Sometimes the Stars align...
I have a really happy announcement to share, but in order for you to totally grasp how special this announcement is - I need to tell you a story, share with you a little TKL (Treasure Keeper Labradors) history - if you indulge me this, I don't think you will regret it... it's quite a story...
In 2015 TKL suffered a great loss, but honestly it was more of a personal loss... a loss that left a hole in my heart that will never be filled... My beautiful yellow girl, my first born Labarador, crossed the rainbow bridge because of complications from whelping a litter a puppies in March 2015...
Before Falyn passed, she left me with 3 beautiful orphan puppies to raise by hand...
Now, this story had the potential to get even more complicated... Our chocolate girl "Xena Zuzu Petals" was due to whelp her first litter less than a week later...
There were only a few people who knew what was going on behind the scenes at TKL at that time... one of them, a TKL puppy owner, wisely told me that maybe (what was transpiring) was actually going be Zuzu Petals "story" -- and let me tell you, no one could have realized what that would mean, not just days from then, but years...
Three days after Falyn crossed the Rainbow Bridge, I began delivering Xena Zuzu Petals puppies... I had a very intentional plan in my head to insure the one thing I really needed to happen, happened -- I needed Xena to not only safely whelp however many puppies were in her belly, but I also needed her to take Falyn's 3 orphans as her own...
When the first black pup was born, I cleaned him up and gave him to mama to nurse, but I kept all of the afterbirth, chord, etc. Went over and scooped up the first of Falyn's orphans and rubbed him down with all of the afterbirth - admittedly this didn't make yellow puppies look very cute, but when I presented the first yellow puppy to Xena she immediately started cleaning him up and encourage him to nurse...
I repeated this three fold, so for each of the first three puppies Xena whelped - I added a yellow to her brood - little did we know in the end there would be a total of 13 puppies!! 10 Xena puppies and 3 Falyn puppies and all would be equally loved and adored by Xena Zuzu Petals.
It's important to share with you now, that I placed all three of Falyn's pups in pet homes and completely let go of her being a part of TKL history after her passing, though she would always own a huge part of my heart and always be a part of the beginning of TKL - I wasn't in a place emotionally where keeping one of her pups made sense. I felt if I kept one, they would always be in their mother's shadow here... I also feared, if I kept one, it would keep me stagnant in my grief and those three pups fought to be on this earth and deserved so much more than what I was able to give them then - today, all three are very happy and in exceptional homes.
Fast forward now to present day...It's Spring 2017 and here at TKL with Spring, usually comes some sort of puppy announcement... I had shared on Facebook a few weeks ago that I had taken “Siri SissyPants” for a pre-Mama checkup at our Vet... she passed with flying colors!! But I hear your curiosity… who could the Daddy be?
Well... the Daddy I chose for her was never supposed to be a Daddy, but through some rather unconventional circumstances, he blossomed into a very handsome boy, with an exceptional temperament, and he's also a trained service dog... for those of your familiar, have you guessed who he is yet? It's Ruger! (and as a pedigree refresher, Ruger is a Falyn son - no, he's not one of the orphans - Ruger was born the year before in 2014)...
So, when Sissypants came into season, arrangements were made for Sissy to meet Ruger... When the big day finally arrived, little did we know Sissypants just wasn't going to be "into" Ruger - poor boy! So there we were, Alisha had driven Ruger quite a distance to be at TKL and both of us were excited about the prospects of a Sissy x Ruger breeding, but Sissy didn't share our enthusiasm AT ALL. But there are a few side notes worth mentioning here...
- Sissy wasn't the only girl in heat here...
- Zuzu Petals was also in season... but the 411 on that is... FIRST - I hadn't been tracking Petals cycle, because I wasn't planning to breed Petals SECOND - The PLAN was to breed Sissy! (All good examples of Murphy's Law in the life of a dog breeder...)
So while I will tell you... I entertained AI (artificial collection and insemination) long enough that day, that everything was ready and sterilized... and thought since I knew Petals was such an easy going girl, she could possibly be used as a facilitator to get Sissy bred... (translation, Petals wasn't going to rip Ruger's face or ear off!) it's safe to say the next few moments completely changed the narrative...
When I brought Petals out, the more I looked at her next to Ruger, the more in love I fell with this pairing and the puppies it could produce AND of course, the fact that they were smitten with each other didn't hurt either...
If you're totally new to TKL I should probably mention to you now how Xena Zuzu Petals came to be here at TKL... Xena Zuzu Petals was imported from Okeanas Elite Kennel in Lithuania (http://okeanas.lt) and it's a decision I would do over, and over, and over again and one I have never regretted not even for a micro-second.
So, how does this story end? Well, we thought it ended back in 2015, when Zuzu Petals took Falyn's 3 orphaned pups into her own litter and raised them as her own and those events on their own are a beautiful story... but I don't think I will short change any of the dogs in this story by saying the end has been written... instead I will say another chapter has been written and there are likely more chapters to come in the future.
I can say now with 99% certainty Xena is in whelp to Ruger with Falyn grandbabies in her belly. While this is the first breeding I've done blind (without really knowing where the girl was in her cycle), Xena immediately went into "incubation" mode, complete with raging love me, love me, love me hormones.... and I began doing belly measurements one week one post breeding... (results below)
- week 1 - 25"
- week 2 - 26.25"
- week 3 - 28 7/8"
- week 4 - 30"
So, to wrap all of this up with a neat little bow.... Back in 2015, Falyn left this earth with a large piece of my heart and left behind 3 orphans that were raised by a lovely chocolate girl from Lithuania... 2 years later, one of Falyn's boys, who was never intended to be bred or even to be kept in tact, had grown into a gorgeous boy, passed his clearances, and is now partly responsible for giving us the potential gift of Falyn grandbabies circa that same lovely chocolate girl from Lithuania...
So the happy announcement is... We are expecting black puppies on May 26, 2017 (the Friday before Memorial Day.). We hope you will stay tuned...there will be lots more to come!
For info on this litter contact puppy-info@treasurekeeperlabradors.com
**Update** The pups in this litter were nothing short of phenomenal - On March 26, 2017 Petals whelped 12 perfect puppies - 8 left here as service dogs in training, 1 was good enough to be kept here to continue the Treasure Keeper Labradors Legacy, and 3 are quite happy being spoiled pets to very loving families!! I couldn't have been happier with how they all turned out!
Credits:
Treasure Keeper Labradors