The Poodles of TheOldenTimes.com: Poodlecam!
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I admit it: we're nuts about our dogs. This litter of Standard Poodle puppies, Cookies (and our) first, was born on July 14, 2001. Two were born right here on the dining room floor, one on my lap, and the remaining 7 by emergency cesarean section. Alas, we lost the two littlest puppies. But the remaining 8 are doing much better now, thanks to supplemental tube feedings and lots of help from Cookie's two devoted human servants, my husband and myself. Of course, we'd be completely lost without the super medical support of Cookie's veterinary team!
The beautiful gal on the right is Cookie herself, on a good hair day.In the meantime, view our New Poodle Album.
Poodle Links Great new links for poodle lovers!
Click here to see the devoted (really!) dad, Brownie, aka King of the Wild West. If he stands on his hind legs and puts his front paws on my shoulders, his eyes are level with mine. So even though he's a poodle, nobody calls him "Sissy" to his face.
Animal Den - this Animal Lovers Gift Shop is highly recommended. Great products, top service, five stars.
Thank you, Dr. Trussell, Dr. Shelton, Dr. Johnson, Rita & the Wonderful Crew of Family PetCare of Fort Worth, Texas!
Are they great or what?!Be sure to hit the "refresh" button on your browser to get the very latest puppy news!
October 19, 2001 Oh dear. It's been a long time since I've updated the Puppy News! Sorry about that!
Our littlest boy, once known as "Turk," is now called Jesse by his wonderful new owner. We are delighted that he has found a home with a lovely girl who will be the perfect pal for Jesse: she is a professional dog groomer and will be taking him to work with her, where he will be getting lots of the attention he so deserves! When he doesn't go to work with her, he will be keeping company with her other dog, a cutie named Freddie.
I haven't added new pictures in quite a while, so I will try to get some up this weekend.
3:40 p.m., August 12 Wow! These guys can eat! We've graduated from mama's milk to a combination of mama's milk, canned puppy food and puppy replacement formula, which I mix up in a huge bowl and which is apparently quite a hit, since it disappears very quickly.
Turk isn't growing very quickly, but hes finally putting on the micro-ounces. The others? Well...let's just say that playtime here is also known as "Clash of the Titans!"
9:00 p.m., August 5 Cookie and Brownie welcomed two extra special friends over today. They can always count on these girls to snuggle those puppies just so. These lovely young ladies pampered the puppies like puppies oughtta be pampered and I even managed to get a few pictures! See the Poodle Album for pictures of the kids and the puppies.
11:13 p.m., August 1 We have some escape artists now. They are still toddling, but they're managing to flip themselves over the sides of the whelping box!
12:00 a.m., July 31 I mentioned that Brownie is a devoted father. Now he's going overboard. He tried to run off with one of the puppies tonight!
My husband reminded me of the time our cat Delilah had kittens and Cookie tried to adopt them, carrying them away one by one into another room. And how Delilah tried to abscond with her own daughter's kittens a couple of years later. And everyone probably has a family tale about a childless spinster 3rd cousin who became (however comically) a little too attached to someone else's children.
Though probably not to the point of picking them up by the nape of the neck and trying to trot away with them!
We're going to have to have a talk with this dog.
9:00 p.m. Sunday, July 29 How did the time get by so quickly? We're still tending to puppies, though it's not nearly as much work for us now that their mama's feeling much better. Their eyes & ears are now open, and their little "woofs" sound more like official dog barks than ever. We are soon going to have a very noisy house.
Their father seems to adore them, and wants to lick them constantly. They do not like this, and they're very vocal in their complaints. Of course, he only wants to lick their faces. He doesn't do the "diaper-duty" end, which he naturally leaves to their mother.
Some of the new video that will be added soon is one of daddy's attempts at bathing his young 'uns.
3:00 p.m. Monday, July 23 Sleep eat, sleep, eat, sleep, eat.... Did I already tell you that? Oh yes, and sometimes they practice their little growls and barks! Positively ferocious! I'm pleased that I do not have anything more exciting to report about these puppies and their mother, since I've already had all the excitement that I can stand.
The Web Album has some more pictures, including new pictures of their father, Brownie (aka King of the Wild West), who is Keeping the World Safe For Democracy. Yes, he has delusions of grandeur, but don't they all?
1:30 a.m., Sunday July 22 Sleep, eat, sleep, eat.... All that wrestling over position at their mama's dinner table makes those puppies tired! I think I'm going to try to get some sleep, too.
4:00 p.m. Saturday, July 21 All's well! The puppies are fattening up nicely and Cookie's decided that she kinda likes 'em! She still doesn't take care of potty duty entirely on her own yet, but she can take a hint when I get it started. I think she's just holding out for me to do it myself!
4:00 p.m. Friday, July 20 It's official: we're out of clean clothes, out of groceries, out of stamps, out of energy, out of my mind! For the nicest of reasons, though, so this is no complaint.
But it's time for me to make a run for the store! Cookie is quietly feeding puppies (looking more stoic than maternal), so perhaps all will stay calm while I'm gone.
Brownie gets to stay closed in another room while I'm away, so that he doesn't bark out the front window and inspire Cookie to hop up and run to join him....possibly dragging somebody out of the nest.
This pair of dogs has committed themselves to keeping the world safe for Democracy, beginning with our front yard, and I can easily picture little blind puppies strewn from the dining room through the living room, wondering what happened to the caterer!
2:20 p.m. Friday, July 20 This newest picture is a puppy pile-up. Cookie has been doing better today, although she has to be really encouraged to get into the box with the babies yet. But their little bellies are finally good & full (with some assistance from the feeding tube for a couple of pups), and now they're all settled down for a nap. Piled on top of each other, naturally.
8:14 p. m. Thursday, July 19 Everybody's doing well and Cookie seems to feeling better. This latest image on the PoodleCam is of the dinner hour. Come to think of it, it's been the dinner hour for.... for hours!
11:55 a.m. Thursday, July 19 We just got Cookie home from yet another trip to the vet, but this time her symptoms weren't caused by a serious complication. Last night, she refused to stay in the box with her babies, to nurse them, or to care for them at all. Even when we took the babies out and out her food dish in, and in spite of the fact that she was hungry, she wouldn't step into that box! Very squirrelly behavior. To be on the safe side we took her to the vet again.
You know what's wrong? Apparently, Cookie is suffering from a doggie version of post-partum depression, or "baby blues!" Now that I can understand!
Dr. Johnson said that first-time mothers like Cookie can be confused and overwhelmed for the first few days. And if I had 16 little paws kneading away at my c-section incision, I think I'd be a little put off, too. Until now, Cookie's been too sick to care enough to try to get herself away from the puppies. This is much easier to deal with than stuck puppies and c-sections and infections. This just calls for lots of TLC, a commodity we have plenty of! Lots of puppy care, too, but at least we know we're probably not going to have eight orphans.
In the most recent PoodleCam image, you'll see mama Cookie laying calmly and patiently while her eight puppies dig in to breakfast, lunch and dinner. They've gotten pretty hungry!
7:15 p.m. Wednesday July 18 Now you'll see a shot of a very excited daddy dog examining his babies. Again.
5:33 p.m. Wednesday July 18 Poodle housecleaning is now taking place, but we'll have new puppy pictures available soon. Cookie's been feeling a little yucky again, or so I surmise from the very odiferous gases she's emitting from both ends. She also hid out in my bedroom for a while, away from her puppies, another hint that she's feeling under the weather again. Fortunately, the medicine our super vet gave us is now helping her feel better and she's back to feeding the babies. After that the bedding gets changed and it'll be Poodle Showtime! They're natural-born hambones, you know.
There are some roly-poly little guys in this bunch now, thank goodness. The fellow with the red satin ribbon around his neck has been nicknamed Jefe, as he's the biggest and boldest of the boys. The littlest, who's still getting supplemental tube feeding and who isn't so roly-poly yet, is called Turk, after the turquoise rickrack collar he wears. My son Jimmy has named one Eggy, though I'm never which one is the Eggy of the moment, if you know what I mean ;-) And my son Joe has been waiting for years to name a puppy - any puppy - Twister. This name seems to wander from puppy to puppy, too, depending on Joe's varying opinion.
8:15 a.m. Wednesday July18 Cookie's appetite has returned and she's drinking water again. She's had her medicine, taken a trip to the yard, and has even cleaned up one puppy, much to said puppy's dismay! Yes, it was one of the boy puppies. The webcam shows everyone resting. What it doesn't show is me, about to go to bed!
3:45 a.m. Wednesday, July 18 Everybody's resting comfortably.
3:23 a.m. Wednesday, July 18 Hooray! Cookie is actually starting to take care of the pups a bit! It's hard to tell with this webcam, but the latest image is of her bathing babies. Does this mean I get to retire from puppy potty duty soon?
3:06 a.m. Wednesday, July 18 Cookie has finally perked up a little bit and showed an interest in eating again. In fact, she ate a good bowlful of Pedigree Puppy and now she wants more! You go, girl! PoodleCam picture is now of sleeping puppies. Whew!
10:50 p.m. Tuesday, July 17 Cookie and babies are home and doing much, much better!
10:00 p. m. Tuesday, July 17: Cookie and puppies have gone back to the emergency vet clinic. We spent most of last night there. The puppies are doing much better, but their mama needs another shot.
Fortunately, we not only have some of the best vets in town, but they're the most reasonable, too.
Brownie, who has been fascinated by his sons and daughters, is bereft, and is spending most of his time standing by the front door, watching for my husband to bring them back.
PoodleCam Live will show you Brownie, who alternates between his devoted Front Door Patrol and resting in his little family's bed. When he's visible, you'll his intense stare is directed at the front door.
Yes, he is a highly unusual dog, but after all, he is a Standard Poodle.
Monday July 16 ...Really, really late. Sadly, we have lost two of the puppies. We are now working very hard to help Cookie take care of her puppies, since she's seriously under the weather with an infection and the stresses of dealing with a very large litter of puppies.
I know my regular readers, who are the very nicest folks in the world, understand why I'm a little slow on updating this website lately. I'm practicing to be a grandmommy!