Just as a warning if you are trying to reach out to me these days, I am still recovering from a week of little sleep and am not ready to crank on the email responses just yet. Feel free to contact me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com, but it may be mid next week before I respond. All of these puppies are spoken for, but I don’t mind talking about the future here or just Griffons in general. I use my email account as my robocall filter so that my phone doesn’t ring all day.

I’m just going to write all of what I have to say in chronological order like I usually do, I’m not good at putting lipstick on pigs or hiding from reality. I took all of the dogs for a walk down the power line cut on Monday, February 19th. When I got everyone back to the house, Ruth was whining pretty loudly. I brought her in the house with me and by the time we got to potty breaks before bed, she was trying to dig dens in the side pasture next to the house and barn.

I laid down in the bed next to the whelping box in the basement and she had the first pup, it was very small but alive. Four more came out dead (I am not going to describe in detail what they looked like) in the next couple of hours. They did not die during the birth, they had been gone for at least a few days if not longer. They were not properly formed and probably didn’t attach to the uterus correctly.

Ruth and the tiny pup that was lost

My hope going into this breeding was that my prior fertility issues with Ruth had been either genetic with Obi as the stud or the fact that we had been traveling during the mating and early pregnancy with the two small litters of two that we had with her. This time we used both a different stud and barely left the house during mating a pregnancy. It will be interesting to see what her uterus looks like when they take it out in her spay, I know of females in the breed who have their uteruses break down over time and this may be that situation.

The little puppy that Ruth had never warmed up and slowly lost its ability to latch on. As much as we fought, I came into the room at around the 36 hour mark and it was gone. Ruth cried almost nonstop for two days afterward, but she is now healthy and in good spirits. Later this year, she will go to live with our friend Ron and her mom Fire (now Bella) and travel between Minnesota and Arizona hunting birds and being a pet.

But there’s good news at the end of this! At 3 AM on Monday the 26th, Sally woke me up with a big howl. We walked in the yard on a checkcord with a flashlight for about an hour with lots of grunting, then we went to the whelping box and had a big healthy pup. An hour later, another followed, also big and healthy. I figured that she was doing her mom instincts well, cleaning up the puppies and positioning them to nurse, so I laid down for a little more sleep. When I woke up at 6:30 AM there were five puppies and by the time 10 AM rolled around there were eight. All big and healthy, nursing on their own without any assistance, no stillborns. It was such a relief after I’ve struggled with Ruth and her pups over the last few years. Ruth is my first struggle with a dam, I’ve had all blue hens with Sue, BB, Mae and Fire. I’m glad to be back in the good graces of Mother Nature.

The eight puppies of the “U” Litter at 24 hours with mom Sally
“U” Litter puppies, photo taken today while Sally was on a potty break

The gender count is five females and three males. I won’t be keeping one from this litter and those of you who are on my reservation list will be contacted within in the next week.

My biggest job right now is keeping the room warmer than normal and keeping Sally fed and hydrated. We go in for tail docking and dew claw removal tomorrow morning at York Vet, I’ll also ask them when I should bring Ruth in for her spay.

I’ll post here weekly with photos and videos from here on out, I typically don’t identify them individually until after their eyes open. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, I’ll be back soon.