Sucker!!!

I am, and always have been, a sucker for a puppy!!!

Izzy finally had her puppies. I've had several talks with her over the past few weeks to remind her that we want males and at the most 4...maybe 5. She didn't listen...

Our neighbor's dog had her pups, too, about a week ago. Hammer (Ernesto thought she was a he when he named her!) is a labrador/boxer cross and Caleb has been wanting one of her pups since Hammer was a baby! Turns out that the daddy of all the pups, both Izzy's and Hammer's, is an adorable and lovable purebred black lab named Benito.

How do we know this? Because they all look the same!!! The mamas had almost the same number of pups and all the same colors.

Yesterday morning, Izzy (who had been resting under the couch -- where we were SURE she would have her pups) disappeared into the bushes for several hours. When she reappeared, she was much skinnier! The kids tracked down her little nest and we transferred the 4 puppies from the nest in the sand to the front patio. By 3 o'clock she had 7 puppies. Then we got word from Esteban that Ernesto's dog was in trouble.

Apparently, a few days ago Hammer was bitten by a rattlesnake. The anti-venin they gave her dried up her milk, and Ernesto is now hand-feeding all 8 puppies. Well, as I said, I'm a sucker for a puppy!

Since Izzy only had 7, and had room for 10 I told Esteban to bring over 3 of them and Izz would nurse them. Ernesto was overjoyed!!! Although the 8 he had were eating, God just didn't intend for puppies (or anyone else, really) to drink cow's milk (that's another soapbox!). They weren't doing too well. Izzy accepted them without batting an eye (she's actually not the brightest crayon in the box, but she's a lover!) and so now she had 10. Thirty minutes after they all finished eating and fell asleep, Izzy had another pup. Now she had 11. Oops.

Well, they are all still doing fine -- 6 males, 5 females. We moved them into the shop last night because we (I) was worried about the mosquitos harming the babies and now Izzy has a comfy bed encircled by bricks to (hopefully) keep the pups from wandering (how do they move so far without being able to walk???) and her own personal fan. The kids keep giving her bowls of water and scraps of food. She's well-cared-for! (Read that "spoiled".)

She's so easy-going!!! I'm such a sucker!!! But they're so CUTE!!!!!