Puppies!!!

We'd like to introduce you to our new puppies!!!

From left to right, we have Arya (are-ee-u), Axl, Duke and Layla

But...Sesame Street's famous song..."one of these things is not like the other..." comes to mind when looking at this picture!

Here's the story:

We knew Tessa was pregnant and going to have puppies any day. Well, last Tuesday, the kids and I got a call while we were at school saying that Tessa had two puppies! So we quickly packed up our stuff and came home. The puppies were so tiny and they were out in the backyard and Tessa was not being a good mom. She was in the house and not taking any interest in the puppies. We had to make  her lay down so the puppies could nurse and we had to watch her to make sure she wasn't too rough with them. Well, one of the puppies was very sick and he died that night. We had to leave to go to Port au Prince for a couple days and feared that Tessa wouldn't take care of the puppy while we were gone. Well, when we returned, the puppy was still alive and seemed to be in good health, so Tessa managed on her own. 

Fast forward to this past Saturday, just 4 days later. We were getting ready to head out for the evening and Morgan noticed that Tessa was in labor! I've never heard of dogs having puppies four days apart! (because they don't!) Well, that night, Tessa had 4 puppies...two boys and two girls. One of the girls was a stillborn and after trying to get her to breathe for about 20 minutes, we gave up.  Needless to say, these new puppies were twice the size of the 4 day old puppy that we'd been taking care of! So, we decided to look at our security footage and realized that a mom and son snuck into the yard Tuesday morning and put these two puppies in our yard! So Tessa was caring for two orphan puppies! We weren't sure how the other puppies and Tessa would treat Layla, but thankfully, since she had a 4 day head start, she seems to be doing well and she has been accepted by the puppies and Tessa.

Here are Duke and Layla. Duke is a BEAST. Layla is our little orphan pup..and apparently she's a bit shy in this picture :)

 

Arya

 Arya & Axl

 You can definitely see the size difference...and Layla is the oldest!

Layla's eyes are starting to open!

Oh...and just so you don't worry...Tessa has been a GREAT mama...after giving birth to her REAL puppies!