We’ve taken more deposits since the ultrasound on Wednesday, and we will now wait until the birth to see how many puppies are actually born and thrive. If you’re interested in a pup, please subscribe to this blog. We will announce if we have extra puppies available around early November.
We would like to announce that Astraea is VERY pregnant! The poor vet had difficulty getting a good count because there were so many pups. She estimated 12-14 puppies!!! We have decided that we will accept more pre-birth deposits, so if you have contacted me with interest about a puppy, have filled out a puppy application and were told you would be a good fit, and subscribed to this blog, text me if you are interested in putting a deposit down. It looks like it’s going to be a busy Halloween!
Astraea and Wrecks are getting updated OFA eye exams tomorrow, and Astraea will be getting her ultrasound on September 30th to confirm her pregnancy! At the moment we only have room for 2 more deposits! What a great fall we have ahead of us!
First we would like to say that Wrecks and Astraea completed their Embark genetic tests and they are completely clear of everything Golden Retriever oriented including Ichthyosis, PRCD, PRA1, and PRA2 along with dozens of other tests that can be found on their Embark profiles for those interested. Wrecks completed and passed his OFA Hips, Elbows, Heart, and Patella X-Rays, and both Astraea and Wrecks have their yearly eye exams scheduled for a couple weeks from today. We’re so excited and proud! We also want to announce that Astraea went into heat MONTHS before she was expected to, and progesterone tests indicate that she did indeed ovulate. We will confirm the hoped for pregnancy at the end of September. She and Wrecks were exhaustive in their efforts to create a litter, and they simply adore one another. What a year this has been! If this pregnancy is successful, pups will be born around Halloween and will go home right before Christmas! We are now accepting deposits again!
We have a special announcement! We got two adult goldens on our trip back to Wyoming. One was a female (Astraea) with almost all her health testing complete from a retiring breeder, and the other is a male (Titanic Wrecks) from our first litter whose family circumstances changed. Provided they both respond well to training and pass the rest of their health tests, we may have puppies much sooner than we expected! These are quick pictures that we got while traveling. We’ll take better ones soon!
Whiskey and Rye are getting bigger and bigger. Whiskey is a little on the chunky side even, but he will tighten up and slim down into that field body soon enough. Both are doing very well with their obedience training, and they are starting to be introduced to service work as Psychiatric Service Dogs. Both did well on their first public outings to Home Depot and Costco. The temperaments of these dogs are absolutely great. If all goes as hoped this month, we may be announcing a new couple of dogs soon (adult dogs). This means we might have more puppies available sooner than we thought, and I’ll have a lot more training to take on. Hopefully all the details work themselves out the way we hope in the next couple weeks!
In our past updates you will find that we lost Carmel who was our perfect girl and the foundation of our kennel. Her final pups have homes, and we have kept one of her sons. We have also chosen another female from California to add to our program. Our next litter will not be available until at least later in 2021. Pictures and videos of our new puppy couple will probably be all over our Instagram. Please follow this blog, our Instagram, and/or our Facebook page for current information. We would be happy to discuss our deposit process with families, but we will not officially accept any deposits until 2021. Thank you!
The passing of our dear Carmel and the pups that followed her grieves us deeply. The updates have been non- existant because it was too overwhelming to keep up with everything that happened. We have decided that we will keep a boy who will become our stud. After making this decision, a search ensued for a future girlfriend for our new little buddy. Dreams of a happy little puppy couple growing up together comforted my heart and eased the pain of losing the bright future we expected with Carmel. We found our new girl, and she was born on the day that our stud and the rest of Carmel’s final litter was due (they were born almost a week early). We plan to pick our new girl up March 28th providing all goes smoothly. Thank you for everyone who has messaged, texted, called, prayed, and hugged us. We feel so blessed to have so many people care. Thank you!
Last week Carmel started vomiting, and she quickly declined. She never spiked a fever, but her kidneys and liver were working over time and started to fail. The thought was that she had such bad morning sickness that she just couldn’t eat. Blood tests, X-rays and ultrasound showed that nothing was wrong. We had her at the vet during the day on IV fluids, antibiotics, and anti emetics, and she slept at home with us at night, but no one could get her to eat. She went into early labor Monday night. The first puppy did not survive, but the rest were saved through C-section. While in surgery, the vet discovered that she had ingested something that perforated her intestines, which was the cause of her issue. It was a string that sawed through her intestines, and it couldn’t be detected by any of the tests they ran. She came out of surgery fine, but she passed away in our home the next morning. Her death was not related to the pregnancy in any way, and she took care of and nourished her puppies perfectly all the way up until the end. Her body performed incredibly to protect and provide for her babies. Currently, we are tube feeding her beautiful and healthy 9 surviving pups. The 11-12 was a miscounted x-ray (she only had 10). The pups are putting on weight, getting lots of our human contact and love, and getting frequent checkups by vets. There are 4 girls, and 5 boys. We have up to 4 puppies that may be available (1 girl, and 2 boys), but we will be able to say that with more confidence next week if all the puppies continue to stay strong and put on weight. We are planning to keep a girl from this litter, and we are praying that one of the families to get an available boy would consider being a guardian family for us, so we could have a stud from our beautiful Carmel girl. Please pray for our grieving hearts as we love and care for our perfect girl’s last beautiful blessing.
Oh man! Those words in that order are a mouth full! We accepted our final female pre-birth deposit, but there will be at least a 3 pup buffer for families still interested. We have a couple families who will be waiting until the birth to see if more of their preferred gender is born. Follow our blog or our Facebook page if you would like to stay updated.