1 week post

These were taken 2 days ago and I can see how much they changed in the 2 days already.  I will update more as we go.  Eyes open at 14 to 18 days and will likely take individual shots then.

Dog breeding can be difficult.  Mostly the hard parts are largely outweighed by the happy. But I have lost two puppies, 1 blue girl and 1 blue boy.  I do have nine puppies that are doing well and are beautiful.  I'll update with photos next time.

Pups and Luna- Day 3

Day 3- We have taken a good turn.  Luna is frisky-back to herself ( with a Super Mom added to her abilities).  And pups much more full and robust.  I am still tube feeding the 2 smaller ones as needed and I am still setting my alarm clock for 2 hour checks. Luna was SO happy to discover a NEW toy on the floor that I got this morning at TSC.

They're here!  Via-c-section early this Sunday morning Luna was on the table at 4:30.  We have 11 puppies!

5 boys, 6 girls.  2 boys are black and 2 girls are black and all the rest are blue merle. Hopefully all will make it.  I have some intensive care for Luna and pups and must keep a close eye on them.

Thank you for all your prayers and support!

Luna-New Years Day- day 59 and counting

So here is my blue whale!  It'll be soon.  Thank you for the prayers.  Hopefully the next post will be with healthy happy pups and Mom.

Cruise news

EDIT:  At first when I posted this, I totally forgot to tell WHY we took this cruise!  We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and David's retirement!!

We left Friday Oct. 19 for Barcelona Spain.  The cruise started Oct. 21.  We cruised across the Atlantic to Miami (13 nights)              This is Fire Lake, in a volcanic crater, at the top of  the Azores Island Portugal- first stop.  I had a bit of a cold and gee, look like it.

                                          This is the evening sail-away from St. Thomas- 2nd stop

Near the port...part of one of the very many fountains and statues in Barcelona.  Christopher Columbus  with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

                         A church on the Azores ...the town was, Ribeiro Grande built in 1522!!!

                                                The NCL Epic at port in Azores

                           David writing a post card at a very small courtyard fountain in Barcelona.

                               Anniversary dinner on board- Italian specialty restaurant 'La Cuccina'

                                         A park in Ribeiro Grande with very unusual trees.

Countryside view on Azores, Portugal.

Barcelona marketplace- a fruit/juice stand

Barcelona walk up and wall area (only a small portion)

                              Ribeiro Grande licor shop- we got a very small coffee flavor sample bottle.
               The buildings all have basalt (rock from the volcano activity) around windows and doorways.

                                                      Ribeiro grande 'river'- Azores

The cruise was fantastic.  The Norwegian Epic is HUGE, but being out in the middle of the Atlantic for so long, with only water for 360 degrees all around as far as the eye could see, gave us a new appreciation of the vastness of the ocean and the Lord's creation, and made our huge ship seem rather insignificant.  Except for getting a mild cold the first few days of the trip, I don't think things could have gone much better.  The seas were extremely friendly the entire time (even so, I have to have the seasick patches ), and the temperature throughout the trip was much more mild than we had prepared for.  We saw the Rock of Gibraltar on one side, and the city of Tangier, Morocco, on the other, as we passed from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.  We spotted dolphins in the Mediterranean, and flying fish several times in the Atlantic.  The stop in the Azores Islands (Portuguese territory) was nice.  We took a bus tour around part of the island.  The only other stop before we reached Miami was in St. Thomas.  It was pretty muggy there.  We walked around for a while, did a little shopping, then went back to the ship.  The U.S. immigration process was done in St. Thomas.  They came onto the ship and had everyone pass through immigration right there on the ship.  The customs part didn't happen until Miami, since everyone got off with their luggage at that point.

On the ship, the very first day, we met a father and son (son in his early 40's) who are Christians.  We spent some time with them a few times during the cruise.  They even paid our cover charge to get into one of the specialty restaurants as an anniversary gift to us.  There was an unexpected non-denominational Sunday service that we attended. I say "unexpected" because someone had asked at the guest services desk if there was going to be a Sunday service, and they were told there was nothing scheduled.  But there was, and it went very well.  The ship's captain was even there!  We did everything from attending a talk on the history of salt (it was actually pretty interesting) to attending an art auction which included Picassos and Rembrandts (didn't buy anything), to seeing multiple theater shows including Blue Man Group, Legends in Concert (look-alikes and sound-alikes of Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson, Jimmy Buffet, etc.), a comedian/magician and a comedian/hypnotist.  Also saw other entertainment by the improv troupe Second City (many who are on Saturday Night Live come from there) and several different musical performances.  We saw a movie almost every day on the big screen in the Atrium (central area of the ship), and sometimes on the big outdoor screen at the rear of the ship, as well as movies on the t.v. in our cabin.  Other than that, we ate and slept, then ate again.  There was, of course, lots of very good food, but I think my favorite items were the pistachio ice cream and the pistachio pound cake.  I got some much needed rest and sleep.  One thing about having our first inside cabin... short of looking at the clock to see the time, you could never tell when daylight arrived.  It was great for sleeping in, but kind of bothersome in a way too.  One wonderful "plus" to travelling in a westward direction was that we gained a hour six times out of the thirteen nights as we changed time zones.  Even more sleep time!!  We had, of course, lost all that time on the flight to Barcelona, but it still seemed like an added bonus to get it back like that.   

     

The price was right since for us it was FREE.  We accrued cash/cruise points on our credit card which we always pay off each month (no debt).  The airfare was also a perk from David's employment at United Airline

Getting there...

Lots to share!  First I got to a dog show! I got reserve ( second one) with Luna, which is fine, it was only her 3rd show for an 'in repair' dog and few and far in between outings for her. I can finally get away some with David here now...YES!  David is here for good!  He's been here for 2 and 1/2 weeks.  There is a lot we have had to organize and catch up on since he arrived.  We also celebrated our 25th ANNIVERSARY!

As you know, my camera died.  David looked into getting it repaired and there was a pretty certain  diagnosis which would have cost about $82.  The camera years ago...was waaay expensive compared to what is available today, SO, he has ordered me a new one!  Photos again! Yea!  I have so missed my camera!  Hope it gets here soon.

No puppies coming here yet...  I plan on breeding though, very soon.  BUT I do have a 12 week old puppy coming to me!...More on her later.

Been working on fence building-wow! Hard work.  We are putting in square wood posts and 'Red Brand' 4x4 field fence.  It is a loooong process with only me and 1 fence man.  We may be done by spring-HA!

One sad note:  Flash is now over the bridge.  I don't really want to talk about it since the (avoidable) health issue is something that has hit me hard.

Hopefully the next post will have photos- lots of them. Of: Sasha and the new pup (if she gets here by then) and maybe some of my whole crew, which, with the new puppy will be 6 dogs.  So, that means I have 5 dogs right now!  I cannot recall when I last had only 5 dogs!

SMILES!