Tess
and Izzy 
I had carefully thought about who I should mate Tess with and chose to use Jordan (Marinita's Copper Illusion) as he is a lovely dog with good construction, colour and temperament. The day came when the mating was to take place which went with no problems. All being well Tess's pups would be due on the 8th July 2001.
As time went by, I knew that Tess was pregnant but by seventh week of pregnancy, Tess hardly looked any different. I thought to myself that she was only having two or three pups but as long as both mother and babies were fine and healthy then thats all that matters.
The 8th July came and went, the 9th, 10th, and 11th day of July also came and went! I was getting a little worried by this point as Tess showed no signs of going into Labour so I called "Mr Scan Man" to come and see what was going on. Tess stood still while we scanned her and found one, very big over due pup! He suggested that maybe I should discuss the options open to me with my vet and recommended that I shouldn't leave the pup inside Tess any longer than twenty four hours. I took his advice and called the vet. We made an appointment the next morning and just to be on the safe side, I didn't give Tess her breakfast. After careful examination both externally and internally, the vet recommended a ceasarian section. I had really hoped that Tess wouldn't have to go through with that but after giving the measurements of the pup taken off the scan, the vet thought that she would have problems delivering it herself should she be left to go into labour.
I couldn't bear to leave Tess so the vet agreed to let me stay. At 10.20am on Thursday morning the 12th July, a little girl who we named Izzy was handed to me, she was beautiful! I cleared her airways and rubbed her to get her breathing, it was brilliant. Izzy was then placed in an incubator while Tess was stitched up. I stayed at Tess's side until she came round from the operation, it seemed like ages but in fact, she was wide awake within half an hour. I went back home at 11.30am to collect a hot water bottle and towels for Izzy and returned to pick them both up at 12.45pm. Much to my surpise Tess ran to me with such excitement that she nearly knocked me over! I placed Izzy in a box with the hot water bottle, wrapped her in a towel and took them home.
Tess wasn't quite sure about Izzy at first but now loves her. I have placed a teddy bear in the whelping box for Izzy as normally she would cuddle up with her litter mates as well as her mum. She has taken to it and loves sleeping under it.
Izzy at three days and growing fast!
From three days old we realized that Tess's milk wasn't going to appear even with the help of an injection from the vet so we had no alternative but to bottle feed Izzy ourselves - every two hours up to a week and then every three hours. At ten days she is now beginning to find her feet and crawls around the floor looking for mum and her "turtle" litter mate!
Asleep on her Turtle and looking for her next feed!
Pictured below is three week old Izzy and her new litter mates!!
We have now started weaning her onto solid food but she still loves her bottle of milk after each feed.
Izzy and Melissa are best friends - pictured here at three and a half weeks
