Oh the DRAMA!!

So she had her babies. She had 6, yes 6 puppies from a Chihuahua. Unheard of!! Unfortunately 6 puppies is really too much for a tiny dog and 6 was completely unexpected. She had 3 puppies around 7 pm on Sunday night. The first was stillborn. I cleaned up the other 2 and figured 2 was good enough, one for me one for the owner of the stud. I stayed up keeping an eye on her until about 8 am. All seemed well and I was totally delirously tired so I passed out. Around 11 am she came and jumped on me in a panic. I woke up and was terrified, why was she jumping all over me? Why was she in a panic? Did my other dog eat the puppies? Did the cat? She was SO frantic! As soon as I was up she ran in circles and had me come back to my bedroom (I was on the couch because puppies are noisy). She hopped into her whelping box and rolled over. I saw the problem, there was ANOTHER puppy and it was stuck. I touched it's head and could tell it was dead. I got my syringe and injected some olive oil around the puppied head and with her contractions worked to get it out. I was so scared and so was she. After I made the decision that it was for sure dead as dead could be, I pushed it in and turned it and got it out. I then called the vet right away. My regular vet is very anti breeding for any reason and gave me the too bad you get what you deserve answer. So I called a new vet and got right in. Once I got off the phone I went back to check on my bitch. She had ANOTHER puppy half birthed! I could tell this one was not dead but it was very stressed. It was breech so I cut the cord (she was a bit aggressive with the cord chewing) and let her deal with the membrane and I grabbed the puppy who I knew now had NO oxygen and I could tell was about to die. I grabbed him and pulled him out and started resuscitation and stimulation and sucked out his nose and airways. Thankfully there was a load of laundry drying so I ran with a still not breathing puppy to the laundry room and got him wrapped in a warm shirt and kept up. After what seemed like forever, finally a deep breath followed by more. He turned pink and I got him dry and on his moms teet. I took the little family to the vet and had mom X-rayed and blood tested. She had another in her, but apparently she had it and ate it because the follow up x ray showed it to be in her stomach, not her uterus. She also had a high white blood cell count.

She had been teetering on the verge of low calcium shock for a few days but I think I have that under control. The vet said to give her Tums so I did and it didn't seem to help. I did more research on my own about this low calcium shock and it was talking about it being caused by an electrolyte and calcium imbalance. I decided Tums was the wrong thing. I ran to the store this evening and got her Pedialyte and Calcium with vitamin D and have been giving her 2 ounces every hour plus the "rapidly absorbed" calcium supplement I found and she has stabilized. I will find out tomorrow if I need to have them do and emergency spay on her because of the possible infection. I really don't want to because that will mean she can no longer nurse the puppies and I want her to be able to nurse and I want them weaned before I spay her.

So I have my fingers crossed that she is ok and the blood cell count has normalized. She seems to be doing better and she is on antibiotics. I am a total wreck.

I will post photos when I get them off of the camera. She is such a good little mom. Really amazing. I have 3 white little boys. We have Steve, Jeff and BillyBob as their "for now" names.

Also,

I made some quilts which I'm auctioning off on ebay. Auction Link It is a givingworks auction so part of the proceeds benefit a Wolfdog rescue.


It is a shoulder quilt made to wrap around your shoulders on a cold night while you read or sit looking at SG.

I made a bowl to donate to a mail art show. The idea of the mail art movement is using the US Postal Service as part of your artistic medium, either by coloring your envelope (remember those letters to grandma?) or using the stamp to finish the piece or otherwise some part of the art has to have to do with the postal service. Anyway, I made one in the style of the Gees Bend quilts which they made commemorative stamps of last year. Here it is. It is for sale at "The Trunk Space Gallery" in Phoenix AZ. Sales proceeds benefit local art grants.




My dog is STILL pregnant. I'm getting so anxious for these little puppies to arrive. For as much excitement as this is creating you'd think I was having a baby. I really think she looks like a big tick at this point, tiny head and this giant bulbous body. Poor thing. The puppies are really moving around in there too. I hope she has a black female one. I really want a little black one. Depending on how many she has, I may have pure-bread ACA registered puppies to sell. I may have them all spoken for already, but in case someone wants one. The father looks exactly like the mother except he is about half the size. He is about 2.5 lbs. She is about 4 lbs. They are not free or cheap, so don't come looking for a bargain basement dog, they will be priced appropriately for the breed and sex. But if you are in the market for a really nice chihuahua and you would like one, let me know. Pricing will be in the $500 to $900 range, depending on what vet care they receive prior to sale and they will be available the beginning of October. Both mom and dad are really outgoing, friendly dogs with very stable temperaments and loving cuddly dispositions.

Look at that roundness!!





And some from earlier


The bulge is starting


In her little bowl.

Still no puppies, but my dog looks like a giant tick!!

Well, we are at the due date and still no puppies I hope she has them soon, I am anxious to see them.

Look at that round little belly! She is so cute! This photo is from July 10th



Things are getting exciting around here. My dog is going to have her puppies in just a few days. She is getting so round!!!

In other news I have been keeping busy with sewing and I'm presently building a breakfast bar table and bar stools. They don't make one in the size I want, so I bought some wood and have been industriously putting it together. I finished the table and it is good. It looks good and feels nice and sturdy. I have one stool almost assembled but not yet stained and polyed and waxed. The table is just waiting another 24 hours until I can wax it. I would work a lot faster if it wasn't 119 out. It get so miserable out in the garage, even with the portable swamp cooler, it is still really miserable.

Well, I feel kind of good about this one. I made some art for someone a few months ago. Nothing too exciting they just asked if I would do something to dress up their cubicle at work.
I made a couple pieces, a cloth bowl and a painting. This cube sits by the elevators and can be seen into by passers by. Apparently an art dealer and gallery owner were there to have lunch with a friend who works on that same floor and saw my work. The guy who I did the work for was at lunch so they started asking the guy across the cube who the artist was and what they knew about the work. The guy said to come back when the person I made the work for came back. They came back the next day to inquire about it and wanted to know who I was and where I sell and show my work. I'm not expecting anything out of it, but it made me feel good to hear my work had that much impression on people.

Ok and now I'm going to get political. I know it is really nothing new for me, but I'm warning you so if you are not in the US or not interested I'll save you some reading.

I'm a long time Libertarian so I'm sure anyone tuned in must assume I would be behind Ron Paul as a presidential candidate. I feel his constitutional stance on a lot of issues is very respectable and I appreciate a lot of what he has to say. I must admit I am fairly moderate and tend to not vote down party lines. I vote for people I see as the best candidate for the job regardless of their party for the most part. I was moved enough by Ron Paul to change my vote registration to Republican just so I can throw a vote his way when the primaries happen.

I had to opportunity to meet Ron Paul over the weekend and to see him speak at an Arizona Republican convention. He spoke for about 40 minutes. It was nice to see him have a long time to speak because that is when he can give a full statement as opposed to the quick answers he had to give at the debates. Many of his in depth answers were very eye opening and made a lot of sense. I can't express enough how much I hope he gets elected. No one person can change the country overnight, but I think I would really like to see him point it in the direction of more freedom and more personal liberties. I would like to see the public mindset be steered away from big government overseeing everything and have people begin to feel and be personally empowered.



http://www.ronpaul2008.com

My birthday was depressing to say the very least. Dismal. It was the beginning of the end a year ago so now it only serves as a mile post of sadness. Like living in your house after it has been bombed out. The shell is still there, and you remember where your stuff was, but now there are just shreds of it left strewn around. Last year I had the best birthday ever.
It's all down hill after 30. I guess they weren't lying.

Well, the whole dog breeding thing is interesting to say the least. I read about the whole breeding thing, I know how to map genetics from my rabbit and horse breeding days etc, but as with so many things, books tell you the mechanics but leave out the psychology of it all, which has been the funniest part. After many days of playing and romping together my bitch finally decided she wanted to get some from the stud. She became rather desperate actually, tail off to the side, walking backwards up to him and sticking her coochie in his face, and the like. All of a sudden he got performance anxiety and couldn't do it. Here he had been trying and getting turned down for days and then when she finally decided she wanted it he couldn't figure out what to do. She even went so far as to get up on him and try mounting him to demonstrate what it was exactly she wanted, and he still didn't get it. As a matter of fact, it took her 24 hours of pestering him and trying all kinds of ploys before he tried and failed and ran off to hide for a while. Eventually though he got the guts up to try again, and the second time was a charm. They got the deed going and then spent a gross half hour stuck together as dogs get when they hump. That part is so yuck to me, but i and the studs owner were happy it finally happened. We really worried that these two virgins were just too inexperienced to get it right.

So 9 weeks from now I should have gorgeous chihuahua puppies! Yay. I'm all excited. I've never had a dog have puppies before. I have had a lot of requests to reserve a puppy already. Everyone who knows my little bitch and who knows the little stud wants one of their babies because both are such well mannered and beautiful dogs. I'm afraid she will not have enough pups to go around. I guess we'll see when it comes time to actually wean them how many still want one. And when we see how much I'm going to charge for them. That will kind of depend if I need a vet to help with the delivery or not. I know these tiny dogs need assistance fairly often. Ohhh I'm excited though. Baby chihuahuas! They are barely even a viable zygote right now and I'm already having a cuteness overload just thinking about them.

I made the decision to breed my dog. She went into heat so I took her over to the studs house and have left her there until she decides she will accept his mount. I have bred champion rabbits and horses and birds and reptiles but I have never bread a dog before. It is kind of funny how they are about it. They are not as horny as videos like this


would lead you to believe. Well, I take that back, the stud keeps trying, but my bitch is there like No WAY, why can't we just cuddle and make out a little. It is kind of funny. She is staying with him until the deed is done. He is identical to her, they are SOOoooo cute together you can hardly tell them apart except he is a little smaller. I miss her though. I hope they get on with it in the next day or two so I can have my little couch cuddler back. I know my other little dog misses her too. He has been sulking in his dog house since she left.

In other news I have been busy but feel like I haven't accomplished anything. I hate that feeling. This time of year is always bad and depressing for me. I wish I could just hide until the end of July.

I have been up to some painting as of late, as well as my usual other array of things I do to pass my time. Here are a couple of the paintings I did with a poppy theme.



The photos don't really show off the scale, these are actually 6 feet wide.

Also, if you haven't checked out the set I posted in my last journal and would like to it is in my pics folder. It is not part of the voting, as it was an accepted set which cannot be used because of SG contract vs photographer issues. But if you want to see it just for old times sake, it is there.