Just because I haven't posted anything doesn't mean stuff hasn't been going on!

I got a call from Mike Reid and then Jason Cook on Tuesday night. They wanted to use Rex on Jason's Jello. No problem. Jason brought Jello over to Bowdon Animal Clinic and they inseminated her on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The vet staff was very impressed with how Rex handled himself. He semen was clean, active and very voluminous. He is a good stud that is throwing nice pups.

I got Trojan's Major win picture in the mail. The angle is horrible and makes him look as though he is straight in the rear which is ABSOLUTELY not the case. He is awful handsome though. Jennifer stepped in since Norlee had to go to the bulldog ring. The Judge is Mr. Ed Bivens.

Tammie sent me more pictures of the pups earlier in the week and I failed to get them up. These are from Wednesday the 14 when they were three weeks old:

Sidney, James and I went over to see Tammie and the pups on Saturday. This is the most special time for me with puppies. They are changing from being infants to something that can walk around and act on its own. I really like the 4 to 8 week stage. They are still very fragile and require a lot of attention but you sort of take a deep breath once they start eating solid food. They have razors for teeth and will chew on anything! We had just picked up Rex when Tammie called me back so we took him along. It was great and the pups love being outside in the sunshine.

Today was spent cleaning and washing and stripping. With this many big dogs, the work never really ends. Sidney put Trojan in Morrigan's pulling harness. He didn't care. He drug a stick around for a while. I told Sidney to tie him to an old bumper I have laying around. He didn't like that as much until Sidney's knot came loss. Then they trotted around for a pretty good ways until she realized he wasn't dragging anything but a rope. It was humorous.

Chocolate has been in South Georgia and Northern Florida all weekend. She was being shown as a special trying to earn a best of breed. She ran into Honey and lost all three days. That's okay. Chocolate's day will come very soon. Jennifer brought her and Oscar to the house on her way home. They are both gorgeous. Chocolate is beautiful and Honey must be in top form to beat her. Chocolate will soon be VERY hard to beat.

I am going to get Oscar and Chocolate's hips and elbows done at BAC this week so that they can have their health testing completed. Right now, Rex with Roxie and Oscar and Chocolate are having a contest to see who can bark the loudest. We will be diplomatic and call it a draw.

It has been a long time since I have had eight Mastiffs on site. It makes me very happy.

Well, I'm flattered. Folks had begun calling me to make sure that I was okay because I haven't posted in almost two weeks! I'm fine. The children and I have just been very busy. Last weekend, Laura came home to watch James compete in the State Wrestling Championships. We spent 15 hours a day at the Gwinnett Civic Center and drove back and forth to Bowdon. It was exhausting! James wrestled well. He won three of his five matches before he was eliminated.

I did get to see the puppies Tuesday. They are gorgeous. Heather has to be going insane! Bailey is so cute and so sweet. These pups are super calm. Tammie has done a tremendous job with them! On their four week old birthday, Fionn and Bailey weighed 7.5 and 6.5 pounds respectively. That is a very healthy weight for bottle fed pups. Now that they are on solid food, look out! They will really start putting on the poundage! They will soon be terrorizing Tammie's horde!

Okay, time for some birthday pictures:

Jennifer has discovered that she did indeed have ChocoDiva's new champion picture.

20070208 Bundles O' Joy!

2007-02-06 Got Milk? I'm interested.

2007-02-03 Sugar stands guard duty.

LET THE GROWING BEGIN!

Tammie sent me an email this morning. Fionn is up to 4.5 ponds and Bailey is up to 4.0 pounds. Lets see, carry the Q, subtract the 3.... Yep, they're gaining about a thrid of a pound per day. The amazing thing is that once they start eating solid food, that rate will increase dramatically to almost a pound per day! SO MUCH FUN! You can literally see these guys growing!

I have all kinds of pictures but I am super busy at work. I will get them up as soon as I can. Wait until you see the one of Gizmo with the pups. Let's put it this way, the pups aren't the smallest dogs in the house anymore!

With most breeds, puppies open their eyes between 10 and 14 days. It has been my experience that Mastiffs open their eyes between 17 and 20 days. Only a couple have made it to 20 days and they were some of the smaller pups that may have been fertilized late. Regardless Fionn and Heather are into day 14 already so it won't be long!

Tammie took them in to get their first worming today and to get a good weight on them. Dr. McCord was VERY pleased with the pups. He could not believe how robust they were. Okay, I'll quit torturing you, The Mighty Fionn weighed in at 3.3 pounds and Sissy Heather weighed 3.1 pounds. Heather has gained 1.3 pounds in 5 days! The worming should help too. I was very aggressive with Roxie's worming and prenatal care before I let her breed and I think it has made a huge difference in her puppies. However, the rule is that regardless of how much prevention you have, puppies have worms. Period. Worm early and often. I have seen a pup die of worms and I hope to never see it again.

On with the show! ... pictures will follow.

Trojan is doing great. Even his toughest critic, Jennifer, thinks he looks, "okay". Going into the weekend, there was the possibility of winning two five point majors. On Saturday, the 5 pointer broke down into a 4 pointer. One dog was dismissed an another had its ribbon withheld and was told to stand outside the ring. (That is actually a very polite way if saying what the judge said to and about the dog. Profanity was used!) Anyway, Trojan won Open, Winners and Best of Winners and earned 4 points, raising his total to 12. I videoed a lot of this show and I may have some of it on tape but I haven't reviewed it yet.

On Sunday, I hoped we would have a new champion. 13 dogs were entered and we only needed 7 to show up for a 3 point major. Trojan and Norlee did their jobs but only 6 dogs showed up. Trojan didn't get his second major. This is the FOURTH time greater than 5 dogs have not shown up to break a major on a day that Trojan won. Quite a frustrating situation. Regardless, Trojan got a real hard look against the three specials, but they were three very good specials. He won Open, Winners and Best of Winners for the second day. Trojan has 14 points and needs a major of any value to finish.