Üctober 24^th, 2005

On Friday evening, October 21st, we had just managed to finish building a box for the puppies. Thanks to our friend Christoph, who is a carpenter. We were joking around that we are ready and the puppies could come … and then … it was early in the morning on October 24^th. (Picture 1+2) Ilonka-Tara made us wake up and everything indicated the coming birth. The first puppy (it was  female) was born at 07:05 o’clock accompanied by a loud squeak of Ilonka-Tara. At irregular intervals 9 cute little black Terrier puppies saw the light of day. Whereas the last puppy took her time (of course, girls always need their time to get ready) and was born at 10:39 o’clock. 5 puppies of “Zlato s Bavarskogo dvora” are female and the other 4 are male.
For the time being, we assigned the following colors to the girls: pink, red brown, yellow and turquoise. The boys got the colors blue, green, purple and bordeau.

October 28^th, 2005.

Today the “Zuchtwart” (he is responsible to control the breed) visited us and had a look on our A-litter. Great – no complaints. They are all lying in the box and just think of  ….  guzzling and snoozing. I’m very proud on Tara
We’ll put some more pictures online soon.

October 31^st, 2005:

Today the puppies are one week old. They have recovered very well and even doubled their weight. There is not much happening at the moment, except that they are alternately spend their time sleeping and drinking. Once and a while we hear slightly complaining, barking and growling sounds and see them crawling around. Especially “Mrs Red”, she has been record-breaking crawling around in the box. But she has found her favourite place right at her mom’s tail. Whenever mom is coming back from a little walk and gets back into the box, the “little black hippos” start moving loudly and hectically towards the odorous “milk bar” (I think that describes it pretty good). It begins with a hard fight for the best place at the dug. “Unfriendly take-over of a dug” and heaviest “attacks” are included. When they have had enough milk, they just fall to the side and make room for the other “complainingly waiting” ones, who also want to drink.

November 3^rd, 2005:

The puppies start to walk around. The red one is moving wobbling through the box and once and a while she sits down. Especially snuffling out of the box is very interesting. (picture 20) this wobbling way of walking reminds of the “neurological pathology of alcohol influence”. The eyes are opening more and more. But it will still take some time until they are able to see anything. The ears stay fold forward a little longer.

November 5^th, 2005:

Today I changed the puppies’ color tapes. The male dog with the bordeau colored tape got a second tape, a blue one, since it was hard to distinguish him on the pictures. He now wears the tape bordeau-blue.

November 6^th, 2005:

Today I had to cut the puppies’ claws since they grazed Ilonka-Tara’s sensitive skin while drinking from her dug. This manicure was accepted very reluctantly, like all kinds of personal hygiene. The puppies are more and more getting used to walking, at least they try to. They don’t manage to walk a long time, suddenly they fall sidewards, sprawl and take a nap until it’s time to have another “drink”.

November 8^th, 2005:

The puppies just turned two weeks. The have all opened their eyes by now. Once and a while they wink and they close their eyes again to take a well-deserved nap. (If you eat a lot you also need to rest a lot!) But that did pretty good to the little blue one, he has gained weight and even got ahead (in weight) of three other puppies. Still, for me he remains the pet of the family. They are all developing pretty fast and become little “hunks”. When Tara returns from a short trip “pee” the hunks immediately storm the “milk bar”.

Today we also dewormed the puppies. Of course they didn’t like it at all … see pictures 50-51-43-48.

November 11^th, 2005:

Today I started with additional feeding. Premium beef without any additives served in little dishes. Have a look at the pictures. All of them dispatched the food immediately without any problem. Now they even start to take stock in their siblings and the environment.

November 14^th, 2005:

Three weeks ago the puppies were born. At this point of time they have all gained at least the fourfold of their birth weight. The puppies don’t receive simply meat, but also porridge and delicious honey-curd. The little teeth are growing and of course Tara perceives this while the puppies are drinking from her dugs. Looks like the food tastes pretty good, they can hardly get enough! They start playing around with each other and spend lots of time lying on and next to each other. It’s much fun to watch the puppies eating and playing. And time passes by so quickly!

November 17^th, 2005:

I opened the puppy box, so that they have additional space. They have lots of baby and puppy toys to enhance their further development. I isolated a little area where they receive their meals served in little bowls. While eating, they make use of their whole body. They are standing with their front paws inside the bowl and rival in guzzling. Of course they always try to push away the opponent and get his meal as well.

November21th, 2005:

Today the puppies were dewormed for the second time. Looks like this medication tasted better then the other one.

November 23^rd, 2005:

Now we have a big feeding bowl out of which all 9 puppies can eat, without pushing each other (have a look at the pictures). But the mashing has not stopped! After having finished the favored honey-curd meal, they receive a copious washing from mom and aunt Leia cleans the little bowls. The puppies romp around in the puppy room and carry out little fights with each other. When I enter the room I’m getting overwhelmed, nibbled and welcomed with little bites into the calf.

Picture from Puppies 1-6

The Puppies’ father:

Ljubimets Zolotogo Grada iz Russkoi Dinastii, born on August 10^th, 2001 HD A