, white elbow length gloves, white Beatle boots, and matching color and tail tip. Debbie is a fashion queen and will eventually be a true tri-colored Basset. As of this writing she is almost completely symmetrical in color. She is BEAUTIFUL!
Moon Pie is a chunk. She came at 10.50 and at a hearty 14.3 ounces of fast moving Basset Hound and was robustly pushing everyone out of the way on her way to breakfast. She is wonderfully colored and reminds us of so many of Rocky's offspring. Healthy, happy, and strong.
There is always one puppy in each litter who simply cannot wait to get going. Chocodile literally walked out at birth, ears all akimbo, and ran in for breakfast in her robe and slippers weighing a stout 14.6 ounces. She has little time for staying still or getting her pictures taken. Not a fashion Hound at all. She has very little white fur, but will definetly be one among seve tri-colored pups.  We're guessing there is the possibility of a good Field Hound in here, but time will tell.

AbbaZabba's babies arriving today.

 I haven't much time to put up a good post. Abby is whelping her litter today, which is just a few days earlier than we expected. So far five beautiful tri colored babies. Some much darker in color than others. We think maybe there will be eight this time, but one cannot count until they stop appearing.  Abby is doing very well. It is us that will be tired out for the next few weeks as we stand vigil over them until their eyes open. 

If you want to see pictures, go to our Facebook Group. If you want to know more about having one of these beautiful baby Bassets then click here.  We begin taking reservations once the last puppy has paws on the ground. But there really is no need to hurry. You might want to come visit and see our hounds for yourself, though we don't allow handling of puppies until four week vaccines are in.

Be careful of scammers. They seem to be everywhere.

More to come.