Summer 2007
I've bought and sold several homes in the past, it never occurred to me that 2+ months might NOT be enough time to buy a house and get moved before the puppies arrived. I wrote 3 GOOD contracts on 3 different houses before I finally got one under contract. I was already pre-approved for my loan, so once we got the inspection out of the way, I thought the hard part was over. Sadly, I was mistaken.... Have you ever dealt with a bank owned foreclosure property? If you have time to waste, you can get a good deal. If you have a deadline, DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! The closing date kept getting pushed back and delayed. Finally, I was out of time. We HAD to close by Friday, June 22, because that gave me ONE weekend to move before puppies arrived. I pushed as hard as I could to make the closing happen and after a lot of frustration, a major headache and a 3 hour closing, I had the keys to my new house, albeit we closed in escrow because we were waiting for the seller to deliver the deed to the property. I had no time to waste, so I quickly coordinated my movers and the wood floor refinishers. Saturday was spent cleaning and shampooing carpets while the wood floors were sanded and refinished. Sunday was a 100+ mile marathon to collect my belongings from my old apartment in Sedalia, then to my parents house in Broomfield to gather the rest of my things, and finally to Longmont to unload and unpack.
I AM NEVER MOVING AGAIN.
June 25, 2007
I am planning on picking up the girls from the dog sitters on Tuesday, so I can take care of some plumbing issues today. I get a call from my Realtor, she's calling an emergency meeting about the transaction. Apparently there is a problem with the deed, and the sellers have negated the closing. I just moved into a house I do not own.... It's just 4 days before D-day (delivery day).
I am essentially homeless. The Seller will not allow us to occupy the house until they correct the problem with the deed. Thank God for the kindness of near strangers who offered us their walk out basement. (it was a coworker who raised champion Rhodesian Ridgebacks) They lent us their whelping box, add to that a futon, a couple of fence panels, and 2 dog beds and our makeshift nursery was complete. That allowed me to
put on a brave face when I finally went to pick the girls (Sparky and Mattie, the old lady) up from the kind folks that had been taking care of them for me during this transition. Mattie, who is 12 and is Sparky's grandmother, is my guardian. She feels it is her duty to watch over me, and she takes it serious. She sees through my facade, she senses my worry, and she worries too. Sparky on the other hand, is taking it all in, blissfully experiencing all the changes her body is going through. I tried to follow her example.June 29, 2007
Well, just less than 48 hours after being introduced to our new temporary home, and Sparky appears to have started labor. She is in a calm, serene, almost spiritual state. Sparky’s mom, Giddy, had 3 small litters and more than her fair share of complications. We didn’t know what to expect with Sparky’s litter, we were prepared for the worst. It went textbook perfect. When the big contractions finally started, she was up on her feet, slowly pacing about the whelping box. This is good, because gravity can help that first puppy make it's way into the world. As labor progressed and the puppy began to crown, I was ready with a towel to receive it, supporting it until the placenta was delivered. It had been nearly 3 years since I attended a birth, in fact it was Sparky’s, and things tend to happen kinda fast, so those first few moments are a bit of a blurr to me, looking back. The first puppy was head first, about half way out, I went ahead and broke the sac and began drying the newborn’s head while I waited for the next big contraction. The puppy squeaked and that got Mattie’s attention, who was just outside the whelping box watching. In one fell swoop, puppy plopped into my hands and the old lady hopped in the box to meet her first Great Grandchild. As I helped Sparky clean and dry her first born, a girl, I checked her from head to tail. Relief washed over me. She was perfect. Well…. Almost. I have to admit, I felt the tiniest hint of disappointment as I helped this new baby girl latch on to her first meal. She had a large white spot on her chest. Weimaraners are allowed to have white on the chest, all things being equal, the solid gray dog is to be preferred. This puppy’s white would be acceptable, but worse than that, she was going to have white on one toe. I tried not to dwell on it, she was healthy and that was the most important thing. I would have to hope that the rest would have less white. This baby girl would eventually be known as the purple collar girl.
Following firstborn True 
was #2 Miles (gold collar), then #3 Beta (orange/hot pink), followed by #4 Faith (lt blue collar), and #5 Rocco (blue collar). I had guessed 5-7, based on Sparky’s moderate size, were we done now? Nope! Here came #6 Starbuck (green collar). I thought for sure we were done. Took Sparky outside to potty. Fortunately I’ve been trained to always take a towel and a flashlight along. She squatted and out plopped #7, Koda (red collar). Now, she’s done for sure….. No wait… That looks like more contractions. Surprise! #8 was Ruby (raspberry collar), covered in green goo from the placenta that had ruptured. She took a bit more vigorous rubbing than the others and did NOT want help latching on to a nipple. And last but not least, #9 was Bella (yellow/teal collar). Whew! NINE!!! Nine beautiful, healthy, vigorous pups. What a blessing. And yes, they all had less white than True, who was simply known as the girl with the white collar band at this point in time.
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