Sick goat update and PUPPIES...

 Bliss is better. Three kinds of antibiotics, topical spray, vitamins, probiotics, and more have all worked together so that she is up, walking normally, and healing. She still has a few days of penicillin injections to endure, something she and I both dread. Ok, maybe she doesn't dread it, but she certainly complains when it's time for her treatment. I don't blame her. 

Meanwhile, Opal had puppies.  Opal is a Pug and belongs to my daughter and son-in-love. She is 1 1/2 years old, and a delightful little thing. She had a rendezvous with another pug a while back and shortly after lost her tiny waistline. Before long she began to look like she swallowed a softball, and most recently looked like a generous honeydew melon was inhabiting her abdomen.  Yesterday while we were working she went into labor. Rachel gathered all the gear she had assembled for the big event, and she and Opal retired to the quiet living room. It wasn't long before Rachel helped ease a 7+ ounce female puppy into the world.We summoned Hannah from a local outing and she came back to witness the miracle. It was good she was here, because she and Rachel made an excellent team of able midwives while I finished working. About an hour later a boy appeared, and moments after that another boy. Then another girl. We thought perhaps she was done, but as we all gathered around the whelping box admiring the new family she began to push and number five appeared.Soon a sixth took it's first breath and we thought surely that was the end

. We brought the whelping box to the dining room and feasted on grilled steak and a huge vegetable and pasta salad I'd made earlier in the day. Evans provided special champagne and we lifted glasses in celebration. We had finished eating and were sitting around the table chatting when Rachel said, "She's pushing again!" A seventh puppy greeted the world. Looking at the pile of squirming pug pups it was hard to believe they had all fit inside Opal's compact little body. 

 

When Pug puppies get to be about 2 weeks old, we think they look a lot like little potatoes. The pups all have potato names, "Spud," "Russet," "Yukon Gold," and some more obscure names of potato types. We have put little ribbons around their wee necks so we can tell who is who, and keep track of their growth. (Below photo is a puppy in a soup bowl, on a kitchen scale.)

There are 5 girls and 2 boys. They will be colored like their parents when they get older, fawn bodies with black masks. The average birth weight was 6+ ounces, and they seem to be strong and healthy. Opal is a bit confused, but doing well keeping the crew polished and fed. Speaking of a crew, a group of pugs is called a "Grumble." This fact makes me smile. 

Bravo is so excited he can't even eat. He missed supper last night and breakfast this morning, obsessing about the new arrivals. Opal lets him stare adoring at them, and even sneak in a little kiss here and there, then she drives him off. Flirt investigated the pups as they were being born, and now ignores the whole show. 

The nest box is a contractor tub, and we are calling it "The Potato Bin." It is full of the cutest little grumbly taters you ever did see.