Pulling at my heart strings!

Well, one by one the puppies are leaving me!!!! It is so bittersweet. But, I truly believe that they have found wonderful, loving homes! Just so you can grasp this: We would go through a 20 lb. bag of puppy food in 6 days!!!! Can you imagine 10 puppies all pooping at the same time? I can! If I wasn't johnny on the spot to scoop, we would have to move their pen! Out of control I tell you!!! I have loved every minute of them, really. They are such beautiful creatures and are so full of life. We have seen a new side of Kinsley this past week. You know, Bentley has always been crazy, we get that! But Kins, she is so timid and just follows along. This week, she has been playing with the puppies, rolling on the ground, throwing toys in the air. So fun! She is still doing her "mommy duties," she will nip at the puppies if they need it or she will nudge them with her muzzle. I still have 5 puppies in my possession. One, "Charlie," is going to Bentley's brother that lives around the corner. His name is Hunter and he needs a friend, desperately! I look and him and think, "Oh my! that is how Bentley would still be acting if we hadn't gotten him a playmate!" He has been nicknamed "Charlie" because he has a "C" of white fur on this hip! I have two interested parties for 2 others. They are just trying to gather funds or prep their houses and yards to bring a puppy home. I pray that they come through this week. I have a college student that is also interested. He is at A&M and is transferring to Tech in the fall, studying Electrical Engineering. Sounds like a great kid, trying to make all the right decisions. We'll see!!!!! I haven't given up, they will be 8 weeks on Wednesday. So, in due time, they will all be gone!

Here are a few pictures from the last week. (I think I have just as many of the puppies as I do the kids!)

BTW, spring break was great! We couldn't go on an extravagant vacation because we had puppies to look after, and FEED! We laid low, Lee and I stayed up until midnight every night, catching up on our taxes, watching movies, watching all of the stuff in DVR. He had taken several days off. The girls would let us sleep until 9, it was fabulous! We went and saw "Gnomeo and Juliet" and "Rango." They were really cute! The girls loved it! We finally got the front beds completely mulched. If you have seen my yard, you understand me. It took 5 truck beds of mulch, something like 60 yards of mulch! We planted lots of flowers. The darn wind has been blowing so much, there are millions of leaves that now cover my beautiful, fresh mulch! It looks so bad, I'm not even going to post a picture! Maybe after the bitterness wears off!

Anyway, here are some sweet babies!





These are from today, playing with bubbles.





The puppies that have left are, in order: Max, Madison, Brownie, Duke and Beau. Duke and Beau went together!!!! Isn't that cute?

Puppies are active little creatures!

The puppies are just shy of their 6 week birthday. They are all doing great. I love spending time with them and know them pretty well by their markings and personality. We only have 5 left to sell. I expect things to pick up now that they are older and so close to being able to go to their new homes. It feels like that movie "Beethoven's 2nd" with all the puppies EVERYWHERE! You just can't imagine it, you have to see it to believe it. It's crazy! Kinsley has been letting Bentley interact with the puppies for a few weeks now, ever since they went outside. I kid that he is a better daddy than Kinsley is a momma. She is just done, her poor tits are just raw from 10 puppies chewing on her. I only let her in the pen twice a day now. The puppies love to be out and chasing Bentley all over the back yard doing their "springer" thing, springing! LOVE it! I can't ever get enough puppy breath! I will be in mourning as these little guys start leaving next week!

As they sell, I am putting new collars on them. I was painting a toe nail with fingernail polish and my Dad had a royal fit! So, collars it is!

Here are some recent pictures.




These two little guys with the matching collars are going home together! It's like they already know! They are always together!

Lots of new freedom!

These guys are 4 weeks old now! And, I am in love with every single one of them!!!!! We had a great family come yesterday, they wanted to buy a puppy to surprise their 6 year old for his birthday. These puppies are so dang cute, they bought 2!!!
When I go into their pen, I call "Puppies! Puppies!" and they come running! We introduced them to puppy food mush today, what a treat!! It is hysterical to watch 10 puppies eat frantically, like the food is going to run out, so hurry!


Too bad all 10 of them weren't trying to escape at the same time! ha, ha!
That board can't hold them in anymore!
Hi Dad!!

The dog house

Oh boy! We have a massive dog house now. Lee and the girls worked so hard on it and even painted it. They are very proud. We put a 1x12 board across the front to keep the puppies in. Then, we put on a flap with hinges so that we can raise it up and be able to get to the puppies, clean, feed, etc. In the next week or 2, we will pull all that off and they will be able to come and go. The dog house is sitting in the middle of a 10x10 pen that we used to use for Bentley at the other house. This way, the puppies can't escape. Our yard is fenced with wrought iron, so they could slip through.
Here's the dog house!


The neighbor boy is helping paint.

Who knew we had an artist in the family?

Lee let the girls paint green and pink polka dots on the side with the leftover paint from their room.

Here they are getting ready for bed the other night with the heat lamp on. THAT IS A LOT OF PUPPIES!!!!

Plenty of room.

Gorgeous specimen!!!

Puppies - 3 weeks old

The puppies are 3 weeks old now! They have all found their little voices. All the growling and barking is precious during the day....but not so cute at 3am! We still have them in the little swimming pool, which is now in the living room! Kinsley doesn't like to lie and nurse the puppies if I am not sitting with her or near her! UGH! Some nights, I literally sit next to her on the floor, and bribe her with Fruit Loops or peanut butter sandwiches. Crazy! She is constantly starving and hangs out in the kitchen waiting for something to fall, or looking at you with those sad Springer eyes, waiting for you to hand her something. But, I guess I would be hungry too burning all those calories to feed 10 puppies!

Last week, she developed a horrible mastitis in one of her tits. It was grotesque! I took her in to the vet and he started her on some antibiotics. But the catch was: she can't nurse the puppies from that tit and to watch for the other tits to develop mastitis, the puppies could die from the infection! Ok, so first of all, you are telling me that they can't nurse from one of her only 7 tits and there are 10 puppies? or secondly, that I might have to bottle feed 10 puppies? You have got to be kidding me!!!! I cried and cried over the ordeal. I tried wrapping her up with coban to cover up the tit. Well, that only worked for a few hours. Then, Lee came to the rescue with duct tape! We taped that thing off and now no one can use it!! Well, by the next night, she was as engorged as a dairy cow! I pulled the tape off, sat with her on the floor for an hour and every puppy was able to get a full belly. She did great and the swelling went way down.

My tactic for a full belly: There are 5 sleepers and 5 feeders.....only 7 tits, remember? I pull 5 out and put them in the box, so they are called the sleepers, cause that is all they do! I leave 5 "feeders" in the pool to nurse. After 15-20 minutes, we rotate the feeders and the sleepers! Works great! Corinne and Claire are huge helpers! They have the routine down pat!

Look how they filled the box!
This is from the day they were born. I move them into here to change out the bedding.

Here they are at 2 weeks old.
Here they are at 3 weeks old, no more room and climbing out!
The puppies did NOT like the cold tile! This is the first time that Kinsley has let Bentley near the puppies without biting his face off!

Look! There are puppies everywhere!



Bentley getting in a little love!
Stay tuned for pictures of the new dog house that Lee and the girls built! Very soon, the puppies will be outside!!!!! I get my house back!

The Puppies are here!!!!

Well, it lasted 6 1/2 hours! We have 10 puppies! 9 boys and 1 girl! They were born January 26, 2011!

I included several pictures from the eventful evening. Susan came and
helped me out. Lee held out as long as he could. I am exhausted, so is
Kinsley! Everything went really well. I only had to cut one cord and I
only called the emergency number once! On the ninth one, she was so
busy trying to clean herself, that she wouldn't bite through the cord.
So, being the handy nurse that I am, at 0300, used dental floss to tie
it off. Then I wasn't sure if I should cut the puppy loose or not,
because if I did, there wasn't going to be any cord hanging out. Ok,
so that is more detail than you ever wanted. The ER told me to cut it.
So, when that all came out, so did another pup! Total shock! I was
ready to get things cleaned up and oops, there's another. Being that
many, I kept counting and counting to make sure everyone was accounted
for! I also included a pciture of the "nursery" complete with Baby
Daddy standing by. Ignore the trash. I had read to use
newspaper.....bad idea! It is just a mess. My ceilings are so high and
Kinsley is deathly afraid of the laundry room, so Susan and I made a
MASH unit by hanging a sheet to hold the heat in from the two heaters
that were on. Ideally, the room temp should be 85 degrees. It worked
really well! I can't thank Susan enough for helping me out and getting
through the hardest parts, i.e. waiting 1 hr 45 min for the second
pup. I was sure they had all died!


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2010 - All Wrapped Up!

Time is flying!!!! We were so fortunate to have had a wonderful year! Here is some catching up from the last few months.

November 2010 -
In early November, we went to visit Lee's cousin's new ranch in East Texas. It was so beautiful! We had a good time taking in the nature, playing games, and fishing! With EVERY cast, the girls caught a fish! After 20 or so, it lost it's appeal, so they went with a boat ride with their daddy.

Even held the worms!





We spent Thanksgiving at Brenda and Gary's. All the family came over for a big turkey dinner.
Claire showing her Great Granddad how to play the iPad.
Some of the family.
Me showing Sue how to play Words with Friends!


Lee and his brother Todd, are in the process of helping Gary build a barn.



This is the big welding thingy. I have no idea what it is called, but I called it "Mater," from the movie Cars. It was so loud and so old!

Corinne sporting some welding goggles.
Don't you know that Kinsley decided to go into heat just before leaving for Brenda and Gary's. The weather was gorgeous, and she and Bentley got to spend time in the sheep pen, which is next to the new barn that is going up. I had Lee on "look out" duty, to spot any "connection" between the dogs. :)
My "blue color worker!"
The triangle looking things will be turned upright to form the roof.

We took Granddaddy down to see what the boys were up to in the Polaris. Man, that thing can go fast!


December 2010 -

We had gorgeous weather almost the entire month, there were days when we were wearing shorts and flip flops!

Mom and Dad, Justin, and his girlfriend, Michelle, all flew in for the holidays. We had an amazing time! We shopped, guys golfed, we ate like kings, and played lots of games!


Aren't they the cutest, ever? Cousins!!!
Andrew kissing Corinne.
Proud Papa and his crew!
And, that funny Uncle Justin!
The girls in their new princess jammies from Nana.....and Drew!!!

Claire and her buddy, Andrew.
Nana and Lauren.
More cousins!
Our whole family!! TOGETHER!!!
The kids pushing Lee through the house in his office chair.

Check back next month for pictures of THE PUPPIES!!!!! Oh boy!