dogs – Page 8 – Karla's Cottage

Sneaking in an itsy bitsy, teensy weensy amount of crafting, Guncle Time, and Freddy

By Karla Nathan / November 6, 2020

Guncle Randy came to visit last week and we had big plans for crafting every day in the studio while puppies ran around our feet.

Then this happened. Poor, little Freddy got sick. And the weather turned snowy, so the other pups were cooped up indoors. Not only was I up with Freddy throughout the night, holding him, medicating him and getting him to the vet, I had major cleanup to do nonstop with 15 other pups who couldn’t go outside to play.

16 pups are a ton of work on a good day, if you want to do it right. It’s important to keep them and their area clean, if you want to housebreak them. They need to know that pottying just anywhere isn’t allowed, so if they do, it needs mopped up. And the scent needs to be removed so they learn that isn’t the spot to go in.

Oh, they got fleas too. And were too young for chemicals. They had to be bathed and gone over with a flea comb, it was the only treatment I could do. Sixteen little wrigglers who needed to be gone over with a fine tooth comb multiple times isn’t a speedy activity.

And with new families being far away, or not able to visit due to covid, I want lots of photos to send to them. Plus, the dogs need to learn manners, I have to de-worm them, do their shots, make special food, and most of all, snuggle them, of course.

(Videos of the babies can be found on Instagram at Cottage Doodles, and a few are on my FB page)

They also needed their fluffy butts shaved for sanitary reasons. Which reminds me, I think they are due for another shave before they go home next week…

But we did not give up. We might not have done all the fun plans we had (face painting for Halloween, working in the studio, watching horror movies all week) but we did squeeze in an hour of air dry clay crafts in front of The Witches.

I made this doodle out of clay, Guncle Randy whipped up some pumpkins. But I was too tired to stay up for the end of the movie. I knew I’d be up taking care of my little buddy, Fred during the night, and needed at least a bit of sleep.

Since Randy has gone, the weather cleared so the babies are running (and pooping) outdoors, and Freddy Puppy is doing better.

I had time to paint the clay piece to look like a Bernadoodle for a friend (she raises those) and make some doodle face cupcakes for her birthday too.

What a relief to have this sick boy feeling like himself again!

What a darling guy he is. After having him inside with me all week, and watching him struggle to survive, while staying soooooo sweet and loving, it will be hard to say goodbye next week.

Even at his sickest, he tried to drag himself to his pee pads, and now that he is running around, he is extra good at hitting them. What a good boy.

He is able to go on walks with the other pups, but mostly lives inside with us. He has this playpen to sleep in, and it is so handy. Huge and ugly, but handy.

We will use it in hotel rooms when we deliver puppies to the east coast, it folds up in seconds.

Thank you for all of your well wishes for this pup.

And thank you, Randy for your support. Sorry it was such a hectic, stressful visit.

A very good mama- but if you are squeamish, don’t look

dogs, puppies!

By Karla Nathan / November 2, 2020

Sugar has proven to be an excellent mother. Honey is all business and works hard with them while they are tiny, then helps clean both litters, and as they get bigger, wrestles and plays with them.

Sugar just snuggles and lays with them all and seems very loving with the babies. When they were newborns, she would carefully wrap her body around them, and Honey would plop right down on hers. I lost many nights of sleep from checking on Honey's litter and saving puppies she had laid on.

Sugar has also dug a puppy sized hole for them to curl up in.

But this is a bit much. She carefully carried a vole that she'd dug up back to give to the pups.

With her golden retriever heritage, she was able to carry it gently without hurting it, to give to the pups as a toy to chase.

But we caught her in time, and I have to say that I was not as gentle as she was. I reached in her mouth and pulled the gross little varmit out and flung it over the fence.

It kinda looks happy there, doesn't it? Like it is cozy and enjoys being carried around? I doubt if it found the flight over the fence quite as much fun.

Just puppies

dogs, Goldendoodle Puppies

By Karla Nathan / October 25, 2020

Watercolor Pup

dogs, paintings

By Karla Nathan / October 23, 2020

Earlier, I showed a snippet of the beginnings of a painting. It was a commission for someone’s birthday gift, so I wanted to wait to show the rest after the birthday girl opened her gift.

Funny, my life has been all dogs, all the time lately. Then I get a job, and it is to paint a dog!

Seem fitting.

Scheduled Snuggles

dogs, family, Goldendoodle Puppies

By Karla Nathan / October 8, 2020

The Butterball batch of pups is transitioning to staying out in the breezeway on nice days.

Family was here for a BBQ to enjoy the pretty day and help the babies adjust to leaving their cozy indoor nest.

With so many pups to socialize, I can use all the help I can get. These babies need an abundance of cuddles to grow into extra loving pets.

And we have just the crew to get it done!

Rich and I take turns, two at a time, holding them while watching our favorite tv shows at night. Sugarwings is with us for the next week or so, and I am sure she will take on more than her share.

And this might be a step too far, but I have ordered a hands free baby sling to wear so I always have a puppy with me.

I have 16 babies who all need equal time, and not that many hours in the day without drastic measures!

Puppy time and me time

Corona virus, dogs, drawing, Goldendoodle Puppies, paintings, Ryan

By Karla Nathan / October 4, 2020

My husband took a little trip this week, and I had pretty laid time. My watercolors are spread out in the dining room, so I can paint and be near the puppies.

They have kept me company while Rich was away.

Here is a snippet of the painting. I always start with the eyes. I’ll show the finished piece once the recipient gets to see it.

Besides painting, going for walks, playing with puppies, and battling an epic ant invasion, I’ve slowly started to work on getting the babies to intermingle.

It starts with a few play dates, then moves on to mixed cuddle puddles.

Although the play dates aren’t much more than naps yet, anyway.

The Sugarbabies have moved into the main part of our home along with the Butterballs. Sugar is much more possessive of hers than Honey is, so we are taking this slow, with supervised visitations. If I am not with them, Shuggie and the little ones go back to the bathroom nest.

Eventually, they will all be too big (and stinky, and I have to admit, they are edging up on that stinky part pretty fast) to be kept in here.
I have a nursery set up in the garage where they will be at night, then they will have the breezeway to hang out in on nice days with access to the yard.

Most of my time with Rich away on his trip, I had Sugarwings here with me. But I had one day, all to myself for the first time in months. I missed Rich, since his retirement, and especially since Covid, we have spent all of our days together.

But since Ryan died, I kept thinking I needed a day to just think of him, to be on my own, to not have any “have to’s”. Life is hectic and as people always say- it goes on.

I have been grieving, I have been sad, I have had him on my mind every single minute. There has been a Ryan sized hole in my life, but I haven’t had time just to let that happen. I’ve kept going.

Yesterday, I had my months delayed day. I spent most of it doing things Ryan and I used to do together. I walked with the dogs, played with puppies, and then took more walks. I cleaned the stove top with a razor blade (that was one of his things, he took pride in a job well done, no matter how tedious, he worked with a good attitude and got things done.)

I made a frozen pizza the way Ryan used to make them for me, extra cheese, chopped veggies, black olives, rosemary, and turkey pepperoni. Then, I binge watched one of our favorite shows. I missed his laughs, and our constant conversation commenting on what was happening on the screen, but I enjoyed my day.

I enjoyed thinking about how much fun we used to have together. I thought about the joy he was always able to express about the little things that made him happy. Like a brand new season of a good Netflix show. Pizza night. A walk. A shiny stovetop. Laughing about something silly a dog just did.

Ryan faced difficulties in his life, surviving bullying over his disabilities that left him distrusting people’s intentions toward him. He overcame addictions. He had been taken advantage of. He had suffered in his life. All of this left him with insecurities. But he also found a quiet happiness and satisfaction in hard work and small pleasures. He was a person who appreciated the moment when good things happened.

My day “with Ryan” was appreciated.

It was worth waiting for.

Baby Books for the Butterballs

Books, dogs, drawing, Goldendoodle Puppies, Hand painted, puppies!

By Karla Nathan / October 1, 2020

I have almost finished the first litter’s baby books. The finishing touches will be a photo on the front, and notes about the puppy on the inside.

As well as a 30 day free trial of insurance tucked into the back pocket of the book.

Now that the pups are older, I am telling them apart easier. But that first week? My head was spinning just trying to see who was who to get their weight charts started.

So, I had sketches and notes for each one. Someone suggested that they would make good gifts for the new owners, and I agreed. Since I needed to keep track of info about each pup, I decided to make the paintings into books.

I’ll have the weights and worming/shots schedule in there too.

The paper features honey bees for the puppies’ mom, Honey.

I bought supplies to make them for The Sugarbabies too. Hers has black and white hearts.

The books can be displayed with the painting showing like this. And there is space for the new family to add photos too.

My Autumn Mantel,(and the mess that surrounds it)

Corona virus, cottage, dogs, Goldendoodle Puppies, puppies!, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / September 28, 2020

Before the Guncles came to visit, I switched up my mantel for a fall look.

I am glad I did, because I certainly would not have had time to do it now.

Because of this.

And this.

The mantel is about all that looks good in my house right now. We have gone to the dogs.

There is some remote learning going on too. Which takes up most of the downstairs.

And I’ve got my watercolors spread out to work on in here instead of out in the studio so I can be near the babies.

Which is where we all want to be.

During lockdown, it was important to me to keep my house serene and organized. That helped me cope with some of the stress of the situation.

But I think 16 puppies, a homeschooler and a messy house is a pretty lively, fun way to handle a pandemic too. There is some stress for sure (checking on crying newborns throughout the night to make sure they are not cold or smothered, mama dogs needing go out to potty every couple of hours= no sleep, and that homeschooler likes to try to watch TikTok during class), but I can’t complain.

Lively and Fun are two things I need right now.

Little Red Doodles to Hold

dogs, family, Goldendoodle Puppies, Ryan

By Karla Nathan / September 19, 2020

Honey has babies!

It was a wild ride getting them here. The night before they were born, she started nesting, and decided she did not like the whelping box. Every time we let her out of our sight, she started to dig, including through a wall.

That girl wanted to build a den.

Once we got her settled, she went right to work, and calmly had 8 pups in under 3 hours.

I sat up with her a few more hours, then went to bed.
(There were lots of ups and downs all night, letting her out, feeding her, making sure pups were warm.)

The next morning, we discovered a bonus puppy who came sometime after midnight and I didn’t even notice.

5 girls, 4 boys.

The adventure reminded me of her first litter, when she actually did dig a den to give birth in. Ryan and I had to hunt for cold, wet, pups in the dark with a flashlight.

You can see the story HERE.

When the two dogs went into heat, I wasn’t sure if we should breed them this year. But the thought of fluffy puppies to snuggle was too hard to resist. After losing Ryan, I thought that would be just what I needed to start healing my heart.

In the past, Honey has had a false pregnancy, so I doubled down and had both dogs bred- just in case.

Now, I had two very pregnant dogs, and was ready for all that healing to start as soon as I saw the first baby.

But hearts don’t recovery that simply, do they?

And with Honey’s determination to dig her own nest, it all brought back memories of my son, by my side in the rain, hunting for little puppies. I felt his loss even more, if that is possible.

Over the next couple of months, I’ll miss him by me as they are fed from a spoon (he laughed at how spoiled they were) and I’ll miss him when I watch our favorite shows with a lap full of pups, knowing he always loved holding the little ones with me in front of the TV and should’ve been there with an armload himself.

But as I tell Sugarwings when she is sad about her uncle, losing a loved one means you need to love the ones around you even more.

Death teaches us how quickly we can lose someone, and we should learn from that, and treasure our time with family.

I know how quickly these next couple of months will go by. In a flash, the puppies will leave to go be loved by others. But for now, I am drying my tears and treasuring these moments with them.

My heart will never heal.
But there is always room in its pieces for love and for puppies.

Filling my arms with furry hugs

Corona virus, dogs, Goldendoodle Puppies

By Karla Nathan / July 26, 2020

Well, guess what? Not only did we take Honey to Free State Pedigrees to be bred by Felix, we dropped off Sugar there for a date with her previous beau, Wally.

Oh my.

Am I of a right mind? Two litters at once? And later in the year? I always said I would never have winter puppies, because we have a perfect set up for summer pups. And I believe the babies need fresh air and a place to run (as well as for housebreaking themselves).

But November, when they are old enough to run and wrestle and play outside, can be mild in KS. And I have worked out a plan for keeping them in our garage, with a dog door to get in and out if needed, when it is chilly and at night. Then in the daytime, they will have access to the fenced yard with a bed in the breezeway for their nap times.

And with the two week age difference, I will be able to provide the needed attention at the appropriate growth stages. But I sure will be busy doing it!

Which is just what I need. It has been two months now since my son died. Two months of missing his hugs and the kisses on top of my head. Two months of missing our walks and our laughs together.

An armload of furry sweetness won’t replace Ryan’s hugs. But it will be a very welcome distraction from heartache. Plus, even though both of our dogs were taken to meet their boyfriends, it is never guaranteed that they will have successful dates. It would shatter my hopes if we’d decided against taking Sugar in to see Wally and Honey ended up not having pups after all.

I decided I would rather double my odds. I need some puppies in my world right now.

This is Wally, the father of the Sugarbabies.

And I think I am not the only one suffering. With the state of the virus spreading now, I am sure there are many people who would love to have a doodle to cheer them up.
We will be offering a discount on pups to families who have been directly affected by Corona.

If you are interested, please check back here for updates. Sugar’s babes will be ready possibly the week of Thanksgiving and will be small to medium F1b goldendoodles. Honey’s will be ready approximately the week of November 15 and will be medium F1 goldendoodles.