Introducing Jolly's 2016 Puppies

​​There is excitement in the air at Russell Homestead – we have four new puppies!  Jolly had her puppies on January 25, 2016.  We know there are many people out there eager for some pictures, so we’ll start with some litter shots.  These litter shots were taken on Thursday when the puppies were 4 days old - notice they still have their tails.

Here are a few pictures in their whelping box so you can see where they spend their first few weeks of life.  In the last photo in this set, Jolly is keeping an eye on me while photograph the puppies.  She allows my husband and I to handle the puppies at this age, but much prefers if no else comes near them.  She's a very good Mama.

​All the puppies are black, as we expected.  They all have snippets of white here and there (more on that under their individual introductions below).  We always tell our new puppy families that the small white patches will likely disappear into the longer adult coat or appear as a few white hairs, unless they are like Tux in our last litter who had a large white patch.  However, they do sometimes keep their small white patches, as can be seen in Hannah, one of Jolly’s 2014 puppies.  You can see a photo of her on our puppy photos update page.
 
Now, for individual introductions in birth order.  Also, now is a good time to note that we allow each of children to pick a puppy, name it, and claim it as “theirs” for 8 weeks.

Blaze

​First, we have Blaze.  Blaze is CJ’s puppy.  CJ (4 years old) chose this name after the horse, Blaze, in the Billy & Blaze series books.  It fits the puppy well because he has a white blaze down his chest and he was the “trailblazer” of the litter as the firstborn.

Dolly

​Next, we have Dolly.  AJ (5 years old) declared right away that this time he wants a girl puppy (last time they all had boys).  This sweet little puppy is almost all black with just a few white hairs on her chest.  AJ chose the name Dolly because she is a girl and girls like dolls.  After choosing the name, he was delighted to realize that Dolly also rhymes with Jolly.

Pete

Then we have Pete.  In each of our litters, we choose one name from the Bible.  We recognize God as the giver of life, and we desire to honor Him in raising our puppies.  So, our Bible name this time is Pete after Peter in the Bible.  Pete is nearly all black with a small white dot on his chest.

Bess

​The last puppy to be born was Bess.  Bess is JJ’s puppy.  At two years old, naming a puppy is next to impossible.  We suggested many names, and he picked names of puppies we had before.  Finally, we settled on Bess as an easy name for JJ to say.  Bess has a thin white stripe on her chest and her back two toes have just a little bit of white.

While there is much joy over Pete, Dolly, Bess, & Blaze, there’s also some sadness as there was a fifth puppy named Gracy that did not survive.  Gracy (a combination of the words “grace” and “mercy”) was a cute female puppy with two white toes.  She appeared healthy and vigorous at birth, but we soon realized that Gracy could not nurse due to a severe cleft palate.  We did what we could to keep her comfortable and nourished, but she passed away due to the severity of her cleft palate.  We are sad, but grateful that Gracy did not have to suffer.

Jolly and her puppies at the vet's office

We took the puppies to the vet today for their tail dock and dew claw removal, a visit we are all glad to have behind us.  The puppies spend their days right now eating and sleeping.  Their eyes and ears are closed.  Jolly takes complete care of them at this stage.  We keep the bedding clean in the whelping box and weigh the puppies several times a day.

To those on our waiting list, you should have received an email from us.  We are not accepting deposits at this time, but we will be contacting you personally to discuss the deposit process.  As always, just email us with any questions you have or pictures you wish to see.