Puppy #1 is born!

Puppy #1 born June 16, 2010 at 5:36 P.M. Meet Purple Girl! Weighs between 1.0 and 1.5 lbs. Wow!

Harley and Holly's Little Ones are on the way!

Spring is in the air -- just look at all of our flowers in bloom! Harley and Holly are sentries at our front door. When this picture was taken (mid-May, 2010), we thought Holly was pregnant, but we didn't know for certain.

By June 1 (Jake's birthday!) I was very certain Holly was pregnant. I took her to the vet on June 5. She was x-rayed, and it looks like she is having 6-7 puppies. She gained 11.5 pounds since her vet visit in March!

I ordered a whelping box, and it was delivered the following Saturday (June 12). Curtis put it together, and we have been trying to get Holly to feel comfortable in it. We put it in Jake's room, where there isn't alot of foot traffic. Here she is, with Harley:

And here she is on her own, on Saturday, June 12: she looks pretty good for puppies due within the next ten days!

Of course, with Holly's impeccable timing, I thought she would without a doubt have her puppies while I was away at the 40th Anomalous Absorption Conference (hosted by Los Alamos National Lab in Aspen, Colorado). So -- I flew to Aspen on Sunday, June 13, gave my talk Monday morning, June 14, and flew home that afternoon. Whew -- no puppies before I got home!

Yesterday (Tuesday, June 15) I went to work and when I got home I took Harley and Holly to the dog park to meet Jim and Madchen. Harley did great, but Holly was nasty with Madchen and the other little dog that was at the dog park. She did pretty well with Jim, however. She took treats from him, allowed him to pet her, and gave him kisses. Not too bad when you factor in that she was probably in the early stages of labor!

Harley, Holly and I took a slow stroll through the Muirwood neighborhood of Pleasanton. We came home, I fed the dogs, and sat down to do some work on the computer. I had noticed that she wasn't at my feet as usual, but rather in her dog crate. It didn't dawn on me at the time that anything unusual was happening ...

Harley went to bed (his usual spot -- the sofa bed in my office), and Holly and I went to settle in for the night. By the time I was dozing off, well, she started whining, laying all over me, was restless ... uh-oh, all of the signs! So -- I got up and took her temperature. It was 98.7 degrees, down from 101.5 degrees.

I took her into Jake's room to settle into her whelping box. She just couldn't get comfortable. In the meantime, I was busy getting things set up and ready to go. By the time Curtis got home from work, I was laying next to the whelping box, with Holly right next to me. I finally dozed off about 5:00 A.M., and woke up around 6:00 A.M. Still no active labor! So Holly and I went back to sleep in the bedroom with Curtis.

When we woke up this morning, Holly seemed to have regressed. No active labor! But -- I did notice that her belly is hanging low -- another sign of labor readiness. I decided to take a vacation day, and stay home with her. I have been getting little things together, which included a trip to PetSmart for some supplies. I took Harley with me, and while we were there we ran into a guy who owns a female black german shepherd named Hailey! He meets regularly with Jim and Madchen's morning gang at the dog park. Hailey is apparently an alpha female, very much like Holly.

I am home now, and Holly is in the whelping box. While I was gone, Curtis thought she lost her mucus plug in the backyard (he was outside monitoring her). She is definitely in labor. Poor baby, I wish I could take the pain away from her. Here is one last picture of

her pre-birth:

Active labor has begun!

I will start posting pictures of the puppies

as time permits!!!

Harley and Holly: January - June, 2010

Wow -- do we have stories to tell here!

No Vienna trip, Holly and Harley tie it on, Holly is pregnant! Stay tuned!

Harley and Holly: June 2009 - December 2009

This post will continue the story of Harley and Holly: Holly coming into season, continued training for both Harley and Holly, Jake, Andrew, etc. Stay tuned!

Harley and Holly: January - June 2009

This post will eventually unfold the story of Holly, her puppy months, her fears, and how she ended up with Jim as our trainer. In the meantime, Harley becomes a good canine citizen. And then there was the car accident ....

Harley Meets Holly

This post will eventually tell the story of Fall - Winter 2008: Harley and his separation anxiety, Harley staying with Auntie and her family, how Holly happened into our lives, Christmas 2008, and the infamous ranch trip at the end of 2008 ...

Stay tuned!

Harley: January 1 - September 1, 2008

The first nine months of 2008 flew by! Harley is such an important part of our lives! Harley began puppy school in December, 2007. It was a six week class held by Sirius Puppy School. The classes were up in San Ramon at the Bishop Ranch Veterinary Hospital.

The first time Harley and I went to class, he hid behind the chairs and wouldn't join in playing with the other puppies. He was about 12 weeks old. By the end of the six weeks, Harley was happily playing with all of the puppies, and it was clear that he was by far the smartest puppy in the class. Ever since then, Harley has shown an amazing propensity for learning. Other owners slave away at teaching their dog something, but, well, I guiltily spend only a few minutes teaching him something new -- and shazaam -- he's got it! Here is a copy of his puppy school certificate:


















Harley had an amazing winter, spring and summer. My only concern about him was the separation anxiety he habitually displayed. Curtis would leave for work, and leave him in the family room/kitchen area, and Harley would rip apart whatever he could find: toys, books, trash, anything he could reach he would destroy. If left outside, he would rip apart drip irrigation and tear up plants. I would come home at night, and spend about an hour cleaning up the messes he had made in just a few hours. Why was I so stubborn about not crating him? Things would have gone alot more smoothly if we had done that from the beginning.

Around this time, Harley also discovered the cats. Felix and Mangusta were very jealous of Harley, and all of the attention he got. They would hang out in his doghouse (yes, not only do chldren and husbands hang out there, but cats too!), and Harley would try to protect it. Why is it that they just can't get along? Experts say that animals don't feel jealousy, but I don't believe that for a minute! Shown in the picture is Harley protecting his doghouse from Felix, which began a still-standing battle of dogs vs. cats in our home:

In February, we took a road trip to San Diego, to visit Jake and to see my good friend Bethie.
Beth was our across-the-street neighbor when we first moved to Pleasanton. Our kids are about the same age, and we hit it off immediately. Beth and I have been alot of places with the kids, and done many fun things together. She and her husband, Mike, moved to Temecula about four years ago, and so I don't get to see her very frequently. Beth's golden retriever Hannah loves me (!), because I used to take her running to help take the "edge off" when we were trying to hang out and relax. To the left is a picture of Beth and Hannah, with Harley and me, at their new digs in Temecula. Their house is on a hilltop in the wine country, and is quite amazing. As you can see, Harley is too busy looking at Hannah to pay attention to the camera! Not shown is the miniature dachshund, Zoe, that Beth's daughter, Melissa, has. (Zoe is actually Beth's dog as well as Hannah in practice ...)


As the weather began to get warmer, we began spending time around the pool. Harley was fascinated with the water, with the pool sweep (which he thought was alive -- he would attack it whenever it came to the surface along the pool edge), and with gravity. He would incessantly drop his toys in the pool, and then watch in fascination as they drifted to the pool bottom. In this time frame, his keys were his favorite object. He was dropping them in the pool non-stop, so I taught him how to put his face in the water and pick up his keys off the top step. Here is a video clip of Harley retrieving his keys from the pool:







May and June, 2008, were huge months for our family. In mid-May, Jake graduated from San Diego State University, in four years! (That is unheard of at SDSU). In mid-June, Andrew graduated from Foothill High School. In May, we drove down to San Diego, and took Harley (and Tanya!) with us. We stayed at the Town and Country Hotel, where Jake was working as a bellman. Harley was a very good dog at the hotel (he wasn't supposed to be there,

but he was so good we never got caught ...). We all went to the dog beach one afternoon, and Harley certainly had a good time! He wanted to keep up with Andrew and Tanya, who were body surfing, and ended up going in the ocean well over his head. That night we had one exhausted dog!

Jake's college graduation was awesome, and we had a party for him and his roommates back at their house. Harley stayed in the car during the ceremony, but hung out with us back at Jake's place. Here is a picture of our family after Jake's commencement: my family, my parents, and my sister Heather's family. Also shown is a picture of Harley hanging out with us at Jake's party:













In June, yes, it was Andrew's turn. Mom and Dad came up for his graduation, and Heather,









Steve, Lucas and Thomas were at the ceremony as well (with, of course, Curtis, Jake, and me). Alas, Harley wasn't welcome at the ceremony, so he stayed home. (It was just as well, because, naturally, it was blisteringly hot.) He had quite a party bash for his graduation!

Summer closed in on us. We were all working hard: Andrew, lifeguarding out at Del Valle, Denise, getting ready for ignition shots at NIF, Curtis at FedEx. We settled into a pretty nice routine, and Harley was doing well, except for the separation anxiety. He passed level two of puppy school! (here is his certificate):














And then we went on a cruise with Curtis' family, to celebrate his parents' birthdays. Harley, of course, couldn't go with us. Tanya and Scott took care of Harley while we were gone. That should have been when I began crating him, because he had a rough time while we were gone. Here we are, having fun:



On September 1, Harley became a one-year-old! See how beautiful he is? Now, if we could just get him over that separation anxiety ... Stay tuned for the next installation of the happenings of Harley and Holly, and see what I finally end up doing!