Bismuth, Nickel and Carbon care for their puppies

The eight puppies out of Northwoods Bismuth by Northwoods Grits are now seven weeks old and have grown into little dogs.

Very considerate on the part of Northwoods Carbon, Jerry and I thought, that she whelped a litter of eight during the afternoon on May 12. No bleary-eyed, middle-of -the-night vigils this time. All eight are tri-color and look like miniature versions of their dark-headed parents. The sire of this litter is Northwoods Nirvana.

Northwoods Carbon whelped seven females (!) and one male on May 12. Here on Day 4, they are still tiny but healthy with round, full tummies.

This brings our total number of puppies in the kennel to 23. That’s not a record…but darn close. Within 10 days of each other in 2015, dams Northwoods Carly Simon, Vixen and Chablis whelped 24 puppies.

Joining Carbon this year are Northwoods Bismuth and Nickel. Bismuth’s litter by Northwoods Grits is now seven weeks old. Completely independent of Bismuth now, they have their own kennel run, eat real food and lap water out of a bucket.

The seven puppies out of Northwoods Grits x Northwoods Nickel at two weeks of age just about fill up their heated nest. Too, they weight an average of two pounds…more than doubling their weight .

Also sired by Grits, Nickel whelped her litter of four males and three females on May 1. With the exception of one male that is orange and white (Grandsires Shadow Oak Bo and Northwoods Blue Ox are both orange), all are tricolor.

By two weeks of age, eyes have opened. A Grits x Nickel female give me a sleepy stare.

It seems miraculous that within eight short weeks, tiny creatures that start out totally helpless and weighing less than one pound grow into 10-pound, independent beings that look like little dogs.