Puppies, puppies! Who wants a puppy?

Our dog (still very much a puppy herself) had puppies on December 8th. She was only 14 months old when she got into trouble with the next door neighbors dog. Despite Marks many trips taking their dog Lucky back to tie him up at his own house in the early hours of the morning that dog was persistent. On the 4th and last attempt Lucky cut through the pasture and beat Mark back to the house.

And that is how we got 10 puppies! Luckily for us, our next door neighbors dog was also a pure-bred lab and so is our Sammy.

We have had a lot of fun (and learned a lot of things) through this process. Mark has done an amazing job with the maintenance and care of all these puppies. He built a kennel for Sammy and finished building her a doghouse just 2 days before she gave birth. That was cutting it pretty close!

Those puppies love Mark! He cannot go out to the kennel without coming under attack with all the puppies seeking his attention.

The sad part has finally come. We have sold 5 puppies and have 3 to go. (We lost 2 puppies during the first week, but 8 puppies is still a lot!) It will be nice not to have the expense of puppy chow for the growing appetite of those little puppies, as well as the never ending job of kennel cleaning, but it will be sad to see them all go. (Mark even more so than me because of all his time and dedication to those puppies. Me, I tried not to get too attached because I hate saying goodbye, but a person couldn't help getting a bit attached.)

On a side note-it is crazy to me that Sammy got pregnant after me, but still had her puppies before me, nursed them the appropriate time, weened them and now has sent them on their way in the world.

We are very glad our niece and nephews are getting one of the puppies so we can watch her grow up. They too are super excited and can't wait to come back from Disneyland to get their puppy.

Puppy stats:
-4 yellow 6 black at birth
-2 yellow males 1 yellow female, 3 black males and 2 black females
-At 7 weeks the biggest yellow male weighed 14 pounds and our smallest black female weighed 9 pounds
-Last week alone, the puppies (and Sammy) went through 4 bags of dog food.
-First puppy sold was our favorite yellow male then our favorite yellow female. The black males will be the last to go.