2018 feels like our holiday puppy year! We welcomed 2 litters to the Homestead this year - one on the day after July 4th and one on the day before Christmas. Blessed indeed, we are! Christmas Eve evening found us welcoming 8 new puppies into the world - 4 boys and 4 girls from our very own Tachi and Cooper. We knew from Tachi's ultrasound that she was carrying a large litter. However, we were still a bit surprised when she had 8! If you're new to Russell Homestead, let me introduce you to a few of our traditions with puppies. First, we allow our children to "name and claim" a puppy for the 8 weeks they live with us. Our children go by initials on our blog - AJ (8), CJ (7), JJ (5), MJ (3), and EJ (2). MJ is the only girl in the bunch. Secondly, we always pick one Bible name per litter to honor God as the giver of life. With this being a Christmas Eve litter, we picked all names relating to Christmas. Lastly, we do weekly updates for each litter. Each week, I add pictures and give you a glimpse into what life looked like for the puppies that week. (If you want to subscribe to my blog, you may do so here.) Below, you will find their newborn pictures. Click on each one for more details on each puppy. And I can't resist sharing some sweet sleepy pictures... Check back on Monday for my one week update! Thanks for stopping by!
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The waiting is over, and the babies are here! Jolly and Cooper had 7 beautiful mini schnauzers babies on 7/5/18 and 7/6/18. Mama and babies are doing well, but it was an unusual delivery to say the least (more details to follow). There are 5 gentlemen and 2 ladies in this litter, and here they are! Miss Liberty is named, in honor of the 4th of July, which is almost her birthday. Liberty is completely black. The reason we will always think of these as our "4th of July puppies" is that we knew Jolly was going into labor on the 4th because a female's temperature typically drops 24 hours prior to the start of labor. So, when her temperature dropped on the 4th, we knew we wouldn't be watching the fireworks with the rest of the nation in the evening. We were happily hanging out near the whelping box, expecting puppies to arrive on the 5th. Meet Boaz! We always choose one Bible name in each litter to acknowledge God as the giver of life. Boaz is the most black of his brothers, but, truly they are all very black. His brothers just have a few distinguishing white hairs here and there. As is our tradition, each of our children pick a puppy to name and claim for 8 weeks. Naming puppies with children is always interesting. As AJ, age 8, was musing about name ideas, he said "Rocks!" We tweaked it to Rocky in honor of Daddy's late dog Rocky that he had while growing up. Our little Rocky has a few white hairs on his back left toe. Chase, who lived up to his name during his photo shoot, was chosen by JJ, age 5. His name was inspired by Chase, who's "on the case" from Paw Patrol. Our daughter MJ, age 3, immediately declared that she wanted a girl puppy! When I asked her what she wanted to name it, she quickly blurted out "Peanut!" Peanut is MJ's nickname, and she's quite proud to have a puppy named after her. Peanut has a bit of white on both her back paws. CJ, age 6, chose Ryder as his puppy. Ryder has a bit of white on both his back paws. His name is also a Paw Patrol inspired name. Ryder is the boy who works with all the pups in the show. The last puppy to introduce is Miracle - a 5oz miracle that was born the day after his siblings. For more details on his story, you'll have to wait for their birth story in an upcoming post. For now, we are busy taking care of our puppies & we wish you a wonderful weekend!
There are 2 new 4-footed creatures afoot at Russell Homestead! Buddy and Blessing burst into the world this week on April 18, 2018. As I mentioned in my last post, we've been watching their mom, Lily, and waiting for her to kid. We were fairly certain her due date was April 23, 2018. So, we were observing her, but truly weren't expecting these cuties to arrive before the 23rd. Our children AJ and CJ won't soon forget Buddy and Blessing's arrivals. We had just finished supper. My husband and I were sitting at the table chatting. AJ and CJ decided to go outside to play. After only a few minutes, they came running in shouting, "Lily had kids! Lily had kids! Lily had kids!" They had been playing outside and heard a goat kid cry from the barn. A flurry of activity followed as we ran to the barn with towels. We found the kids safely delivered and out of the sack - obviously just born minutes before. Lily was standing there looking at them in shock. We dried them off and got them nursing as quickly as possible. Since we decided to bottle feed these babies, we milked Lily and gave her milk to them in a bottle. Buddy, who was a bit bigger and stronger, took to his bottle right away. He could drain his bottle in seconds. Blessing needed a bit more encouragement to finish her bottle, but by about 18 hours old, she was draining bottles as fast as her brother. And, in case you're curious, these babies already have a new home! Thanks to the family with a deposit on these two. They will be going home together after staying at Russell Homestead for a few days. We will enjoy them while they are here.
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AuthorVanessa from Russell Homestead. Follower of the Lord Jesus, wife of my knight in shining armor, mother of 5 wonderful children, and joint-keeper of the Russell homestead. Thanks for stopping by! Archives
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Vanessa Russell
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