The Log

You have to understand our house is a tad unusual. We live in a huge, almost two hundred year old house. Our eight dogs have full run of the house. This leads to some interesting experiences. We’ll be chronicling some of our stories here on the log.
There is always something going on.

May 12, 2008

We’ve given Rose a job!



Yes, that’s our wonderful Rose walking with a backpack on.
She’s carrying her own treats.

Why does Rose need a job?

We’ll tell you after pictures of the pups.

Here they are just before almost all of them left.



They found out that the tarp makes great sounds when you pull it around the room.



They helped Zoë groom Bess.
In fact, the pups walked around all day with bits of dog hair coming out of their mouths.



Then they found a broom that used to be a Christmas decoration.
Stress the “used to be”.

They came running in from the shed, with one in the lead carrying the broom, and the others hot on her tail!
By the time Melanie got the camera, the broom was no more.

Then they were gone.
Patsy knew what was going on, still does. She keeps a very watchful eye on Gracie and Mr. Blue. We haven’t told her that Mr. Blue is leaving on Wednesday.

Since we only have two pups left, we have let them use the entire house.



Hmmm. Maybe we shouldn’t put that picture in until Mr. Blue’s owners have picked him up.

He’s actually very well behaved.



It was warm enough (not today) to fill the puppy pool up and let them in it. Mr. Blue thought it was interesting, but let Gracie get wet.





Notice how NOT wet Mr. Blue is.

So why does Rosie have a job?

WELL, Ros and Mattie have decided to come into heat. Yup, it’s the season to be in season once again. Luckily, they waited until most of the pups left, because we’ve had to open the No-Tell Hotel once again.

This means Rose has to not only take care of the remaining two pups, she figures she has to help explain things to the ladies and males, who don’t really appreciate any help whatsoever.

She is also helping clean the toilets (you don’t want to know) and when out for the walk/run in the woods has to keep track of everyone. So she now walks with a backpack. It helps calm her down and focused.

Here’s a Patsy story: Melanie finished her lunch and let Patsy lick the plate. She then put the plate back on the table and started cleaning the kitchen. She went to look for the plate. It was not to be found. Now, unfortunately, that is not too unusual for this household. Ellie, Patsy’s mom, likes to pick up pans and takes them in the corner, away from the other dogs, to lick. Melanie started looking in corners. No plate. She said, “If anyone sees a plate, I’m missing a dirty one.” Zoë mentioned she was using it for her lunch. Melanie said, “Well, good thing you’re used to Patsy’s drool, because she cleaned it.” Zoë said that she really didn’t need to know that. Too late.

The boys are so in love. One evening Mattie had been in the dog room sitting on the grooming table until Melanie moved her into the family room, so she could get the boys out of their kennels before they went to bed. She got Franklin first, and he found the table. WELL. That table has never been so smelled before. Then he got on the table and wouldn’t get off. Melanie figured he was waiting for her to come back.

Because there are only two pups now, we got them down to the play yard. It’s difficult to pick up and carry seven pups that weight 20 lbs each up and down the steps.

THE BIG YARD



Gracie thinking about the steps.
That’s all they did, think about the steps.
We had to carry them.



Adorable.



Melanie watched them play soccer and then tested the electric fence by accident. She says it’s working.



Puppy Tails.



Just before Gracie attacked Mr. Blue.



Rose is still a puppy.
But she is taking her older sibling responsibilities seriously. Here she is teaching.



Gracie and Rose have a special relationship.
When Rose gets too much for Mr. Blue, he leaves.
Gracie doesn’t.

Melanie heard Rose playing a bit too rough with Grace and went out to explain to Rose enough was enough.

It was not necessary.

Grace had picked her ground.
The step to the kitchen door.

As Melanie came up, Rosie was darting towards Gracie, who hauled off and hit her right on her nose.
The look on Rosie’s face was priceless.

Grace then turned and went between Melanie’s feet and sat and looked at Rose.

Yup, that one is really going to puppy kindergarten.
Grace is loving to all the other dogs.
She just isn’t going to take any nonsense.



Rose teaching landscaping.
That’s part of the Christmas tree that just got uncovered.



Hope the bushes, that are alive, last the summer.



Melanie promises the log will be back weekly starting now, she just needed a rest.

We do have some news from the litters and will put them up next week.

That’s all for now,
Take care.

April 27, 2008

(Not sure what happened. This was put up two days ago and then just disappeared. So here we go again!)

HERO
DOGS!
At least they think they are and we are very proud of them.

River Bear Newfoundlands’ Dog Pack saved the neighborhood. The pups were asleep, the adult dogs were watching Melanie eating lunch. Very serious. All of a sudden, the radio had a burst of static, then it was fine. The dogs looked at the radio, looked at Melanie’s soup and then kept watching Melanie’s soup. About two minutes later, they all start rushing outside and barking, and coming in and barking, and going outside and barking and coming in and barking. Melanie looked out the windows. Nothing. Thinking that this might a ruse to finish her soup she went back to the table. But the dogs were not interested. Mattie had sent out a call and they were answering. So Melanie went outside.
Mattie and the other dogs were barking from our fence looking down the street where there was a column of smoke coming up right next to an electrical pole. Her neighbor across the street came out of her house saying she had called the electric company. Melanie asked if she had called 911. Well, she hadn’t because she saw the surge hit the pole, but had gone in to call and didn’t realize the sparks had lit the brush on fire. Our neighbor called 911.
It’s very dry right now. There had been a 200 acre fire two towns over a few days earlier. The fire department arrived in goodly time and put out the fire. The dogs got to bark at the fire trucks, the electrical trucks and the next day the phone trucks. They had a good time. We, of course, lost our phone! It’s now back.

We had to take our decorative fence in front down. The snow killed it. It was some kind of really good wood, but we don’t think all of it was. The dogs got to bark at the front end loader that was pulling up the posts. Then yesterday they got to bark at our neighbor (with the runaway horses) as he moved more pea stones into our stockade. Melanie thinks that we should just face facts, they are pee stones.

Dan and Zoë’s son and grandson, Daniel and Brendan were down from Maine for part of the week. Hope they send us some pictures of Brendan and the pups. Hint. They raked and fixed our mailbox. The mailbox had gotten plowed. Thanks!

So let’s get to pictures. First is a picture of Ros’s rear end.




Umm. Morning walk/runs have started again.
They sure love the woods.
The woods love to get attached to them.



Rose turns out to be a delight with the puppies.
She loves them and they just follow her everywhere.
In fact, Franklin will now play with the pups, they have now stopped trying to nurse.
Patsy’s enjoying play time too.
This morning Melanie was working at the computer when a pup hightailed it into the living room and hid under the sofa. Patsy came running in, stuck her nose under the sofa and barked.
The pup started telling her off!



If you get on the floor you are fair game.



This is actually from a week ago. It was on a different camera so didn’t get in the log. Two things here.
Notice the bungee cord holding down the handle for the pellet stove. Yes, it’s needed.
Also, from this picture to this week’s, you will notice the pups have grown legs!



Here’s Miss Purple with a stick.



Pups in motion.
They’ve gotten much better at running.



And fighting.



They are very brave now.
They will go exploring.
The left over pea stone pile is fascinating.





They like to travel in a pack.



But a tail can be just too tempting to bite.



Which can start a five pup wresting match.



Fierce Creatures!



Who Us?

This next part if hilarious. In fact, you won’t see the best part because Melanie was laughing so hard she couldn’t use the camera.

It’s like those commercials:

Ball: $2.99
Give a ball to puppies: Priceless



Mr. Blue starts.



Miss Purple thinks that’s pretty cool.



Whoops, not as easy as it looks.



They start over.



The chase is on!



What you didn’t see, because Melanie lost it, laughing, was the pups chased the ball right to the fence, where they bounced off the ball, getting thrown back. Here they are trying to figure out what happened.



And being Newfoundlands,



they decide to eat the grass on the other side of the fence!

We gave a ball to Mattie. She loves balls. She tamed it and rode on it and was teaching Rose to love it. Rose loved it too much and popped it. Rose then carried the limp plastic ball around in the house for some time.

Remember when we put up Andrea’s (Rob’s Significant Other) picture of Patsy and Rose? Well, the painting won the Community Favorite Award!



We didn’t know the painting was that big!

Congratulations!

Here’s a link to her site:

Andrea

News From the Litters:

River Bear Carl (Franklin and Ros pup, ME) is now helping with the Spring Cleaning.

Have you ever tried to rake with any of your dogs around? I swear, Carl thinks he's a cat- every pile i create, he has to lie in. (not unlike when one spreads out the newspaper to read, only to have the cat come and curl up right smack in the center of it.) The big black child is doing great, and we love him to death.

River Bear Snuffleupagus (Mac and Mattie pup, NH) is learning to pose for the camera.

I have just figured out taking pictures outside works much better than inside for this dog.  Anyway you can see we spare no expense to buy our dog only the best dog toys available.



Last of all, but not least, we have a Therapy Dog in the litters!!!

Congratulations River Bear Sullivan!
(Mac and Patsy pup, MA)
This is not an easy thing for an adult dog, much less a Newfoundland puppy.


I just wanted to let you know of Sullivan’s first accomplishment.  At 1 year old he passed the Pet Therapy Evaluation.  I am so very proud of him.  And he had more obstacles than usual.  We were at the hospital all day in 80 degree temperatures in the classroom.  He was tested at the end of the day and he was so tired and he was without his pack (that’s a big thing for Sullivan).    But he did a great job.

That’s all this week.
Take care.

April 17, 2008

Decide that we weren’t ever going to write again?? Well, here we are with lots and lots of pictures.

First, the washing machine has broken again. We are getting a new one.

Then we had a time with Dan. He went in for a routine “procedure,” had trouble with his heart again. It went a-flutter and back in the hospital he went. Zap! And he’s doing fine.

Zoë and Melanie are exhausted from driving from thirty miles from nowhere (that part we like) down both sides of the mountain to get things done and dogs were they should be. Instantaneous travel would be good and save a bunch of gas. Should get those scientists working on that. It’s been in fiction for years.

So that aside, the pups are wonderful. They went in for their well pup checks and everyone was fine. Of course, Melanie took pics of their first exam.



Waiting for the vet.



It’s scary on your own, better to huddle in a pack.



Dr. Constant
Best vet ever!
He did the C-section and delivered these pups.



Cute?




Everything gets checked.
From tip . . .



to stern.



All of them were very patient and easy going.



But they did get bored waiting and the plastic on the trash can was fun.



We think this one is Miss White.
Dr. Constant says she was submissive like Mattie is.
Hmm, first she’s not related to Mattie.
Second, Mattie is really sweet, but submissive isn’t what comes to our minds.

Actually what Mattie would really like is a Widow’s Walk on the house.
She could then keep an easier eye on the neighborhood and relate all happenings to the dogs sleeping in the house.



Dr. Constant has very good techs.
They are great with the pups and though you only see one here . . .
Everyone in the office wants to volunteer to bring pups to and from the van.

Patsy brought her pups a peanut butter jar.
Their heads don’t get stuck in them anymore.
They’re too big.



The last pictures are of the pups first field trip to the Puppy Yard.
Yes, we have grass!

But first a story,

Rose is trying to be good. It’s hard. The other day Melanie noticed she had an interesting hairdo. Spikes.

Turns out she discovered the shampoo.
She didn’t eat it, but we now need more.



Miss Orange considering her options.

Oh, yeah, Melanie thought she’d remember which pups were which while she took their pictures.

But being tired,
her short term memory is not in existence.



We have to pick them up to get them out.



Dead grass is cool.



Sticks are better.



Mr. Multi (or Miss White)



They have the whole puppy yard to play, so what do they like to do?



Play under the stair.



Starting to pile in.



There are seven pups in this picture!



It’s hot work being a puppy!

That’s all this week.
Take care.

April 7, 2008

What a week! Sorry the log is late, we’ve had trips to vets, trips to town and Melanie found a treadmill on Freecycle that took awhile to set up to get.

The treadmill is for the dogs. . . Literally! But we’re not putting anyone on it until we talk to Rob (artist grandson) who trained his dog to the treadmill. There are days of weather and bad health when we can’t get the dogs out and they need exercise!

We have to wait to talk to Rob, because Saturday a large logging truck took out our phone line. Just ours. Dan spent a great deal of time over at the neighbors trying to find someone to come fix it. The machine at the phone department finally told him “Yes, this is not your fault. We will fix it on Tuesday.” Now the reason the machine told him that is that no one comes in at the phone company on the weekends because everyone in the world has a cell phone.

It’s true we have a cell phone. To use it we have to drive 10 to 15 miles in either direction.

Life in the country.

Speaking of life in the Western Hills of Massachusetts, Friday we had snow again. Melanie got a kick of the view from the second story of the history of eight dogs in the snow.



The backyard gets busy!

The puppies are 6 weeks today!
Think they are bigger?



Melanie thinks that Patsy looks like she has a very full skirt.

For you Star Wars fans . .

The pups have passed into their
Ewok stage!



Adorable.

Lots of things to chew and explore.



Patsy left them part of a bone.

The next three pictures remind of us of the story about the blind men discovering an elephant.



Dan had the vacuum out to clean the pellet stove.





They have made contact with Ros!



Ros would love to come in and play. So would Rose.
Rose is actually much nicer to puppies.
Ros considers the other ladies’ pups to be soccer balls.
She’s very good and gentle with her own.

It’s time to play with toys.





The best toy is the newspaper that is put down for OTHER purposes.
Zoë hears it rip in the middle of the night.
Also they wake up around 1 am and entertain her to no end.
Mr. Multi likes to get up in the bed and sleep with her.
(But don’t tell any of the new owners.)

We always get complements on our photos so Melanie thought she’d share one of her secrets again.

Take lots and lots of photos and then never show the ones that are like the next two.



Not even sure what this is besides the puppy rug and Mr. Blue’s collar.



This is a great picture of the inside of someone’s ear.

Okay, Melanie is keeping a Patsy pup!
She has chosen Miss Red.



Meet River Bear Amazing Grace
Gracie for short!

Zoë was cursing Melanie as she was trying to pass through the living room and the only puppy misbehaving by holding onto the hem of her robe and being dragged was . .

You guessed it!

Gracie!

Don’t know what it is about Miss Red, but almost every female we’ve kept has been Miss Red in the litter.

There is news from the litters but we’ll get to it next week.

Time for a nap!



We now come into the living room and not a pup to be seen.
They are all behind the sofa.

That’s all this week.
Take care.

March 29, 2008

We promise we won’t talk about the five inches of new snow that fell, instead we have a
plethora of puppy pics!
Yes, the pups are now 4 1/2 weeks old and they are just so wonderful. We are spending a great deal of time “socializing” the pups. It’s so nice to have an excuse to play with them for hours.

They love to get under things.
Here’s Miss Orange asleep under a stool.





The whelping box is getting smaller and smaller.
They aren’t in their whelping box unless we are trying to clean and don’t want help, or at night.



They can squirm over this door now, so the two level door has been put in.



Look at that Patsy grinning.
She loves feeding them in the middle of the living room.
There’s now room to spread out. She needs it when all seven are nursing.



Could only fit five pups nursing in this picture.



Play time is getting longer.
Naps are getting shorter.
We had to puppy proof the room.
Cords out of the way and such. That didn’t stop Miss Red from finding Miss Orange’s yarn and chewing.



We think this is Miss Orange playing with the tennis ball.



Dan said he was going in for a nap.
We found him playing with puppies instead.



This is NOT Patsy with the puppy Mr. Blue (on left, on Mac’s tail).
This is Mac, the pups’ dad!
He’s been puppy sitting. He really likes them, unlike Franklin, their half-brother who dances away from them.

We don’t know what it is about Mac’s tail but here’s another pup.




Not sure which puppy this is.



Miss Red after getting washed by mom.



Getting hugged by a big mom!

Other things happened this week, but hey, we didn’t write them down! So here’s a couple more pics of pups and then some news from the litters.



Miss Purple asleep on someone’s head.



Miss Turquoise and Miss Purple.
Can you tell that Miss Turquoise is our smallest pup?

News from the Litters:

River Bear Roger and River Bear Merlin’s owners sent pictures. (Roger and Merlin are both Patsy pups and Merlin is also a Mac pup, NY)

I would love to be on puppy watch!!  That's great that you are keeping one of the girls. Someone for Rose to cause trouble with...LOL  I agree w/keeping one w/Patsy's head. She is such a beautiful dog. Roger has her head. In fact that looks like Roger nursing puppies in your latest log...LOL  I still think Merlin looks like his dad, but every now and then I see Patsy. . .I had bought the futon, Roger is on in the pics, for my daughter's but gave it to the dog's instead. I keep it open so there is room for both of them. I closed it to vacuum, and Roger climbed up on it and looked too sweet. That's when I snapped those picture's.
 


Roger

Merlin



River Bear Sullivan’s (Patsy, Mac pup, MA) owner sent in a picture. She does water training with her dogs. We hope to get out there this summer.



These pictures are of Sullivan.  I had to show these to you in case you were wondering if he has a rough life.  He wanted the golden to get off of the couch so he could have the whole thing.  He won!

What is it about Newfoundlands and sofas?

River Bear Snuffleupagus’s (Mac and Mattie pup, NH) sent in a picture.



You can not get a good picture of this dog. She either moves or looks like a big black blob.    Nothing calms the beast like having her tummy rubbed.

Don’t know about ‘not a good picture’ Snuffy looks great to us!

That’s all this week.
Take care.

March 22, 2008

Happy Spring!

Melanie wanted to share our Spring with you.



See to the left of the tree trunk?
There’s a little bit of dirt and grass.
That’s it so far folks!

Luckily, it’s much warmer in the house.



Patsy is keeping her pups warm.
They are now 3 1/2 weeks old.
Bit bigger, aren’t they?



In the last week they have gone from,
“unclear on the concept of eating” (though enthusiastic) to



“What do you mean, I have to share the plate?”
That’s Miss Turquoise in the middle of the plate.



That’s Mr. Multi getting washed. When Patsy washes everyone gets wet. Ask Dan and Zoë, when in the middle of the night, Patsy gets up on the pull out and decides to wash them up. Usually after she cleans out the whelping box.
The pups still love their mom’s milk. Either when she’s down or doing a clean up of their plates.



That’s Patsy standing up. The pups can now reach her when she’s standing. Instead of a drive thru restaurant, she’s a walking restaurant.

They can now smell when she is near and will wake up.
That doesn’t mean she’s willing to feed them at that point.



Here she is in front of the whelping box. They were sound asleep. After they wake up, she looks in and then leaves. We swear with a smile on her face!
We’re not worried.
They are butter balls.



They are beginning to explore.
Here’s Miss Red under the computer chair.
They all love the computer chair.
Strange.



Mr. Blue relaxing with a lamb.
He’s doing great by the way.
Our vet is very pleased with his progress.

Since it’s over three weeks, the pups are beginning to do slow fighting.



That’s Miss White on top taking a nibble out of Miss Turquoise.

So what else is going on at River Bear? Well, it’s hard to remember. Melanie went down to the Working Dog Show and saw friends and lots and lots of pretty Newfoundlands. That was fun.

The wind has been up (very) and the dogs think that the 50 mph gusts were plows going by, so they’ve been protecting the house from the wind.

We’re not the only ones who get loose pets. Dan was looking out the window and in our "across the road" neighbor’s yard were three of the horses from down the street. They were having a great time exploring. Dan went down and got their owner and drove her to the horses, who had gone into West Cummington proper (1/2 mile) she asked him to stop and said they would come right up to her when she rattled their treat can.

It’s nice to know that our dogs aren’t the only pets in the area who do exactly as they please.

The dogs noticed the horses as they came back from the other end of town at a gallop. They had a great time barking.

By the time our neighbors got back to their house, the horses were in the pen asking what took them so long.

We’re reorganizing the kitchen!! Umm. We just don’t have the brain power to outwit Rose anymore. We’re taking one of our closets in the dog room and changing it into a pantry. It’s already dog proof and rat proof (that’s another story) with a lock! Rose can’t reach the lock. We hope.

Zoë had cooked up an entire chicken and was making stock for the dogs’ food.



Rose really enjoyed it.

That’s all this week.
Take care.

March 14, 2008

Another exciting week at River Bear!



If you count the pups, you can see there are only six.
That’s because Mr. Blue had to go to the hospital for two days because of aspiration pneumonia.

That means he sucked in milk to his lungs. Not good.
The docs at the hospital were great.
When Melanie and Dan left, Mr. Blue was in a plastic see-thru WalMart storage box, with oxygen and heat.

He’s home now.
We’re hoping for an uneventful upcoming week.


Here he is sleeping with his brother.
Doesn’t that look
relaxing?

Patsy was glad to see him. He was very well washed when he came home.



Here’s a close up of Miss Purple.
Yes, all their eyes are open.



Oh, yes, the bunny is back in the box.
This does not mean as much to Patsy as it did to Mattie.
Patsy says she has enough to do with seven pups.



We started them with eating this morning.
This is called “unclear on the concept.”
They enjoyed it, but kept going backwards away from the food, and then couldn’t understand what was going wrong.



Miss Orange caught on.



Miss Turquoise explaining to Miss White that it’s just best to go for it!
Miss Turquoise is our smallest pup.
But she made 3 pounds this morning.
Two and a half weeks old!


Hey it was Dan’s
79th Birthday
yesterday!

This came in our email, it’s so nice to have artists in the family.




Andrea did a great painting of Patsy and Rose.
Here’s more of her work.
Andrea Gianchiglia

Hmmm. We’re pretty tired. All three of the humans have a story of being tired. Melanie is on in the evening, Zoë takes over for the night and Dan comes in about 4 am.

Dan decided to have oatmeal for breakfast the other morning. We are trying to be very careful of Rose’s propensity for stealing everything. In fact, this morning we were thinking of putting all the toys on the counters and closets and leaving everything we don’t want her to get on the floor.

So Dan was fixing breakfast, and put everything away. The butter, the milk, the sugar, in fact the only thing he didn’t put away was the container of oatmeal. Who would want a container of dried up oatmeal flakes. Well guess who did?

There were heaps of oatmeal all over the kitchen floor. We’re still finding oatmeal.

But really that wasn’t anything compared to Zoë’s slip of the brain. She and Dan were taking a nap upstairs and she got up to feed the dogs. We have a hook latch on the outside of their door because the dogs have figured out how to open the latch. Without thinking she locked it.

When Dan woke up, he couldn’t get out of the bedroom and had to call down through the register until she hear him.

Of course, that still doesn’t beat Melanie's slip. She was taking Patsy to the vet’s to get her stitches out and stopped by the bank. They have one of those vacuum things for their drive throughs and Melanie put in the check, told them what she wanted and then stopped thinking about the bank. She was thinking about how long it would take to get Patsy to the vet and back again and would the pups be okay if they didn’t eat on time. So the canister came back and she took stuff out of it.

She was almost to Route 90 when Zoë called and said that the bank had called and wanted their canister back. Melanie looked down on the floor and there sat the canister. Does this make Melanie a bank robber?

Here’s a couple of more pictures of pups asleep.



Wish we slept this well.



That’s all this week,
Take care.

March 8, 2008

Patsy and pups are doing great!

They are doing their jobs: eating, peeing, pooping and sleeping.
No personalities yet.



We are doing supplemental feeding with Miss Turquoise and Mr. Multi. They enjoy it.



They do a great fur ball.



They fall asleep anywhere and against anything.



Miss Purple after being washed by her mother.



After Patsy is finished feeding,
the pups swarm.



Miss Green was still trying to lick her mom.

So most of our days and nights are spent taking care of pups, feeding Patsy (right now the best treat is nonalcoholic beer poured over corn bread) and trying to catch up on our sleep with naps.

People have sent pictures for News for the Litters, which we will put up when we catch our breaths.

Oh, Rose is bored. She got another peanut butter jar. The top was shut, but she got it open and almost the whole thing. That night was interesting. She got sick several times (Melanie has sworn off anything with peanut sauce on it) and then decided to spend the night barking at the river.

The river is high right now. This week has been rain, which is great, we can almost see the top of the fence out front, but it really fills the river out back and it is loud.

At midnight, Rose got put in Melanie’s room with the door shut. She was very good, but she’s not the most calm room mate. She likes to check to see if you’re okay, so Melanie’s face and hands were well licked.

Luckily the rain is bringing down the snow drifts, because Rose and Mac figured out they could climb part of the back fence. The first we knew of it was our across the street neighbor calling saying we had two dogs over at his house.

Mac and Rose thought it was great that we came outside and got them. Dan then shoveled the area they got loose.



Here is the escape path. The yellow bar is actually higher than the fence.

Well, that’s all this week.
We’re hoping for an upcoming calm week (we are expecting snow tonight)
Take Care.

March 1, 2008

PUPPIES!



Well, folks, it’s been a very long week. To skip to the end (we’ll get to the beginning and middle in a minute) we have seven pups (two boys and five girls) that are vigorously nursing on their mom. Patsy is doing well.

The pups were born on Monday with a c-section. Yes, they were due on Thursday, but between Patsy and the weather . . .

Patsy started in the first stages of labor on Saturday night. This is heavy duty panting for hours on end in the middle of the night on top of Melanie’s bed, preferably on top of Melanie. Oh, yeah, the light has to be on.

Melanie in hopes of getting a bit more sleep took Patsy out to pee on Friday night. Patsy decided to go on a pee strike.

Melanie can be very stubborn (just ask her children) and decided that Patsy was going to pee. At ten pm Melanie put this very pregnant dog on a leash and went out to walk her outside on the street.

In the middle of a snow storm.

It was very fluffy snow about ten inches by that time. One car had passed earlier and Melanie and Patsy were walking in one of the tire tracks.

Patsy seemed to be enjoying herself, though she refused to pee. So Melanie kept walking.

It was a ways down the road when Patsy lay down in the middle of the road. Melanie freaked out.

What on earth was she doing with a pregnant dog, now lying down in the middle of the street, while a snow storm is raging. Pictures of rushing a pup wrapped in her coat to the house while dragging Patsy behind her streamed through her mind.

Luckily nothing that bad. Patsy’s feet hadn’t been clipped for awhile and had developed ice balls in-between the pads. Melanie had to clean out her paws four times before they were able to make it home.

After that Melanie decided anything Patsy wanted she could have.

Which worked until Monday. Patsy wasn’t looking right. She appeared to be going into labor earlier than she should but she didn’t have other signs of labor. It looked like it was going to be Tuesday night and Wednesday morning for pups. Right in the middle of another snow storm.

Talking it over with the vet we decided to do a c-section that day.

This is the miracle. If Patsy had gone into full labor, we would have lost her and all the puppies. She had a hematoma. We are still having nightmares.

We brought home nine puppies. We have lost two. One was fine and within 15 minutes was gone from us. The second we tried getting to the vet, but she died on the way.

The others are doing fine, but all prayers are appreciated.



More close ups next week, after we get some sleep.
We’ll be doing twenty four hour days for another two weeks.

We had another snow storm last night. At least when it snows, it’s warmer. Friday morning it was -10 degrees and that was after the sun had been up for a while.



You can just see the top of the car in between the two tree trunks.

Newfoundlands with snow.



Whoops, real Newfoundland with snow.



That’s Mac.

The snow is making Mattie’s hairdo cute.



That’s all this week.
Keep us in your prayers.
Take care.

February 22, 2008

Zoë and Melanie have decided that they don’t like February. Have never liked February and this year it’s a day longer. We hate to complain about the weather, but enough is enough. Again with the ice, rain, sleet and snow. Most of the time in the same day. Melanie took a trip down the mountain yesterday and she saw ground. REAL DIRT! Ha!

We haven’t seen anything but snow on the ground since the middle of November. It’s snowing today. Here’s a picture of Zoë taking Bess for a walk.



Amazing.

The day that it was in the 50’s and raining? Nothing melted. It was so slippery that when Melanie took Mac out for the Pee Parade at night, Mac couldn’t even walk. Melanie wouldn’t let him go back in until he peed (the boys were going in the kennels for the night) so he sat down and slid down the icy slope to the sheltered shed area and peed there.

Hmm. When Spring does come we are going to need to spray with clorox. Also by Easter we won’t be looking for hidden Easter Eggs. Melanie and Kathy Luce (Dingle Newfoundlands) were saying that the snow and ice is doing a great job covering up the poop. Can’t see it at all. Which means come Easter we’ll be finding plenty of hidden treasures. At least we only have eight dogs, she has seventeen.

Melanie grabbed some shots of Franklin and Rose playing outside in the snow.



That’s Rose in front. You can just see Franklin’s nose.

Ros never approves of this.



She stands on the sidelines barking.



That’s Franklin on the bottom, looking up at Ros.
You can just see him saying “Oh, come on, it’s just for fun.”

Considering what they get into in the house,
Ros needs to let them get all their energy out outside.



We have now learned that soup marrow bones that have nothing on them, that are all dried up and old, should not be left in the trash can on the desk.

Puppy Watch!

The puppy bon bons (shelled hard boiled eggs) are still making a hit.
Patsy did give us a scare. Her temperature went down which is the sort of heads up for impending labor.
BUT SHE WAS A WEEK EARLY!
No nesting, no labor.
We called our Vet, he said keep an eye on her.
We called Kathy and she told us when her temp goes down to 98 point something that is when we should gear up.
Patsy’s temperature had been 99.3.

She is sleeping in Melanie’s room with the door shut now.
We want to know when she’s going outside.
Melanie wraps her arm around her and can feel the puppies moving!

WOW

She is not fat but even lower to the ground.
We are taking very good care of her.



Patsy



Patsy’s tummy.

That’s all this week.
Take care.

February 15, 2008

Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day!


Oh, yeah and maybe two more!

Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day!

Remember when we said we were taking Patsy in for her x-ray?
Well, turns out we were a bit early.
Yup, we counted the days wrong.
She’s actually due February 28th!
Which means there wasn’t enough contrast on the x-ray for Melanie to take a picture of the pups.

Our wonderful vet counted eight, but the way the ones he saw are distributed, he thinks there’s one or two more.

We are taking good care of her. There is still a lot that can happen between now and the 28th when she’ll have a c-section.

By the way, we’ve found the perfect
Puppy bonbons for Patsy.
Shelled hard boiled eggs.

Rose is doing well with her training. If you long time readers remember she came along when Dan was very sick. Her training has been neglected.

PUPPY KINDERGARTEN IS A GOOD IDEA!

So as we were saying, her training is coming along well. She now comes when we call (mostly, when she doesn’t, we go get her), will sit and stay on command. This training has not changed her personality, though she is much more likely to share with the other dogs.

Take Thursday for instance. She decided to do some Spring cleaning. First, she found the charcoal bag. We haven’t used the charcoal for ages; it’s been tucked in a corner way out of the way. She pulled it out and invited everyone to play. They had a great time.



That’s half of the bag inside and half out side.



We left the charcoal outside, figured we could use it for traction.

Yes, traction. We had 8 inches of snow, then ice, then rain. The rain had no where to go but down the middle of the street. The plows were working hard, but there was about 2 inches of ice and slush and then a inch of running water in the street.

So we needed the traction. To get out the back door to the stockade, Dan had to take the screen door apart and crawl through the hole.

To add to that fun, after the charcoal bag, Rose opened the cabinet door under the kitchen sink and pulled out the garbage can. Again she shared this with the pack. It was a big mess.

Zoë looked for the little camera to take a picture, but we can’t find it. There were more pictures from the week, but we think Rose might have decided to use it. Which means maybe in the Spring?

The next thing she decided to clean up was Zoë’s coat out of the closet.
We found that. Rose was looking for treats. She is a mechanically minded dog.

Here’s Bess in that new cut. She is cute. Unfortunately, our groomer is moving to FL.



News from the Litters:

River Bear Wendell (Mac and Ros’s brother, Bess son, MO) wrote us

I miss you all so I'm attaching a photo dad took yesterday while I was in a crazy mood!
All that ice we just got was driving me insane. I love crunching on it.
Wendell




That’s all this week.
Take care.

February 7, 2008

For the last two days, we had rain. Lots of rain. It poured rain. We had an ice dam in the river.



It changed to snow this morning. We’ve had around four inches. It’s beautiful, like confectionary sugar on cake.



It’s not making us too happy though. It’s supposed to do this all week.

Rain ... Snow ... Sleet

All of us have cabin fever. Including the dogs. Rose took to booze.



Franklin told her she was too young to drink and took it away.



Luckily it was empty.

So we threw the dogs outside.
Now what you need to know right now, is that Patsy doesn’t want to do anything but eat, sleep and eat.

She came outside because she knew Melanie had treats in her pocket.



On the other hand, Rose wants to play.
She’s about ready to entice Patsy to play.





She whams into Patsy who just looks at her.
Patsy is bottom heavy right now.
Rose whamming into her doesn’t even move her.



Then a plow goes by.



And Rose loses interest.



And Patsy continues to beg for food.
She is so hungry.



Bess looks on.




Mattie is also very hungry.
She still wants to be pregnant.
We figure she’s going to steal Patsy’s pups.

Rose is usually in motion.
Constantly.

If she is sleeping, she’s sleeping with something.
Like she got so tired it just fell out of her mouth.





Melanie has a favor to ask!

If you go to this web site:

Bissell Pet Contest

Please vote for Patsy!
You only have to vote once. She’s the only Patsy!
She’s the Newfoundland covered with snow.

Now the story behind this. Melanie had seen a documentary on Dyson and looked at their web site. They have some cool stuff. One being a pet vacuum cleaner. So she wrote to the Public Relations department of Dyson in England telling them that if they ever needed a test situation for their vacuum that River Bear Newfoundlands was the place! Can you believe they wrote back? They loved the web site, and said they really weren’t looking for a tester.

Melanie thinks they really let go of a great opportunity.

So someone told her about Bissell’s photo contest where the Grand Prize is a Bissell vacuum cleaner for pets. So, of course, she put a photo of Patsy in. The voting for this group of photos is this week!

Can’t you just see Patsy on the box for a vacuum cleaner??

Hope you’ll vote for her and Newfoundlands everywhere!

Dan had a nice phone call from another breeder in CO. He and his wife had been in Boston and someone had given them a copy of Dan’s book. They read it on the plane on the way home and just had to tell Dan how much they had enjoyed it.

Then we had an e-mail from Cape May, NJ from a couple who has three Newfoundlands and are showing the youngest.

I was looking at your web site and enjoyed it immensely. You can see the love and care you have for the breed. I live with my Newf's in Cape May, NJ.
 
Myself and my partner, along with our Newf's, Hannah, Abbey and Bella Rose have an old Victorian on 12 acres with sheep and horses.
 
Once again, thank you for sharing your Love for the Newfoundland and sharing it with the rest of us.

Here are his girls.



Melanie wants that in her backyard.

News from the Litters:

River Bear Isabelle (Mac and Mattie pup, MA) is giving life lessons to her new family.

Lessons from Isabelle
1. No matter what size bowl of water you give it will be used as a pool.
2. Regardless of how many you own , you do not own enough towels.
3. Every towel you do own is now a "dog towel"
4. Do not waste money on pricey puppy toys,the toilet bowel brush and kitchen broom are the best.
5. The whole "I am a big clumsy puppy" is all an act. I am a stealth missile when there is something I want (food, the cat)
6. I will try my best to just lick the cat and be gentle but eventually my excitement will overcome me and I will squish him(accidentally of course,then I'm confused when he's mad at me)
7. I am a skilled landscaper(drag the bushes around),and interior decorator(bring them into the house)like my Aunt Rose
8. I have a special look and kisses that make you want to quit your job,ignore your children and stay home with me, all day, every day.((seriously)

That’s all this week.
Take Care.

January 31, 2008

Patsy is
PREGNANT!



Isn’t that cool?
Okay, the ultra sound above is showing a puppy heart.
Patsy decided to move every time our vet tried to take a picture.
So the black valentine heart shape is a puppy heart.
The words are our vets.
He loves puppies.

She will have an x-ray on February 14th.
Appropriate in every way.
That will tell us about how many pups and when she will be due.

We’re happy here.



Here’s the happy mother.
No long runs for her, no fights, no porcupines, no calcium, just puppy bon bons.
Haven’t quite figured out what puppy bon bons are, but she sure enjoys an empty peanut butter jar.
The white things in the upper left are Mac’s whiskers.

The human health around here is on the mend. Melanie is getting over the flu, Dan’s heart is pumping the way it’s supposed to, again, and Zoë gets to rest, sort of, because she’s the one who’s been doing all the work.

We’ve got some no flash, Melanie’s new lens, portraits of the dogs coming up. She was practicing for pictures of Patsy’s puppies. But first, things have been happening around here, it’s just that we were too tired to write them down. So, Melanie decided she would tell you about nights here right now.

It has been too cold for the boys to be in their kennels, so they have been inside at night. They love their kennel. They love having company. It’s a guy thing out there.

Dan and Zoë go to bed very early. Since they are up at 5 am, this makes sense. Ellie, Bess and Franklin go to bed with them. That means that Melanie is kept company by Patsy, Mattie, Ros, Mac and Rose until she goes to sleep.

Now by “keeping company” the dogs mean they will stay in the room with you and sleep. And snore. Usually the pellet stove fan is going so the snoring can be ignored, but when the stove comes up to heat, the surround sound of snoring is amazing. Mac is usually by the door out to his kennel. The ladies are in various upside down attitudes on the floor around Melanie. Rose is near her feet, Ros is near her side, Mattie is on the love seat and Patsy is as spread out as she possibly can be. All snoring.

Now Dan and Zoë’s bedroom is just above the family room. It’s an old house with wide floor boards and empty space between the ceiling and the floor upstairs. This empty space acts as a resonator and Melanie can here any dog on the floor upstairs snoring.

It’s great.

When it’s time for the boys to go to bed, she sings first to Mac.


Mac, a-doodle, doodle
Mac, a-poodle,
Mac, a-doodle, doodle, doodle, dot.

He loves this. Outside to pee and Rosie comes with. Rose comes with because she knows that Mac is going to get a treat. After a massive head rub Mac goes off to pee and Rose sits for her treat. When he’s done, Mac runs back and tries to stop on the ice and usually runs into Rose. He then gets his treat.

Now usually he would go into the garage and into his kennel. But, right now, (last night it was 5 degrees with 35 mile an hour winds) he is sleeping in the living room. Melanie shuts the door. Goes up stairs to get Franklin. He also likes to be sung to.

Franklin, wanklin
Little sweetie pie,
Time to go beddy, beddy bye,
Come on Franklin
You’re so cute,
With your big old
big old snoot.

(What can we say, Shakespeare she’s not!)

While Melanie is taking out Franklin and Rose, (yes, she’s going for another treat) Zoë is getting up to go sleep in the living room.

Remember when we said the boys like company? Well, Mac doesn’t like to sleep on his own. Zoë is sleeping down there on what we are now calling the double lounge chair instead of the sleeper sofa.

Now the fun starts.

Melanie goes to bed. Patsy, Franklin, Rose (and sometimes Mattie and Ros) come up and get another treat. They supposedly go to bed.

Except for last night. We live thirty minutes from everywhere, but for some reason there were sirens going up and down the highway last night. Mattie, Ros, Franklin and Rose took umbrage to this. Zoë kept yelling and bringing them in, but finally Melanie shut Rose up in her room to keep her from barking. She put a fan on so Rose wouldn’t hear the sirens.

But last night aside, the next part of the night is the conniving of the dogs to do Dan out of the bed.

Bess is in control of the room. No dog wants to go by Bess. She does this not with growling or anything, she is the true essence of alpha bitch. This means in order to get out of the room, dogs will actually get on the bed and walk over Dan and Zoë’s heads to keep out of Bess’s way. Once they are out, they want to get back in. This means standing at the door of the room and talking. Patsy has this under her breath bark that gets louder and louder. Mattie just demands. Those two Dan and Zoë can get to come in by inviting them. Ros won’t come in without help, so she’s bark and wait for a human. Rose doesn’t care.

Then there’s Ellie. Ellie has a “thing” about Bess. Ellie will bark to get out. Dan will get up because about this time, he needs to fill the pellet stove in the family room. So up they get and down they go. At this point, there is a mad rush for the bed. Every dog will try to get up there.

Ellie goes out, Dan fills up the stove and back up they go. No room on the bed. Dan pushes and heaves and pulls on blankets and makes room for himself. Then Ellie barks. She’s still at the door. She won’t come in without him getting up. So he gets up and as soon as he’s near her, she comes running in and gets in the place he created for himself.

More pushing, tugging and we wouldn’t change it for the world.

Our dogs aren’t spoiled!

Speaking of our dogs!
Here they are, eldest to youngest.



Ellie


Bess, she had another beauty day.
She looks like a puppy.



Patsy, still working on that peanut butter jar.
This picture was taken with the flash.
Melanie thinks it makes Patsy look flat.



Here’s Mattie!
She’s not pregnant.
She wants to be pregnant, but she’s just fat.



Mac.
This picture was taken in a very dark room.
Melanie loves her new lens.


Ros!
Franklin and Rose were playing hard the other day and Franklin got tired of her and sat on her head.
Ros thought that was terrible and made Franklin get off.
Rose told her mother off for messing up her fun.

It’s never boring here.



Franklin



Sweet Rose
(cough, cough)

Melanie came down to breakfast the other morning and found this.



She thought that Rose had turned into an early Easter Beagle,
but Zoë said it was the last egg in the carton and she had put it there.

But you can never tell with Rose around!



News from the Litters will continue next week.

Thanks all,
Take care.

January 25, 2007

Sorry folks! Check back next week. We’re under the weather here. The dogs are fine though.

Take care

January 17, 2008

The thaw is over and the river is iced over. The dogs are happy. Here are pictures of dogs that are cool.



Rose.
Rose’s head is broadening out.
Her undercoat is slowly coming in, only in her rear.
She has a bustle butt.



Bess on alert.



Bess has her undercoat in.
In fact, she’s going for a beauty day next week to get some of it out.



Franklin.
It’s slightly out of focus, but it shows him off.



Melanie just wanted to do a big picture of Patsy.

Here’s another.



Now one of the signs of a maybe pregnant Newfoundland is being very sleepy.

Patsy sleeps in Melanie’s room until around 3 or 4 am, when she then goes in to Dan and Zoë’s room, gets on their bed and washes them up. Last night, Patsy didn’t wake up, until 6 am. This was after Zoë had shut the door to Melanie’s room. Patsy didn’t approve of being shut in and woke up Melanie by kissing her.

Melanie saw Franklin and Rose playing outside and got her camera with the new lens and took a picture.
It was after that she realized what they were playing with wasn’t a toy but one of Zoë’s good snow boots.



We were supposed to have a huge Nor’easter last Tuesday.
We only had 6 inches of snow, but the snow plows were out.

Here’s our hallway after the dogs who were upstairs heard the snow plows coming by.



Ellie is doing great after the surgery on the spoon. We have the spoon. It’s wrapped in a plastic bag on the counter. Melanie thinks we should sell it on eBay.

Stories for the week.

One of the dogs’ Christmas presents was a soccer ball with two ropes on it for tug-a-war. Melanie didn’t realize that it didn’t squeak, until Zoë showed Rose how to make it sound. It says “GGGGGOOOOOAAAAALLLL” with a bunch of cheering people. Rose loves doing this. The toy has been banned from Melanie’s room during the night.

Some of the dogs got loose the other day. Melanie was sitting at the computer when she saw some black tails over the snowplow bank. The black tails were just cruising down the street. Melanie went out to call, Zoë was calling and our mail lady in her pick up stopped, opened her door and started calling.

Now our dogs have always wanted to meet the mail lady. They bark at her when she drives by. Here she was calling them. Wow. So they got in the front seat of her truck looking forward to a ride. So if our neighbors’ mail was a bit crushed, they now know why.

It was too cold for the males in their kennels last night. We got down to negative four degrees, so we kept the boys inside. This means . . .
Mac in the living room with the door shut and everyone else free to be elsewhere in the house. Mac started barking. He wanted to be in the kennel with his buddy.

Zoë went downstairs and slept on the sofa to be with Mac. But Mac was concerned and he wanted to sleep with Zoë. The sofa is not that big. She pulled the coffee table right next to her and Mac slept on that.

News from the Litters:

River Bear Carl (Franklin and Ros puppy, ME)

we wanted to show you how happy Carl is in the snow.  This was taken on a snow day last week.  He is the best hugger in the world.  His kisses are clean and warm-I thank Franklin every day for passing that on to Carl.  His sense of humor is unending.  So is his curiosity, especially when it comes to trying new things to chew.  I no longer have a grapevine wreath hanging on the wall outside my door.  Nor do I have a balsam ball that was a good 5 ft off the ground, hanging from the ceiling of the porch.  And the outside molding at the back door is half gone.  And my full pot of turkey stock-3 days in the making- gone in 1 fell swoop. Now that was a real mess. Big.  I thought I knew how to newfie-proof a house.  Clearly I was wrong.  I'm sending one more photo, separately.  Be well, merry christmas, and happy new year to you all.




Here is Carl, surfing with our oldest, Pete, during the snowstorm last week.  He can really hang ten, that dog.



River Bear Scarlett (Mac and Patsy pup, MA)

Well, one year has passed since the day we picked up Miss Red, and brought her home. What a year it has been. We can't tell you how much fun we have had with her!
 



In the summer we took her on her first vacation to a Bed and Breakfast in Moose Country way up in Maine. She thoroughly enjoyed that and got to bark at her first moose. That was also where Scarlet finally took the plunge and swam for the first time.
 
Scarlet is an avid hiker as well. We are out in the woods or climbing mountains 4-5 days a week. Right now we have taken a liking to snow shoeing. Of course, any time we come to water, she has to go in and check things out, no matter what the temperature is out. What a dog! You just have to laugh...
 
Scarlet also enjoys watching football with her Dad on the couch. She gets right up there and usually has her head rested right on Tom's lap, picking up her head every time the football is thrown. It is quite amusing to watch her watch the TV. A few weeks ago, a dog show happened to be on, so we tuned in, and what a reaction we got! She went right up to the TV and was smelling it as if the dogs were right in the room with her.


 


Lately, she has also decided that she can't go to bed until she jumps in bed with us and gives us smooches good night. She stays with us until she gets hot and then moves on to a cooler spot for the night, but she has to check on us periodically through the night to make sure we are still in bed... what a funny dog.
 


So, thank you for breeding these comical, beautiful, loving dogs. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time with Scarlet! I do think that the one who is most surprised though, is Tom! He never expected to love her so much, and have this much fun in life with any animal!

River Bear Isabelle (Mac and Mattie pup, MA)

Happy New Years!!!
Sue thinks I look like my dad....what do you guys think?I'm having a great time training everyone here,I have to be patient but they love me and they catch on eventually.
Love
Isabelle



That’s all this week,
Take care.

January 10, 2008

Happy New Year!

Of course, being River Bear Newfoundlands, you know there are stories. Melanie was sitting in the family room finishing a book she got for Christmas. It is difficult to catch her attention when she’s has just two pages to go but Zoë was able to do it.

“My God, she swallowed the spoon!” The “she” Zoë was talking about was Ellie. The spoon had Ellie’s pills put in peanut butter. Zoë has been giving pills this way for sixteen years. This had never happened, ever, not even close!

Melanie looked up to see Zoë with her arm in Ellie’s mouth up to her elbow. But the spoon was gone.

The vet was very nice. He said to watch the poop and if nothing happened she had to go in for an x-ray today.




(Of course, Melanie had to take a picture of the x-ray!)

Needless to say, she had to have an x-ray and the doctor said, “That’s a big spoon.” Zoë agreed and Ellie had the spoon removed from her stomach. She is fine and has to take at easy for two weeks. Which she’ll like because she likes sleeping on the sofa.

Otherwise . . .

December was the coldest in four years. We had more snow in December then we’ve had in the last few years total seasons. This week it’s been in the 60’s. The river is free of ice once again.



In December.
The dogs loved it.



The river running free.
The ladies aren’t in heat anymore (thank goodness) but we still have wild life.
The beavers have built a dam across a small stream and have made the banks of the stream collapse, causing the small pond in the middle of the upper part of the picture.
You can also see a tree to the far left that’s been very chewed and not by Rosie!

Speaking of Rosie, she is taking advantage of not wearing the bells around her neck. She very carefully sneaks up and steals right under our noses. Zoë was reading a book and Rose got her glasses case. Melanie was at the computer, she tried to lift a pair of scissors and when Dan cooks, she just helps way to much.

Here she is with her mom, Ros, and her dad, Franklin, playing with a sheet that Rose had taken from the wash. Hmm. . . We’re not using that sheet anymore.



Franklin and Ros



The house is much quieter, Rose not withstanding, since they’ve all gone out of heat. Now, it SHOULD be impossible for Mattie, Ros and Rose to be pregnant. Hopefully, Patsy is pregnant. We had to go the artificial insemination for her and Mac. Just let it be said that Patsy has longer legs than Mac.

The boys in their ever ending search to impress the girls, were singing in harmony. Mac’s best effort to impress Patsy happened when they were in the barn in the kennel. Together. But somehow Mac got out of the kennel and then had it lock behind him so he was locked out of where Patsy was. He took down the insulation around the kennel.

Franklin, on the other hand, while in the kennel (what is it about the kennel?) pulled in two double size blankets though an inch and a half space, getting only one hole in one of them. He then barked to let the girls know what he had done.

Is Patsy pregnant? We won’t know until about February 1st. How is she? Patsy is even hungrier than usual. She is definitely a food motivated dog, but she got on the counter and took some chicken. She hasn’t done that for a long time. Then when Zoë was working on the computer, Patsy came in, looked at her and peed all over the blanket that Mac had been laying on.

Hmm. Maybe she thinks that it’s Mac’s turn to have these babies.

Now some photos. Melanie got a new lens for her good camera. Now she just has to find the directions to the camera for turning off the flash and she’ll be set.



Patsy waiting for food.




Mac keeping Zoë warm during the cold spell.



Cool picture of Mac.



Rose still looks like a puppy.
She’s getting a big head.



Mattie



Newfoundlands in the mist.



Mist

To begin the
New Year
We look back to those who have left us.
A friend gave us a beautiful picture and
wonderful words.




 I've worked in health care is some capacity for 36 years now. I've seen the rhythms of life - the ebb and flow. I have seen  Death come as be welcomed as a friend. And I have fought against Its icy fingers trying to gain purchase. The thing that makes the difference is our reserves of strength - often not physical, but from relationships. Seeing a boy run, proud head up, fur in the wind fills my heart and calms my soul and offers me my strength.

For the New Year,
May all your joys be multiplied and your sorrows lessened.


News from the Litters will continue next week.

That’s all for this week.
Take care.

December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas
and
Happy Holidays!

From all of us at
River Bear Newfoundlands!



Melanie made Dan and Zoë do this.
They thanked her for taking out their wrinkles!

Miss Big and Miss Nab are now in their new homes.

Miss Big is now . . .


River Bear Snuffleupagus!
(Snuffy for short)

Miss Nab (Miss Not As Big) is now . . .



River Bear Isabelle.
They will call her Izzy if she takes after Rose and Belle if she takes after one of our calmer ladies.

Not that our ladies are that calm right now.

Tis the season to be in season as four of our ladies will attest. First came Ros and then Patsy, Mattie !!!, and then Rose. Makes for a very warm household for the boys. Melanie swears it’s why the river in back of the house unfroze, but Dan and Zoë say that was probably because of the rain we had. But, hey, did it rain instead of snowing because of the heat in the house?

A couple of stories. Rose was helping with the laundry the other day and took a pair of pink panties outside. She was very pleased with herself. She showed them to Dan and then thought it was quite a game to let him ALMOST get the panties. Now, Dan at the time, was picking up poop and did manage to have Rose give the pink panties to him. Because he was working, he stuffed them in his pocket. Later, he went to the post office. (You know where this is going, don’t you?) Dug into his pocket for his wallet and brought up something else instead. Luckily, we have very nice and discreet people at the post office.

We are trying to get Patsy pregnant ONLY! Which means all of the doors and rooms in the house are getting a work out. Franklin wanted to get into the living room where Ros, Mattie and Rose were and took down some of the molding around the door. He also took off part of the gate. Now, he’s learned how to open Dan and Zoë’s bedroom door and also the living room door. Jeeze.

Melanie was feeding Patsy and Mac in the west wing when she noticed Mac’s approach to lovemaking. Patsy ate her dinner. Mac ignored his and watched Patsy. When she was done, he nosed his plate to her and then proceeded to have his way with her while she ate. Melanie was telling McKey about this and he said, “Well, at least he gave her dinner.”

We were beginning to think we’d have to put on Barry White to get these two “in the mood.” The other girls are overpowering and much more attractive to Mac. Melanie and Zoë talked to their oracle of all things Newfoundland (Kathy Luce, Dingle Newfoundlands) and are now keeping the single ladies out of Mac’s sight. That seems to be working.

We’re not sure what Christmas songs we should be singing.

For Mac and Patsy? Piece on Earth?

For Franklin? I'll have a Blue Ball Christmas . . .

For Ros and Mattie? God Rest You Merry Gentlemen, cause you're not getting us?

For Rose? Oh Christmas tree, Oh, Christmas tree, I'll soon have you on the ground?

For Bess and Ellie? Oh, Silent Night?

Getting ready for the Holidays is very important.
One of our “musts” is the

McKey Family Eggnog!

Here’s Patsy after helping with the whipped cream.



Here’s Rose after helping with the whipped egg whites.



This morning went well.
We dressed Rose up for her picture.



Cutie isn’t she?

We only let Bess in to help with Christmas morning.



She fell asleep on the sofa.

News from the Litters: (or cute Newfs with Santa hats!)

River Bear Abigail Rose (Franklin and Ros pup, MA) wrote us a letter and sent some pictures.

We have two buckets of water in the back yard and she will go down for a drink and come back soaked from her ears to her nose and all the way down her chest. I think she plays in it more than she drinks it. She loves water, swim or play. She loves to watch her favorite cartoon Clifford the big Red Dog.

Here she is . . .



And here she is with her buddy Duncan.



River Bear Beatrice (Ch Kilyka’s Celtic Raasay UD, and Patsy pup, NY) is doing great.



She adores her family and her new buddy, Duke.



River Bear Molly’s (Bess pup, NJ) sent a lot of pictures. Here’s two.



We had a tree decorating party and here is Molly at her best.  Her Christmas card will arrive sometime next week.  You will probably recognize the hat from Newf Emporium.......



River Bear Roger (Franklin and Beatrice’s brother, NY) and his half brother, River Bear Merlin’s (Mac and Patsy pup, NY) sent in four pictures. If you remember from a couple of months ago, Merlin is the escape artist. This time he’s getting told off by Roger!



We love the look on Merlin’s face in the next picture.



Then two gorgeous pictures of the boys.





That’s all this week. Small vacation coming up, the log will start again the week of January 7th. 2008, that’s hard to believe.
Take care and have a Happy, Prosperous, Healthy, and Safe New Year.

December 14, 2007

Well, late again on the log. Of course, you know it’s going to be another story and it will have Rose in it.

Who is this dark creature trying to come in the dog door?



Poor Rose.

The Revenge of the Porcupine

It’s 30 miles to anywhere from our house. We usually take a dog or two with us to make the errands go faster. Dan and Zoë had Rose and Mac with them. Dan went into a store. Zoë was rubbing Rose’s tummy. At least she thought it was Rose, when she encountered something that felt a bit more male like. Was she rubbing Mac’s tummy instead?
No. Rose had a lump. They immediately took her to the vet who said he’d never seen anything like that. She was sent home to come back in the morning for surgery.

McKey suggested that it might be an infection from a random porcupine quill that had never been found on her.

She went in Thursday morning for surgery.
Now comes the reason the log is late.
We were to pick her up at 2 pm. Dan left in plenty of time.
For those of you in the North East you know what happened around noon time Thursday. The snow storm hit.

Less than one hour after Dan left we had over 3 inches of snow on the ground. It kept coming.

Dan never made it to the vet. It took him four hours to get down the hill and come back. Two semi trucks were off the highway, a bad wreck in Northampton.

We’re glad he got back safe!

Zoë left early this morning to get Rose. Traffic was terrible but she made it all right.

Hmmm.

At the vet, Rose took over. She was vocal about being there.
She had the woo woos.
The woo woos are heart breaking.
Long drawn out woooo, woooos.
She also went through two of the Elizabethan collars while there.

We think they’ll let her come back.
The vet still doesn't know what the lump was, but thinks the quill might well be it.

We had to dig out from under twelve inches of snow. But that’s okay for this Saturday night they’re talking about two feet. YIKES.



Rose getting kissed by Patsy.

Outside our window this morning, looking at the orchard.



Melanie had all these plans about taking very cute pictures with the pups wearing Christmas bows. She is going to do it tomorrow. After Zoë got home with Rose, Melanie went the other way to Pittsfield and went shopping. Everyone else was also shopping getting ready for the big storm. So here are the pups without bows. You’ll have to wait until next week.



Miss Big on left and Miss Nab on right.
We’ll tell you their names next week. They are leaving in a few days.
We’ll cry. We always do.



Training them for household chores.



Yes, that’s one of our “little” pups chewing a bone.
Mattie’s in the background.

Now pictures from a snowy day!



River Bear Waltzing Mathilda



River Bear Patsy Ketcham



Ros on the lookout!
They don’t like the plows.



River Bear McKey’s Rosalind



Okay this is Mac.

Hmmm. The best way to explain what he’s doing is . . .
We have two more ladies in heat, Ros and Patsy.

We’re going to be breeding Patsy with Mac.
Hopefully, Ros and Franklin will NOT breed.
No more singing in the vet’s office “Just one night, that’s all it took, just one night.”

News from the Litters:

River Bear Molson checked in.

Just wanted to say happy holidays to all at RiverBear
since we haven't gotten cards out yet. Molson (aka Mr
Yellow of Franklin & Ros)is great. He is up to about
140 and still acting like quite a puppy at 11 months.
It finally snowed here and he was ecstatic. I am
attaching a photo of him in the snow and one with our
youngest!

Happy Holidays!



He looks a lot like his Great Grandmother Eleanor.



Two tired looking cuties.

That’s all this week.
Take care.

December 6, 2007

Sunday night and Monday we had our first MAJOR SNOW STORM. Well, that’s what the TV weather people called for. We had six inches and a little of freezing rain. That’s not much for us.



Don’t worry, our dogs haven’t grown horns.
Melanie just likes taking pictures of the Highland Cattle that live near us. There wan’t a lot of snow but it was cold!

Now our dog pack had their heart worm shots this week. A treat comes after the shot. They are funny about this. How many dogs do you know line up to get their shots? Ellie, Patsy, Franklin, Ros kept trying to tell us that they hadn’t gotten their shots yet (not true). Mac would line up and then see something interesting and leave. He finally got his. Mattie and Bess have to be coaxed and then they run around rubbing their necks into legs, furniture pillows and other dogs. We’re not saying our dogs are food motivated, but to wait in line for a shot? Oh, I haven’t mentioned Rose, have I?

Rose is being a teenager. Melanie has been working on sit, stay, come, which Rose was getting perfectly, until yesterday. She has stopped sitting, staying or coming. Why should she? Why shouldn’t she just get a treat for being Rose? That should be enough, shouldn’t it?

Melanie would say Rose, sit. Rose would remain standing, looking off to the right, “I can’t hear you.” Well, Melanie got tired of that quickly, called Patsy over and told her to “Sit.” Patsy sat and got Rose’s treat. Hmmm. Rose is thinking about this. Zoë said she sat for her this morning. For her shot, Melanie explained that this was going to happen no matter what she did, grabbed her collar with the hand that gathers her neck skin and then pop the needle in. She then got her treat for being “pretty good.”

The puppies sit. They also poop, and pee. They are getting pretty good about peeing on the papers. We’ll skip the other.



This collar was on one of them.
It isn’t any more.



They also like to help clean. Zoë was trying to mop the floor.
Miss Big attacked the vacuum cleaner.


Beauty day! A good brushing in the sun with Zoë.



Then Dan held them while Zoë clipped toe nails.



Mattie and Miss Big were playing. When Mattie barked Miss Big decided to chew on the towels.

Then there is fighting.



The big fights are about defending spaces!
Miss Nab under the rocking chair.



Wow, what teeth!



Miss Big eating Miss Nab’s foot.
(The teeth marks are not just from these pups. Around forty have gotten to that chair.)



Rest time.

Back to fighting.
This time a box.



Miss Big is in the box.



Miss Big coming out of the box and getting stuck between piano leg and the grooming box.



Miss Nab in the box.
Miss Big seriously stuck.



Miss Nab helping her sister by biting her in the leg.
Then it’s time for a break.



They aren’t very neat!

News from the Litters:

We asked River Bear Sullivan’s (Patsy, Mac pup, MA) how they did that picture from the other week where all the dogs sat.

Sullivan takes obedience as did all the other dogs in the picture. So
it was pretty easy. We walk everyday (Sullivan and Bentley run). You
should see how fit he is. And how fast. He can run equally fast as the
little Golden in the picture. He is amazing.

We plan to have a Pet Therapy evaluation in early spring. I will put
you name on my list and contact you when we set the date. If ever
someone is in the hospital that you know would benefit from a Pet
Therapy visit especially from a Newfoundland call me and I would
definitely make a special visit.

I truly believe a house without a Newfoundland is truly not a home. I
have so much fun with mine I feel sorry for those who do not have one.


Sullivan’s owner does Therapy Dogs. We’re going to get Ellie re-certified.

River Bear Trixie’s (Patsy and Mac pup, MA) owner told us they have a new member of the family.

We have been given a kitten and Trixie is awesome with her. The Cat is
not always nice and sometimes growls at Trixie but she is so gentle and
kind to the cat anyway. The other day I found the cat sleeping on
Trixie.


That’s all this week.
Take care!

November 30, 2007

Sorry we’re a bit late, the latest “bug” has hit the house, and we’re just coming up from under it. So the log will be short!

Rose had a very good Thanksgiving. Let’s see. One mince pie, several cokes, and two bottles of mineral water. We had company that didn’t understand Rose’s reach.

We have had to stop going up to camp for our walk/run. We have run into hunters who do not appreciate dogs. There was one really nasty one who tried to run the dogs over.

Dan and Zoë are now taking the dogs to run in the neighbors’ meadow near the river. Not quite as many exciting smells, but the dogs enjoy it.

Now some puppy pictures!



Yes, they have begun to chew.



They love shoelaces.



Franklin doesn’t like their teeth.
He likes to move quickly through the room.



We’re trying to crate train the pups. Mattie likes the crate better than the pups. She gets away from them in there!



The pups like to hang out at the gate.
Waiting for friends.



Here are Rose, Ros and Patsy looking for pups to lick through the gate.

Oh, yes, Dan took the pups to the vets for their healthy pup check. He also took Mac who likes to help drive the van. The pups spent the first forty-five minutes asleep in the crate and when they woke up they were a bit fretful. Mac went back and kept them company. He played with them through the wire.

Everyone at the vets fell in love with the pups and they are very healthy!



Such loving sisters.

Mattie is a very good mom. She loves teaching the pups. This week she taught them how to play with the ball.



First she dropped the ball in front of them a few times and chased it. It took awhile but they caught on!



What?



Hmmm.



It’s a lot more fun when your sister wants to play too!

That’s all this week.
Take care.

November 22, 2007

Happy
Thanksgiving!

That says it all doesn’t it?

But there are always pictures of pups that can be added.

(Thank goodness, because Melanie’s list of what happened this week has disappeared)



Mattie is sharing with her pups. REALLY weird.
Mattie doesn’t like to share, but she’ll grab her bone or treat, come into the whelping room and give it to her pups.

Of course, it could be that she’s tired of nursing.
They have sharp teeth now.



Miss Big has found the joys of emptying the trash can.
She pulls out the plastic liner.

Melanie heard her doing it again. (Yes, we do try to stop the behavior, but only after the first few pictures are taken.)
She looked over and saw the trash can moving but no pup.

Now the trash can is next to the piano and the chimney to stop the pups from eating some electrical cords. We thought we had figured it out.
HA.

Miss NAB (formally Miss Little, Dan renamed her Miss Not As Big for the health pup visit to the vet, coming up this Tuesday) had crawled behind the piano on the other side.
Hmmm. Piano’s have two side. Who would of thought of that?

So, now a huge teddy bear is plugging up that hole to the cords.



They’ve gotten a lot better at eating.
Of course, now only the heads fit in the plate not their whole bodies.



We are beginning to paper train.

Slight problem with that.



Paper makes such a great toy.
But since we’re training them to go ON something, doesn’t the empty dinner plate work just as well.



Okay, okay, they’re young, it’s going to take them awhile to get the idea.



An empty puppy biscuit box is a wonderful toy.



Being a puppy can be hard work.



Mattie is coming through with a pig’s ear.
First she circles the pups up.



Then she puts it down for the pups.
Miss Nab at the top, Miss Big lower.



Then one pup gets it (confusing it with the fringe on a blanket which is fun to play with.)



Then the other pup gets the ear.

As mom watches on.





It snowed. The dogs love the snow.
Melanie thought she was taking pictures of Bess and Mac.
But on the right is Patsy. You can tell by her nose!
So Bess on the left and no Mac.



Here’s Rose with another stick. She loves her sticks. But taking pictures of black Newfs in the snow is difficult unless you do close ups.
Melanie decided to get a close up and came up with . . .

Picasso Dog!!



Three eyes and 1 1/2 noses.



Rose with two mouths.

Love that Rose, she’s quick!

News from the Litters:

River Bear Sullivan (Mac and Patsy Pup, MA) is one year old!!

I just wanted to drop you a note to tell you how wonderful Sullivan is doing.  We celebrated his 1st birthday with a party with his dog friends.  He had Frosty Paws instead of cake, which he really enjoyed, although at first wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do and probably consumed a little of the container in his excitement.  He posed for pictures with his party hat.  I cannot believe he is a year old.  Where did the time go.  I wish you could see him in his glory.  He is large and tries to act like the adult newfs in the family, until it comes to what he thinks is really scary and puts his tail between his legs and runs right to me.  What a brave soul.  He weighs about 132 lbs now and is just beautiful.  He is sweet, although still gets in trouble now and again.  Loves to counter surf.  He is extremely athletic as he runs at full speed with his golden retriever friend.  He does very well in obedience classes especially in agility.  Just loves it even though he is clumsy and makes the entire class laugh.



Sullivan is the Newf in the middle.



What a cute picture!
He’s a good mixture of Patsy and Mac.

That’s all Melanie can remember from this week.
Take care.

November 15, 2007

It’s pouring rain outside, the dogs are upset with the river. It is way too noisy! So they are rushing out to bark and then come back in to shake. It’s going to get cold today and the rain is to turn into snow.
It’s warm and dry in here with the pups, beautiful music is playing and shoelaces are getting untied.

Speaking of snow, we woke up Saturday morning to a dusting.



The apples and leaves are still on the trees.
That’s supposed to mean something about weather,
either it’s going to be cold or mild, or long or short.

Something else got a dusting also.



Yes, the squeaky toy that Mattie has been carrying around in her mouth while nursing.

Well that toy has been around.



Mattie brought it in and set it in the living room.



Then she turned it around so it was looking towards the pups.



And Miss Little got the idea!

Mattie has also brought them a bone.



Miss Big got that first.

We’re not saying that Miss Big likes to eat, but the first time they got into the peanut butter jar was by accident.



This time they fell in love with the peanut butter jar.

They are spending most of their time out of the whelping box now.
Helping Dan with cleaning the pellet stove.



Watching Zoë clean up their messes.



They also like to help with the computer.




By sitting between the feet of the person at the computer desk.

We have moved the electrical cords which they have now gotten interested in.

Bigger is better?



Since this picture we’ve added the second layer of the whelping box.
They haven’t crawled out of that yet.

Zoë comes down around 9 pm or 10 pm to stay with the pups. They wake up for her and play and bark and are totally remarkable.

Mattie loves just hanging out with her pups.



They like it too.

They are having a great time being sisters.
Fighting.



And sleeping.



Of course, we have other dogs. And Rose once again takes the cake. Walking down the road near the old camp, Rose dashed into the woods. Deep into the woods. Dan and Zoë could hear her tramping through the underbrush. Concerned that it might be another porcupine, or another bag of candy bait for bears, Zoë blew her whistle. The noise stopped, then started up again. She blew the whistle again and here came Rose flying out of the woods with one of Bess’s wool socks that covers her bandage. Talk about a surprise. Bess had lost that sock a week ago.

Rose also decided that we didn’t have enough greenery in the house.



She brought that through the dog door.
Amazing.

We are sort of learning where Rose is concerned. Melanie decided to empty the dishwasher and in it was a defrosting chuck steak. She was a bit concerned. Like had it gone through the whole cycle?

Turns out Dan had done it after the dishes were clean but the washer was warm and he wanted to use the heat. Melanie just thought it was the perfect way to keep Rose from eating dinner.

Part of the camp area where the dogs get their walk/run has been cleared. It’s part MA’s plan of bringing back meadows and grasslands for certain birds and hares. We have now discovered where Mattie went to get wet. There’s a pond back there. It is now an easy walk for humans.

Melanie wants to bring the pond home.




Pond’s in the background.
That’s Rose in front, Ros in the far back and Patsy to the right, all exploring the great smells.



Ros in front swimming, Rose to left and Patsy to right.



Rose looks sweet doesn’t she?
She is most of the time.
Then there are the other times.
Melanie said today, it’s not that she’s bad, she’s just curious.



Patsy and Rose.

That’s all this week.
Take care.

November 7, 2007

There’s nothing like a rude awakening. As Melanie can attest to from this morning. Sound asleep, she heard a scratching sound that got her attention. The last time she had heard that it was rats. Now, we do live in an old house. We learned that you do not store apples in the basement. We had an infestation when we did that. But that sound . . . She turned on the light. The noise stopped. Nothing. She decided it was too early (and cold) to get out of bed. She started reading. The rat started to scratch again. It sounded like it was coming from the closet in the bathroom. She got up to go get Dan or Zoë so they could agree that she wasn’t nuts, when she realized it was coming from outside. She looked out the window. Since it was getting cold, we had put the dogs’ wading pool (livestock water trough) upside down. It was cold enough for ice and Rose was on top of it having the time of her life, digging the ice from the top. What a nut! Melanie was relived.

Next some puppy pictures!



Yes, the bunny is still in the box. This is from last week. The pups are bigger now. Today Miss Big weighed 8 1/2 lbs and Miss Relatively Little weighed 7 1/2 lbs.
Three and 1/2 weeks old.



They are getting exercise. Here’s Miss Big (on right) winding up to attack her sister.



Took her about a minute to get that far.



There’s also a bear to rest on.



We introduced the pups to food!
Miss Big got the idea right away. Miss Little wasn’t so sure.



She tried the dish first.



But she got the hang of it.



Then it was time to lick the food off each other.
They aren’t very neat about eating.

Okay, some more stories.

Melanie was doing her walk when she met Dan and Patsy coming back from their walk. Patsy was so happy to see Melanie. (It had been twenty minutes or so since they had seen each other.) Melanie offered Patsy a treat. She wouldn’t take it. This is pretty weird. Patsy LOVES food. She offered it again, Pasty wouldn’t take it but got all excited and jumped on Melanie. That’s NOT something Patsy does. Melanie put her back on the ground and offered the treat again. A HUGE apple came falling out of Patsy’s mouth and she gobbled up the treat, grabbed the apple and ate it. Dan remembers passing the apple a ways back on the walk and turning around to look at it and it was gone. Patsy had carried it all that way. You couldn’t even tell she had it in her mouth.

It rained yesterday and the back deck was slick. Dan was coming up from Poop patrol with all the dogs. Mac was waiting at the dog door and Rose ran up on the deck and stopped. At least she meant to stop, she went sliding just like Bambi on ice all the way across the deck and off of it.



Speaking of Rose. She can’t understand how we can tell if she’s been on the counters.



Bess has her bandage taken off tomorrow, which is good because Dan’s wool socks are wearing out. Can you see her toes?



Don’t mean to say Mattie is just a bit weird with the hormones right now, but we found her nursing the pups with a squeaky toy in her mouth.
She also took the peanut butter sandwich that Dan had made her and put it in the whelping box.
We’re not sure if she was trying to feed the puppies, or getting her evening snack ready.



Think they’ve grown?




They’ve gotten to the age that when they are out of the whelping box exercising, we have to be very careful.
They like to get under things.
(Isn’t Miss Big doing a grand job of exercising?)

Now when we get up or move, we have to make sure there are no pups underneath us.



This is under the computer chair.



They are learning to pose.



And trying to untie shoelaces.

The Question

What Do You Do With The Jack O’Lantern After Halloween?



What Else Would We Have Done?

The dogs all ran down in the yard. At first they didn’t notice it, but then Rose saw it, took off running and then stalked that strange beast.



Then everyone had to see. Mac is actually peeing on it. But Bess is in front of him. The Jack O’Lantern looks happy about the whole thing.



The other dogs heard a car and went to bark.
Rose decided to explore.



Patsy decided to see if it rolled. It did. Then she took the top.



Rose decided she wanted the top.
We think Rose could be a yoga instructor.
That’s her head upside down and her body is on the left.
It’s not even twisting.



Patsy won.



So Rose went back to the pumpkin.



Where she was replaced by Mattie (on left) and Mac.



Then Ros took over.
And kept the pumpkin.
It was like a kill. We’re going to have to keep the dogs out of pumpkin patches. It would be a massacre.



Ros victorious.



The pups say good bye for a week.



Aren’t they cute?

Well, we thought we were going to end the log there but there is a post script.

As Melanie was at the computer, in came Mattie with a present for her pups.



Got to love that tongue!

That’s all this week.
Take care.

October 31, 2007

Happy
Halloween!

Melanie has not yet cut a pumpkin, but she found these on a bridge near here.



The only reason she’s going to do a Jack o’ Lantern is for the pumpkin seeds. For the last four years we haven’t had any trick or treaters.
She says she’s going to give the pumpkin to the dogs on November first.

We had a real scare the other day.
Luckily no dogs were underneath this.



Yikes!

Melanie was uploading all the pictures from this week. All of them were of the pups not of the other dogs. We do have some stories though.

Bess has had to have a bandage on her leg (she’s fine, but she licked it too much) and went to the vet last week. Melanie was driving and Mac came along for the ride. Mac sits right up front in the van, he doesn’t help drive, but he does like commenting on the view. Bess also does this, but she likes to look out the back of the van. Mac enjoyed the men working on the road in their orange vests. Every time he saw some he would wag his tail and move to the back of the van to watch them leave. Now bicycles are a different story. Just like zebras for Bess, bikes just aren’t right for Mac. That was loud.

After the vet visit (he was very proud of Bess for not eating her bandage, Zoë has discovered if she puts a wool sock on that foot, Bess won’t touch it) Melanie went through a drive through. Our dogs love drive throughs. It was an Arby’s and she couldn’t find a small sandwich. They did have a kid’s meal though, so when the employee came through with “May I help you?” She went through this.

“Yes, can I get two Jr. Arby’s sandwiches without the meal?”
“You want two Kid’s meals?”
“No, I want the sandwich without all the other stuff.”
“But it all comes together.”
“Yes, but, you see, I’m giving the sandwiches to the dogs and they shouldn’t eat fries and Cokes aren’t a good thing for them.”
“I’ll have to ask my supervisor.”

The supervisor said yes, and as Melanie pulled up to the window Bess and Mac pushed forward to see what was going on. The window employee said, “Jeeze Lady, you sure you don’t want the extra large sandwiches?”

The dogs loved it. They slept all the way home.

Now Rose has been busy. Bess was wearing the Elizabethan collar to keep her from eating the bandage (the sock works better) and we think she paid Rose to take the collar off and then eat it. Melanie took the collar to the vet and explained. He was impressed. He gave us another one, but said to keep it out of Rose’s reach and to only use it on Bess if there’s a problem. We haven’t had to use it.

You would think that we would learn. We don’t. All of us have left things out and Rose has helped decorate. McKey’s phones have been the most expensive, but Dan might have surpassed even that. Dan took a nap and took out his partial plate. Rose thought the partial plate was great and carried it around, dislodged a tooth and remolded the plastic. Dan spent a whole day traveling around getting it fixed.

For some reason he didn’t take Rose.

Okay!
Now for Big Miss and Relatively Little Miss!
(Notice the slight name change.)

As of Saturday morning their eyes were open!
They have begun playing.
They have begun walking.
Big Miss barked for the first time this morning.
She was surprised.

They are fat.

Here is their week in pictures. You can see the difference a week makes.






Look at that stance!



Here we’re not sure if it’s playing or seeing if she can nurse off her sister’s face.



Getting a bath.



Mom cutting off access. That’s a rare event as you can see from Big Miss’s tummy.




Relatively Little Miss chewing on her sister’s leg.




Big Miss has moved (slowly) out of her sister’s reach.



From this morning. Slightly out of focus, but, oh, so cute.

They are out of the whelping box for a while each day. The rug we have in the living room, is perfect for them to grip and start actually walking. They do this for about 2 minutes and then go to sleep.

Melanie discovered if you put them in the sun to take pictures with the good camera, they also go to sleep. They’re good at sleeping.



The eyes are getting tired.



Down for the count. Cute nose.



Little Miss in the sun.



Big Miss dozing.

Folks, they are only two and a half weeks.

News From The Litters:

River Bear Wendell (Bess pup, Mac and Ros’s brother, MO) has sent pictures of the boat rides.

We named the boat Wandering Wendell and I had decals made. I haven't had time to apply them yet.
Take care and say Hi to everyone.





Looks like fun. Have you got room for all of us?

That’s all this week.
Take care.

October 24, 2007

Could it be because of the puppies that we saw the rainbow over the house?



Pretty cool, huh?

Well, it might not be the pups, but you can’t tell us that.

We’re wondering if Mattie stepped out on Mac with a mole.
Most of the time we can’t find them.



From the left that’s two back feet, two front feet and a nose.
It’s Little Miss.



There she is!



There’s Big Miss, having a snooze.

Good thing Mattie is trained in tracking. There will be nothing in sight in the whelping box. She’ll start sniffing and unearth pups.
They’ve gotten huge. We’ve had to restrict her a bit from feeding them.
Big Miss now weighs 5 3/4 lbs and Little Miss weighs in at 4 lbs.



Big Miss unearthed.



Mom and Little Miss (they don’t like baths).

Things to know about mother Newfoundlands.
They are a bit weird.
We have had a stuffed bunny and bear that we keep in the box.
Zoë had cleaned out the box and put in new bedding.

She left out the bunny.

For those of you who have watched “Con Air,” there’s a quote . . .
“Put the bunny, back in the box.”

Well, Mattie looked in the box, saw her puppies, but no bunny. She slunk over to the sofa, grabbed the bunny and put it in the box.
We have not forgotten the bunny since.
Here’s a picture of Mattie skulking around.



For those of you who need an injection of Rose nuttiness. . .

She’s been very busy. Lots of laundry needs to be done when you have puppies. Laundry piles up on the dog room floor. Rose has decided to put the laundry away. Dan’s sock went on one of the kitchen chairs. A tee shirt went to the sofa in the family room and Rose brought Zoë her pants.

She is also helping out in the kitchen. We USED to have a butter dish. You know the kind with the top? We now have a butter bucket. The cover is the only thing that survived. She also helped Dan. Dan had made lamb chops (Dan is an excellent cook) and had created a mint sauce. The sauce was in a cup and then had plastic bag around it. Rose somehow licked the cup clean, while it was still in the plastic bag, and then carrying it by the plastic bag, gave it to Dan. She was very proud of herself.

Yesterday, Melanie was working at the computer and telling Zoë not to worry about the kitchen she'd clean it after she got back from her appointment. Zoë said not to worry about it, she could hear Dan cleaning the kitchen. Hmmm. Dan then walked down the stairs from the bedroom. It was Rosie cleaning the kitchen. We won’t say the condition of the kitchen was.

Here’s Rose




Hope springs eternal in Rose’s mind.
That’s her mom Ros taking a snooze.

The dogs aren’t going to be able to go for rides on the golf cart until Spring. Melanie and McKey were out at the neighbor’s meadow checking out the beaver’s dam.



When the golf cart died. Luckily, we’ve got a “guy” who’ll be able to fix it after the golf courses close.

Our neighbor, who had a golf cart and upgraded to a club cart with a hydraulic dump on it, totally cool, pulled McKey and our golf cart back.

Okay enough.

Melanie had about 1/2 hour of sunlight in the whelping box and brought out the good camera. Some pics are sort of fuzzy because even with the sunlight, the light level made the camera slow.



Little Miss (if you can’t tell) in front.



Their tummies are so big that they have to squirm to move.



Close up of Miss Big.



Such cute faces.



Not too proud are we.



That’s all this week,
Take care.

October 17, 2007

Late Friday night and early Saturday morning, the pups were born. Our male pup didn’t make it which is sad, but the good news is the girls made it.

We can introduce:


Little Miss and Big Miss!



They’re not gray, it’s just hard to take a good picture in the dark.
In this shot, Big Miss (in front) is just under eleven hours old and Little Miss is just under nine hours old.

Now Little Miss was born not breathing.
Zoë got her up and sucked the liquid out of her lungs and nose.
Nothing.
She did the “hold her high over your head and come down fast between your legs, supporting the puppy’s head” movement.
Nothing.
As Zoë was sucking the liquid out once more, Melanie found the Dopram, a stimulant, and put that under Little Miss’s tongue.
Nothing.
Up and down again.
Melanie took her and roughed her fur backwards with a towel and she let loose with a howl!

YES!

She weighed 1 1/2 lbs at birth and has gained 1/2 lb since Saturday morning.
Big Miss weighed 2 lbs at birth and now is 3 lbs.



Can you find the pups?
Mattie is the reason why they’ve gained weight.
We’ve heard of demand feeding . . .
but it’s not the pups demanding, it’s Mattie.

She’s now letting them rest a bit.



She’s resting also. The first few days, she would only feed them sitting up, which meant that she would fall asleep and topple over.
Needless to say, we didn’t sleep at all.



Zoë calls this picture

Unclear on the concept.

We went with a smaller box for the pups that she can’t get in and let her have that one.