puppies! – Page 5 – Karla's Cottage

A Passel of Pups

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, puppies!, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / September 21, 2012

I'm growing very fond of this little pup. Sugarwings calls her The New Agnes Rosebud. I told her that Agnes was very special and one of a kind, this pup deserves her own special name. If I keep her, she might have Rosebud as a middle name to honor Aggie Rose, though.

Agnes was my grandmother's name and our dog was named after her. My husband asked if we could name one after his grandmother, Dorothy. Dorothy!! One of Sugarwing's all time favorite people! Dorothy Rosebud should work just fine. I could call her Dot.

The babies are learning how to play. Its pretty funny when we call "puppies!", they bounce around and try to come to us and climb out of their pen. They look like burnt popcorn jumping around in a pan.

Its hard to get a group shot, there is so much motion, it becomes a blur.

But the chaos doesn't last long, a couple minutes of play wears them out and they are soon sound asleep.

We are still bottle feeding the herd. I've tried dishes and they get more on themselves than in. So, I cut a larger hole in the nipple and fill the bottle with a cereal, formula mix. They love it, and one feeding is usually about 4-5 bottles.

Aunt Sandy is feeling better now, she has had a sore back and couldn't work for a few months. Now, she is back at work with long days on the surgical floor as an RN, so I'm on my own for feedings for a while. Its more efficient (and cuddlier) to use the bottle, but soon, I'll have to train them to use a bowl. Or a trough.

My husband says we should keep two of them, since we are NEVER breeding pups again after the stress of what Twinkle went through.

One baby goes to the father's family, one to Dewdrop, one to my husband's assistant, and at least one to us.

That still leaves a passel of pups to sell, larger than most Yorkie litters! I'm not sure if I want two or not, I'm greedy about puppy time and would like to have just one to raise as my own so I can have her all to myself. If she has a litter mate, she might bond with him more than with me. Yes, I am greedy.

Although, Twinkle is a great dog, I really should keep as many mini Twinks as I can, or some day I'll be sorry. She has a great heart and is about as loyal and loving as a dog can be.

Notice the plants behind her? They are in the whiskey barrels I bought last spring, to turn the stumps into planters. The vines have really taken off and I've been happy with the result. Much cheaper than having stumps removed!

And the $1 solar lights from Walmart have been so pretty all summer. I bought the very plain ones, but now the fancier ones are on sale for $1 each, so I got a dozen of those for next year. My niece has some and says that hers have worked well for 3 years now, which is good to know. I'd not tried them before.

Speaking of cheap, I was at the garden center snapping up more clearance flowers, and they were snipping off the left over caladiums to pack the bulbs away for winter. There was a wheelbarrow full of leaves and Sugarwings asked if she could make a bouquet of them. She loves to pretend she is a bride and always needs bouquets.

The nice lady gave her an arm full, and one to me too. I put them in water when we got home, and they look every bit as fresh a week later. I wonder how long they will last this way? I'm loving them.

Puppy Snuggles

Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Mayara, puppies!

By Karla Nathan / September 19, 2012

These puppies are growing so fast! Dewdrop is their biggest fan, and her mommy says that she wants to see photos on Facebook of them all the time. She calls them Puppeesh.

Dewdrop is a gentle child and can sit quietly and just snuggle a baby pup.

Of course, being on her loving Pop Pop's lap makes snuggle time even more special.

The babies decided to learn how to play on Saturday and are starting to wrassle with each other. Mostly, it involves chewing on a brother's nose for a minute, putting paws around each other, then napping.

For now, they reside in the living room, inside the wading pool. I keep a box with their (ever changing throughout the day) blanket or towel in the pool, line the pool with newspapers and pee pads, and they have learned how to waddle out to the pads to tinkle. A LOT. Those pads get changed all day long too, buy stock in pee pads NOW.

Usually, the pups live in the pool this way for 5 weeks or so, but with this many, there just won't be space. They will need room to run and play.

I'm thinking about moving my car outside and turning the whole garage into a nursery for when we aren't with the dogs. When we are hanging out with them, they can be in the house, or taking over the studio like a pack of hooligans.

At night, I can bring them back in the house to their pool.

I'm treasuring this time of them being tiny, bottle feedings, and babyhood.

It goes by so fast. Just look at Dewdrop, she's a big girl now.

Or at least SHE thinks so! She and her Gypsy mommy have picked out a pup to keep. They are renting a new home that allows pets, and has a small fenced yard. And a passle of little kids ready to cuddle the baby!

Feeding time

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), puppies!, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / September 12, 2012

Gracious, it has been hectic around here. Fairy pages and books, grand fairies, puppies, and a major deadline that I need to hit for another project, have all whipped my butt.

We did scoot away to Big Cedar Lodge for a couple of days, and I think I spent the entire time sleeping by the pool! Aunt Sandy took care of the babies while I was gone, and I needed that time away to get a bit caught up on my zzzs. These guys and the other forty million things I'm in the middle of are keeping me hopping!

This is the biggest and the littlest. I've been calling the big boy "Corkie" because he is the one that caused Twinkle all the problems and was almost too big for her to deliver. Aunt Sandy calls him Big Head.

Sugarwings calls the littlest one her new Agnes Rosebud. But there could never be another Aggie Rose, this dog deserves her own special name.

The Vet said to start them on cereal when they were 3 weeks old. I jumped the gun by one day, but I think that is ok.

They had more on their tummies than in. They prefer licking it off of fingers to slurping it from a bowl.

I'll have more fairy pages to show you next time. Right now, I need to go and feed those nine hungry babies again!

Little Ghosts, a little puppy, and a little fairy princess

antiques/junking, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, puppies!, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / September 10, 2012

There was a fairy surprise inside the box of swap pages coming from Deb Ganas, a whole pile of fairy garments, wings and slippers.

Dewdrop has a bit of a shoe obsession, so she will glom onto the slippers right away. Look at how funny the barefoot fairy feet shoes are! My husband has recently started wearing barefoot shoes for running, he thinks they are amazing. (his are not this cute) I'll have to clock the girls and see if these make them run even faster. I already can't keep up with Sugarwings, but I doubt if anyone could!

And isn't the package with the pages wrapped so sweetly? I should make sure and get a photo of her artwork too, it's really nice.

So far, a couple of tubs of packages have been mailed out. It will take a while to get through the whole set of swappers, but I've got a great start on it.

And the dilemma of how to wrap them is solved. Each book is swathed in fabric or tulle. Some of them are getting these elfish playing card tags. I only have 52 of those, so its a random selection for the tags.

I've got a few different airy fairy fabrics and tulles to use too, that really makes packing them up more fun. It gets monotonous if every single one is the same.

Of course, no two books are the same either. I'll be sad when I am done assembling them, I love sorting and sifting through to find pages that coordinate well together.

Last week was a short one for the kids. Not only were they out of school for Labor Day, Tuesday was some sort of day off too. So, I was able to spend some time with the big group of grands, and went to a garden center close out, lunch and a movie.

Mexican food, and Para Norman- which was a bit scary but had a wonderful message about accepting the differences in others and not being judgemental. Too bad it had to be taught by a scary, 300 year old Pilgrim Zombie Judge. But I love zombies, so really enjoyed the movie.

Poor Fin, looked at me about halfway through the movie and said, "why did you have to bring us to a scary movie?" And Sugarwings crawled up on my lap to clench me. I hugged Fin, held Sugarwings, asked if they wanted to leave, but both wanted to stay. I'm glad they did, it had an uplifting ending and Norman was a town hero.

We have a family tradition at movies. As the show ends, we go down to the front of the theater and dance to the songs that play during the credits. This time, I was too exhausted from lack of sleep due to puppies, but it was a really good song that I was sorry to miss out on dancing to. Little Ghost from the White Stripes, was so fun that we sat in the parking lot and played it over and over on my Iphone, then sang it all night.

The best part of being a grandmother are those kind of moments. At this stage of life, I know how fast it all zooms by and I like to stop and let the little ones take the time to explore and listen, and absorb the world. If we want to sit on a sidewalk and listen to a song a few times, why not? What is the big hurry to get in the car? Home will be waiting when we get there, we might as well grab onto something fun when we see it.

The garden center sale was a doozy. These weren't half dead, end of season clearance items, these were lush, thriving, pretty plants. I was thrilled to load up a cart at a dollar a pot, my yard had taken a beating from the heat and the chickens. I discovered that hens have a sweet tooth for begonias and petunias, and all the planters filled with those flowers have been pecked naked.

So, I have some pots to replant for fall and this sale was just what I needed. I want things to look pretty for Romantic Gothic Ghosts in October! If I get this new batch of plants settled in the dirt now, they should be ideal for company that week.

This photo was taken on 9/5, the little ones are opening their eyes and are getting strong enough to try to walk instead of scooch on their tummies.

Week old puppies

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), puppies!, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / September 4, 2012

So far, Twinkle has been too good of a mama. She keeps those babies stuffed to the brim! We are supposed to be supplementing her feedings so she doesn't deplete her calcium and get sick, but its hard to compete with her at feeding time. Those little guys would much rather have a mommy than a bottle. Or as Dewdrop always called nursing, "Moops". (a combination of mommy and boobs)

These photos are from Sept. 1st. But the babies seem to get bigger by the hour!

I discovered that they like the bottle hotter than I think it should be. The wrist test that you'd do for a human baby isn't accurate for the pups. A dog's temp runs over 100 degrees, so a comfortable drop on the wrist for us is cool for them.

Since I realized that I've been serving the milk too cool, and started to warm it up, I've been able to compete with the moops a little better. Now, when I poke a hot bottle of formula at a puppy, they clamp on and can even sometimes drink half a bottle.

I'm glad, it was getting frustrating and I was worried about poor Twinks. I've also discovered that I need to take her over to the studio with me for about 45 minutes before feeding so that she doesn't beat me to it and they all have full tummies before I can even attempt to feed them.

My house is smelling like a dog. Twinkle keeps them clean, but they are smelly pups. I think they are about big enough for a bath. We change the bedding a few times a day, but they still smell up the place. I think that Twinkle and I are both still shocked that there are so many babies, 9 can be pretty overwhelming.

I'm so glad we had a break in the weather and could open all the windows and air the place out. That was a relief. We really needed rain around here, but I think I needed some fresh, cool air even more!

**********************************************************************************************

I've had a comment, from someone unhappy that we had pups. Here is my response:

I have to agree with you when it comes to pure bred dogs in puppy
mills. Those poor things are treated like a cash crop, not beloved pets
and have many issues with health and social behavior.

My dogs are lovingly raised to make sweet pets, and are coddled and
cuddled from the minute they are born. There will always be pet owners
who want a preferred breed of dog, and they deserve a chance to get one
with a good start in life with a background that they can trust.

I do not have pups to make money. There is not much profit after
expenses. The little money I do get goes to Sugarwings' college fund
since Twinkle is her dog.

Twinkle is bred with our friend's Yorkie, who she adores. And she is a
devoted mama who also adores her pups. Teddy's family treats her well
while she is visiting there, it's a happy time, not stressful for her.

I breed her with Teddy because she is such a loyal, love filled, ball of
joy, that I want another dog just like her. She is not show quality but
she is an ideal little pet and so are her babies.

People know how well my babies are treated and if they get one, know
they will be getting a socialized and well adjusted addition to their
family whose mom was part of our family, not a bitch in a cage who never
was let outside or played with.

My grand dogs go to good homes, we actually give away quite a few
pups to family and friends so that I get to stay in contact with them
and watch them grow up. I don't charge outrageous amounts for my dogs.
And I don't provide papers, they are AKC but I don't think that is
important. What matters is that they are full blooded terriers with that
spunky, loyal attitude and raised in a happy, safe environment People
don't buy my dogs to breed, only to love.

Trying to keep up

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), puppies!, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 30, 2012

These guys are the reason I have no new photos edited to show you. Please excuse the camera phone shot. I don't know what I'd do if Aunt Sandy wasn't helping with them.

Its been slightly crazy around here lately, between having grands over, middle of the night puppy feedings, giant wild cats stealing chickens (I ran out into the woods trying to hunt it down, then stopped and wondered what I'd do if I did actually catch it!), constantly cleaning up after Twinkle and her brood, piles of packages coming in for the Faery Book Swap, trying to finish up my covers, throwing a hero dinner for Sandy for saving the pups, and mailing out boxes full of millinery flowers sold in the Boutique, I'm wrecked.

Plus, while it seems like weeks ago, it was really only a few days past that I was co-hostessing a family reunion in another state.

So, of course, today after a midnight and 4 am puppy feeding, I left the morning meal to Sandy and hit the road to go to a flea market today. It was good to play hooky.

Whew, what a week! Actually not even a full week yet.

No wonder I'm tired! And haven't announced the giveaway winner. Which by the way is:

Tish Porter

Pretty babies

celebrations, Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, puppies!, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 28, 2012

I'm back from my trip and Twinkle was a busy girl while I was gone. So was Aunt Sandy! I was glad she was here to take over, having an RN in charge of the difficult birth was a godsend.

The difficulties arose from Twinkle having NINE pups to deliver!

After the second, not much happened. We'd visited our vet for directions earlier, read all the dog birthing info we could, and Sandy watched countless videos on whelping puppies. So, when labor stopped progressing, she knew to take Twinks in to the doc.

A couple more were born there, but the sonogram showed a total of eight babies (a rare number of pups for someone of Twinkle's size). Our vet said that the mama needed to be taken to Kansas City to the emergency vet for a C-section.

All of this drama was happening while I was driving to Indiana. At first, all was going well, but as the prognosis kept changing, I started to think I should turn around. Of course, I was already almost to Indiana about the time we heard that things weren't going well at all and that surgery might be needed.

I talked to the vet over the phone, and was told that if Twinkle had a C-section, she would have to have all the babies taken away from her, they would need to be completely hand raised.

I called friends and family to arrange some help for Sandy, but decided I should also be headed back to be on bottle patrol too.

But when Sandy and Lyric (the owner of the pup's father) got to the ER, those vets had a different story. They thought the babies could be delivered naturally and decided to keep Twinkle over night for observation. And they said there were NINE, not eight!

At this point, I was a bit of a wreck, and before I had a wreck on I70, I decided to get some rest, get a hotel room and make a decision in the morning.

Morning brought great news! Twinkle had delivered all 9 little ones, each healthy and strong!

The ER vets said that they had never seen a Yorkie have that many babies. Our Twinkle is not a teensy girl, but she is also not a giant Yorkie. She is about 9 lbs, which is still a pretty small dog.

Her little body can't support that many youngens. She needed IV calcium and is on supplements too. We still need to bottle feed the babies, but they are also able to nurse and Twinkle can take care of them with our help.

Since Sandy wasn't completely on her own with with care and feeding of the pups, and Twinkle could keep them warm and clean, Beth, our Gypsy, and Lyric could come by to help, I decided to go on to Indiana for the reunion.

It was not an easy decision. But it was our late father's turn to host the dinner, it was up to my sisses and I to be the hostesses in his place. I had a car full of supplies and table cloths, my sisters had taken vacation days that had been requested way in advance, and my husband was flying in on Saturday to attend and drive home with me.

Sandy was a trouper and went into full on RN mode, staying up around the clock to make sure those puppies were full and cared for. She was much better than I would have been, she devoted herself totally to the newborns.

I had a great time with my family, and the reunion was wonderful. I was able to relax and enjoy it, knowing that all the dogs were in good hands and that I'd be home with them soon to snuggle (and stay up all night feeding them myself soon enough!)

We cut our trip short and drove straight back to KS as soon as the big family dinner ended and we got cleaned up, getting home in time for a midnight feeding.

Monday night, we had our own big family dinner with the grands over to see the puppies and to thank Sandy for being a hero and saving all the babies. Everyone raised their cup to toast Aunt Sandy and thank her for all she did. I owe her more than a steak dinner, she was a huge help during a rough time!

Thanks, Sandy!! And congrats, Twinkle!!

And good bye sleep for a while… these 6 boys and 3 girls will keep us hoppin.

Happy birthday Sugarwings!

celebrations, Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, Mayara, puppies!, Sugarwings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 24, 2012

Sugarwings' birthday was such a fun day for us. We went to lunch at T. Rex to see the dinosaurs, but at first, Dewdrop wasn't sure if we should go in. Once she realized that there were cute little baby dinosaurs there, she was fine.( I don't know why the restaurant keeps the biggest, scariest one of all right inside the door to greet everyone. I guess they want to test the kids right up front to see if they can withstand the atmosphere before they waste table space incase the little ones have to leave before the food comes? If the kids can get past the giant monster at the door, they must be brave enough to sit and eat there.)

Sugarwings has always loved it there. Dewdrop took some convincing, but not much, She was careful to not look at the bigger ones, but was happy to give hugs and kisses to the colorful, cartoony beasts.

We walked around the shopping center, and let the kids run around on the Yellow Brick Road sidewalks. It was a favorite pastime for Sugarwings when she was little. Now that she is turning 6, I wanted to take her there again before she was too big to enjoy it.

Hopefully, she'll never be too old to be silly with Grams.

And honestly, she is happy anywhere she goes. Her idea of fun is just exploring. It can be along a yellow sidewalk that takes her imagination to Oz. or just sitting in the grass meeting whatever bug crawls by. It all entertains her.

Dewdrop had a good time on our day out too. And I was pleased to spend time with my boy, remembering when he was a little guy and running way ahead of me wherever we went, just like his daughter does now.

A pretty table cloth, a pitcher of Chocolate milk so that the kiddos could pour their own refills, and letting the baby join the big kids table all made a special meal for the birthday girl that night for dinner.

We also covered a big chair and tied balloons to it, creating a birthday throne when cake and ice cream time came. Then, her cupcake was served on a musical, wind up cake plate that plays "Happy Birthday", but not very good. Its kind of old and wonky, but still a fun tradition for us.

It was all I could do, to not be teary all day. I can't believe she is six now.

The last few years have zoomed by!

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment HERE.

I am finishing up my pages, Twinkle is finishing up her pups

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, puppies!, swaps, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 16, 2012

This Faery Book Swap page is a done in a similar way to my other pages: slap down a vintage paper back ground, find a pretty lady or girl in my ephemera drawer, glue on some wings from the 1950s bug book that I got at a garage sale, sprinkle on some glitter, trim and done.

Well, basically at least. All are different in that I used a variety of ladies or girls, papers and trims, but it boils down to all being the same sort of process. Each is unique, but I didn't use any ground breakingly creative skills in assembling them, as you might have noticed as I gave some "how to's" on most of the pages I made.

This one has some hand drawn vines around the wallpaper centerpiece. And I used a sheer fabric, layered between the main decor and the background.

After finding my stride and figuring out shortcuts to make pages, I went a bit bannanas and made quite a few. I like to have extras for the swap, but if I don't need them, I'll be making up a seperate book for the Boutique.

I've also got some extra covers, so will make up some kits to sell too. In case you didn't get in the swap but would like to create your own fairy book.

The back is a pretty page from one of my old children's books, and a touch of lace at the bottom. But ooooh! what lace! Its butterflies!

I used quite a bit of this trimming out the covers too.

Each cover was basically the same design and style too, but all were done with slightly different supplies. When you use vintage materials, you get unique results. My wings are all petals or leaves from old millinery blooms, and the wallpaper is matched up to my wing materials. So are the ribbons and the little flower that I added to either her bodice or hair.

You can tell from this glimpse, that I used lots of different laces to trim the bottoms too.

I am so excited to be getting closer to assembly time! There will be two more posts upcoming with photos of the rest of my pages.

If you are curious about how I pull together a big swap, here is a post from the last one I hosted.

This pic of Twinkle about to pop on Aug. 12th, before the puppies are even due. Believe it or not, she is much bigger now, every day she seems to balloon up even more, and I feel so bad for her. Its hard to figure the due date, because she was over at her boy toy's house for ten days and I hear that they enjoyed every minute of the time together.

The vet says to figure 63 days from the mid point of their romantic interlude. But if I calculate from the first weekend, the due date is now.

I think she might have the pups today, and its Sugarwing's birthday, wouldn't that be perfect?! Her temperature has dropped to 98.5, she seems to be trying to nest under the deck, so we can't let her go out in the yard alone. I've barricaded the doggie door so she doesn't sneak out. She barely fits through it anyway. I might have to grease her belly if she continues to try to get in and out that little door.

Today Sugarwings is six years old. Tomorrow she goes to kindergarten.

For her birthday, I painted her new loft bed. She helped me, its a razzelberry color, with glitter. The ladder that goes up to the mattress is 5 steps, so I numbered them and did one fairy, two worms, 3 lady bugs, 4 butterflies, and 5 flowers on the coordinating rungs.

Sorry the photos suck, they were taken on my phone in a dark garage.

We've had a terrific birthday week, starting with her Mommie's party on Sunday, zoo on Monday, cupcake baking and decorating Wednesday, and a BBQ tonight. We had thought about a water park visit today, but haven't mentioned it to her. I'm glad we didn't, the weather doesn't look great, and I want to stay near the expectant momma.

What's on the menu for the BBQ? All of the birthday girl's favorites, of course! Salmon, french fries, watermelon, chocolate milk, corn on the cob, and spinach. Then, home made cupcakes mixed up by Dewdrop and Sugarwings.

I'll let you know if we have a few extra guests for dinner. I'm hoping to see six little tiny pups coming to the 6th birthday party!