Busy July

July has had a very exciting start! First Rose had her beautiful pups and today
Esme delivered Hero!
Esme started showing signs of whelping on July 5th. After an uncomfortable night she started contractions at 4:45 am. At 5:30 am Esme delivered a still born little boy. She was very upset and confused as to why he wasn't moving.
I was worried that maybe she wouldn't have any other puppies but at 7 am she started contracting again and at 7:30 her Hero arrived.

I have nicknamed Esme's little guy Hero as I am positive that he saved the day.

Rose's Little ones are doing great!

These are our 2 princes.

And Rose's Princesses are already looking forward to meeting their forever families.
Too Cute!
I am sending out emails to all the families on our waiting list and giving each family a few days to decide if they would like a prince before moving down the list to the next family. It does take some time but I want to make sure all our puppies go to good and loving families.
If you would like to see more pictures of the puppies please check out our Picasa album at
https://picasaweb.google.com/honeyridgepuppies

On to the sad part of this blog.

We will have a short service and burial of Esme's still born puppy this evening. We will also plant a tree to remember him.
I normally do not add this type of caution to our blog but even 8 hours after the delivery I still tear up just thinking about it, and I felt it was important to share.

I frequently get calls and emails from families wanting to breed their family pet and this seems like a good time to make this statement. Every pregnancy carries risk, both to mom and the puppies. Also every pregnancy requires commitment from the human family as well. Esme had human company all day July 5th and I was awake and next to her all night. Loosing a puppy due to delivery complications is very sad and super scary for everyone involved. Also if I had not been right there with Esme, we might have lost Esme as well. Having a great communication with your vet during the pregnancy and delivery is essential. We kept in touch with the vet during the day on July 5th so that he was aware of what was going on and I had to call him at 5:25 am because I was unsure how to continue with the delivery, he was very helpful and talked me through the steps that I needed to take. To those considering breeding their family pet please be aware of the health risks before breeding.

I am very happy that Hero is doing so well. Esme is doing great and is very proud of her little prince.
Until next time,
Loretta