4.5 weeks

Well they are babies so the stack shots are iffy but it is good practice! I will try to get more good candid shots of them soon.

Belted blue boy

Patch blue boy

Blue girl

Tweed boy

Little black girl

Dark boy

Little black boy

3 weeks

All puppers are doing well, up on their feet, playing, growling, and so on. Pretty soon they will be out of the whelping box and into a pen with some form of litter. And food. I will start feeding solid food. Then my work begins. Satin will be happy to reduce her duties a bit since puppy claws are scratchy even after I have trimmed them, and teeth are not long in coming.

Belted boy

Belted boy

Belted Boy

Tweed boy

Tweed boy

tweed boy

Patch boy

O

Patch boy

Blue Girl

blue girl

Blue girl

Dark boy

Dark boy

dark boy

tri girl

tri girl

tri girl

tri boy

tri boy

tri boy

7-pack

tri girl snoozing

2 weeks

Satin's litter is 3 weeks old tomorrow but I have not gotten new photos yet so here the pups are at 2 weeks. All healthy and happy and Satin is doing great, a wonderful mother.

Forgive the utilitarian names but I like to wait on 'good' names til owners choose, whether it is me or a buyer. For now, descriptive names.

belted boy

black boy

black girl

blue girl

dark boy

Patch boy

Tweed boy

We have babies!

Well Satin delivered her litter in the most middle portion of the night (3-5am) on December 17, with no problems or delays. The final count is 7 nice healthy puppies:  4 blue merles and 3 black tri's. 5 boys and 2 girls, because this has been the pattern ever since the first litter ever born under the Inkwell prefix: 30% girls and 70% boys!  No complaints however, they are beautiful!

Her first day as a mother.

Now she has the hard work, ALL the work, of feeding them and cleaning them for the next 3 weeks, after which I will introduce mushy food. Then my work will begin as mom only does minimal cleaning up once puppies are eating any solid food. That does coincide with them being more mobile of course, and once they start looking like puppies instead of hamsters they are hard to stay away from, so of course I don't.

#1, boy

#2, boy

#3, boy

#4, girl

#5, boy

#6, girl

#7, boy

So there they are. It will be weeks before I know who stays and who goes; most likely only boys will go but depends upon a few factors co-breeder Debbie Mills and I will look at. I am very happy that there are no excessive white markings and everyone looks happy and fat. Most of the litter had natural bob tails (half tails) so all were docked yesterday (Thursday) along with dewclaws, with minimal disruption to their schedule.

I will be posting many photos in the coming weeks, check back! Here is one now!

all of 'em

Congratulations are in order....

To Valerie Yates , Ninebark Aussies, on the Hall of Fame Dam recognition given to her Henna (

ASCA/CKC Ch. Sonrise Little Red Hen) in ASCA.  7 ASCA champions out of her and 3 of them are sired by Thumper. Her hard work and dedication as a breeder and owner resulted in all of her puppies going to homes that brought them to their maximum potential.I am fortunate Thumper got to be a part of this.

Henna