Bluestem Kennels

Please Note: All of our puppies for 2013 are spoken for at this time.  I love exchanging e-mails and talking on the phone with folks looking for puppies, but I hate the sound of disappointment in their voices when they find out that none of these puppies are available.  I have already taken and will continue to take reservations for our 2014 breeding season.  Please call us at (402) 682-9802 or e-mail bluestemkennels@cox.net if you are interested in a pup from us next year.

The “E” Litter has had a recent development spurt now that their eyes are open, going from grunting little balls of fur, nursing on their mom and scooting on their bellies to full fledged puppies, up on their feet and eating solid food.  Now is the time when I finally give them nicknames.  I don’t actually use their nicknames, I just call them “puppy”, but I think people like to be able to track particular individuals.

The boys:

I named both of the boys after characters in the C.S. Lewis Narnia Chronicles.  First is Edward:

Edward’s face

Edward’s back

This is Eustace, the second male:

Eustace’s face

Eustace’s back

Now for the girls.  I named the girls after a number of random things as they came to mind in the order of the photographs taken.  The significance of the names is no more than that, no picking favorites involved.  The first is Edna, because I lived on Edna Street at one time and have a friend who still lives there.

Edna’s face

Edna’s back

Esther seemed to be a common name for ladies my grandmother’s age.  You can’t go wrong with a biblical name and it is also the name of a character from one of my favorite shows, Downton Abbey.

Esther’s face

Esther’s back

Another good old-fashioned name is Elizabeth, too many good Elizabeths to name!!

Elizabeth’s face

Elizabeth’s back

Back when A&E was a more artistic channel, my mother and I watched a British import series called The House of Eliot, about two sisters who were fashion designers in the 1920s.  Evangeline was one of those sisters.

Evangeline’s face

Evangeline’s back

I wouldn’t consider myself an old school R&B fan, but Etta sounded like a good name, after Etta James.

Etta’s face

Etta’s back

Edith is another Biblical and Downton Abbey name that I couldn’t resist using.

Edith’s face

Edith’s back

Towards the beginning of the week, they were still in their kiddie pool with chips.  Caleb always loves to spend time with the puppies, even when they are not the focus of his attention.

Caleb plays a handheld video game in the puppy pool

A couple of other random “E” litter cute kid and puppy pictures;

A bit of boy roughhousing with puppies

Caleb can’t get enough of puppies

Cordelia was my assistant in the puppy photo shoot

I also took a video of the puppies right at 3 weeks old, before I moved them out of the puppy pool:

As the week progressed, I started having puppies bail out of the swimming pool while they were playing.  Usually this is the point where I move them to the outdoor “puppy palace”, but it is still too cold just yet.  It looks like spring should finally arrive later on this week and they can move outside then.  But for now they have the laundry room as their kennel.  It gives them more room to move around than the whelping box or kiddie pool and allows them to get used to getting their footing on solid surfaces.

The E litter puppies are pool free.

I started them on solid food this week, starting with a mush that consisted of canned puppy food and puppy milk replacement mixed together.

The puppies start on mush.

Once I ran out of pre-mixed canned puppy milk replacer, I switched them to straight canned puppy food.  It also looks like that they are eating the food in Sue’s dish too, so it is time to switch that over to puppy kibble.

Moved on to canned puppy food alone.

Charles did some training with Sam and BB yesterday using live quail, so we introduced the puppies to their first bird scent.  Here’s my cutest still picture of the quail encounter.

E Litter’s first bird exposure at 3 1/2 weeks old

I also took a video of the encounter today:

Mae and Sam’s “F” litter turned one week old on Wednesday.  They are still in the blobbish phase, where they pretty much eat and sleep.  They are a bit too small for too much kid handling, but we do get out there and mess with them still.

“F” Litter puppies at one week old

Conrad in the whelping box with “F” litter

And a short video of the “F” litter pups:

I did receive a couple of Pupdates lately and I will be sure to get those posted next week.  The “E” litter photobomb took up all of my photo editing time allotted for the week!  Having two litters in the house is definitely keeping me on my toes, I’m just thankful that there are a couple of weeks between them and that they aren’t exactly the same age.  Keep sending us happy thoughts and I’ll get back with you next weekend.