And then there was one

Duvel was adopted by friends and neighbors, Jan and Paul. We took him down the street to them on Friday evening and stayed for dinner. It was fun to see Duvel running around outside at their place and meeting their other boy, Chester. Duvel will do well to follow Chester's lead in most things because Chester is a very nice boy who loves his crate and will do anything for a treat.

We are very happy that Jan and Paul decided to adopt because they are great dog owners, and they live very nearby so I know we will see Duvel frequently. Allagash also lives down our road now, so we've doubled the number of Great Danes in the neighborhood.

Duvel handled the stairs, and everything else,
like an old pro. Everything is new but they've
already learned to handle a lot of new things
in their early puppyhood.

Jan and Paul went on the same beer tour to
Belgian that we took last spring. Of course we
celebrated and toasted Duvel's adoption properly.

Duvel is a sweet boy and he's really pretty laid back
for a puppy. I think he will fit in well.

Duvel was in his new home Friday night so it was just Guinness and Sierra sharing the bed in the shed. They seemed fine with that. Saturday morning Guinness's new family came to pick him up. They have four children and Guinness loves children so we have every reason to believe that it will be a good match. They have also been over to visit with Guinness and the other pups many evenings in the Della's Beer Garden over the past couple of weeks.

Guinness is approaching the size of being hard
to hold in your arms. But these pups all expect
to be held so the adopters will have to work
something out to accommodate that need.
Love always finds a way.

Killian and company came over this morning too. This is
Guinness and Killian side-by-side. It appears that Killian
isn't being fed enough.

The fourth child is learning to walk and will soon be fully ambulatory.
I'm not sure Guinness will ever get much sleep with four kids around,
but I know that he will love every sleep-deprived minute of it.

After Guinness went to his new home, I did some mowing in the pasture and got some dogs out to run and play. Everyone asks how Della is handling it, and I appreciate that, but she seems to be just fine. We think that this was not her first litter of pups (though it will be her last), so she's been through this part of it before too. She goes to the vet to be spayed next Wednesday, ending her career as a mother, but I think she went out with a bang.

That leaves us with just Sierra for the next few days, but don't feel bad for her. She has an excited and loving family waiting for her but they are out of town. Clay went out and sat with Sierra and held her this morning after everyone was gone and I was out mowing. Then Della and I went in to see her although she was really just wanting to sleep. Sierra will be getting plenty of one-on-one attention from Della and Clay and I over the next few days.

The pups never climbed up and over this A-frame as I had hoped, but they love sleeping under it
and running through it. Sierra took up a position in there today and Della tried to join her. 
She's still a good mom.

Dawn of a new day and new life

Thursday morning was a beautiful dawn of a beautiful day. I hung out with the remaining pups and drank coffee for a while before starting work, conscious of the fact that I had just a few more days to do so.

Five of the pups had been adopted by Monday: Killian, Allagash, Paulaner, Abita, and Carlsberg. As of Thursday evening, four more have gone to their homes: Chimay, Modelo, Peroni, and Stella. That leaves just Duvel, Guinness, and Sierra yet to go.

Chimay left at a whopping 31 lbs., 4.5 ounces.

She's got a big brother in her new home
and she's already stolen his bed.

Modelo will be preventing a case of
empty nest syndrome in his new home.

I am sure that the house will never feel
empty with this pup around.

Peroni has a new collar and tag. She's now
known as Poppy Peroni.

With two young girls in the home, I
know that Peroni will get plenty of love.

Stella's family have been over visiting
her most evenings for the past week.

The pups are all nervous when they leave, but
they soon pick up on their new families' joy.

I know that these four pups, and the five that went before, and the three yet to go, are all going to really great homes. That's what makes it possible to foster, and it's what makes fostering so rewarding. I've lost nothing by letting them go, only gained.

Non-puppy pics

A recent development that I've been very
happy to see is Della and Maya playing.

There will be more puppy pictures, I promise. I have a ton of them. Too many really; they will take some time to go through and edit. For now I've pulled out some recent shots of the other dogs.

Maya has been queen around here for quite a while and
I was a little concerned about how she'd take to Della.
Maya is not so much a natural alpha, she just stepped up
to the role to fill a void. Della is the real thing, I think, so
I was afraid the girls would clash. I've made it clear to
Della that Maya is important and the girls seem to have
come to an understanding. 

This is our average weekly load of trash to take to the dump
since we've had puppies, about 7-8 large bags, plus a few
odds and ends. Before puppies I only went to the dump once
every six weeks or so.

Della and Zeus

Della, Zeus, Max, Serena, and Theo

Max

Theo

Hanging in the shade while I mow.

Zeus is pretty well integrated with the pack now. I crate him
at night indoors still. I can take him to the pasture with the
others, but after a while he leaves and is generally found back
at the house wanting in. I don't think he's really looking to run
off, but a four foot fence won't actually contain him.

Della runs in the pasture, staying pretty near me when I mow.
Max does too, most of the time. The other dogs think mowing
is boring and go off and do their own thing, usually laying in
the shade, watching from a distance.

Max and Serena. Serena does not like the mower and keeps
a good distance away.

Della, Max, and Serena.

I do like seeing these two girls run and play together.

Thoughts on the Exodus

This is going to be rather long, but you don't have to read it and there are lots of pictures. Blogging is a self-indulgent activity at its core and I'm going to the core with this one.

Della is really quite sweet.

Puppies are flying off the shelves around here. Five have gone to their new homes. Seven remain as of this writing, but more will be going throughout the week. It's a good thing, but it does produce some complicated emotions.

Della seems to be fine with it. Yesterday the family who picked up Paulaner had their picture taken with Della, while they were holding the pup. She must know what's going on and she's okay with it. Erika had said that the timing of the adoption between 10 and 12 weeks would depend upon Della telling us that it was time and that's pretty much what happened. The adopters were anxious for it, of course, but no one pushed us on it. Della had been spending progressively less time with the pups, decreasing the length of each visit and then the overall number of visits. I would let her see her puppies whenever she wanted, but it was getting to the point that she was more interested in playing with Serena and chasing the shepherds, although she'd still keep an eye on the pups and bark a warning to the outside world. Instead of coming in and spending time with them and instructing them in proper puppy behavior, she would come in, do her inspection, and then was ready to get back out. Sometimes she would regurgitate her stomach contents to feed them, as if to say, "Here, eat this and leave me alone, I've got things to do."

Della is good with it and that's the most important thing to me. We've even accelerated the pace of the adoptions a bit, although a couple will still be with us until just after Labor Day. When asked how I'm doing with the puppies leaving, it's hard to say. It's good, they need to move on and start the new chapter of their lives. I had no intention of keeping them all or even keeping any of the pups. They need someone else to give them what they need now. But their departure leaves a void, there's no denying that.

We've been singularly focused on these puppies ever since we knew they existed, about two weeks before they were born. Everything has revolved around them, doing what we could to be prepared for them, to care for them after they were born, and to educate and raise them for the first couple of months of their lives. It's sort of like the rug has been pulled out from under us now that they are leaving. Not in a malicious sense, it's just that what we've been doing with all our time, energy, and devotion has suddenly ceased to exist. I've felt this way once before in my life, when caring for my first partner in the weeks before he died. Everything I did was focused on that. Every other aspect of my life was minimized or pushed aside for the time. Then when he died, I felt totally lost, without purpose, and didn't know what to do. Totally different circumstances obviously, but a similar all-consuming focus on a task that ended suddenly, and left me with a similar feeling of nothingness.

I remind myself that this task has always been, first and foremost, about taking care of Della. The puppies were important to us because they were important to her. She has always been the real reason for doing everything that we've done. The puppies are wonderful, of course, and I certainly came to love them. But I can let them go, whereas I couldn't let Della go. Della remains and she's very happy and that is really what fills my heart with joy and makes this all worthwhile.

The puppies have generated plenty of joy of their own. They have made twelve adopters very happy, but they have reached people far beyond the orbit of possible adopters. Their story has generated far more interest among far more people than I ever imagined. That's nice but making people happy is a side effect of rescue as far as I'm concerned. For me the focus is always on making the dog happy. There have been a few adoptions that I've made happen because I wanted to benefit the person involved as much as the dog, but for the most part we mean it when we say we are in it for the dogs.

So, here we are. We still have seven puppies waiting to go home but somehow I'm feeling like it's all over already. No separation anxiety or depression, just this void feeling. Tapering down is probably a good thing, coming down off a high without a crash. It's a relief in a way. We've been pretty vigilant about their safety and well-being, and it's nice to hand that off to someone else now. I feel like Della did that already, telling us, "I got them this far, you can take over now."

Everything will get back to what passes for normal around here, but we will all be forever changed by this experience.

Killian went home first and there are some
questionable characters in the home so
I went to check up on him. 

They were making him work for his food, but
he seemed happy and well adjusted.

Allagash went to his new home Sunday morning.

Paulaner wasn't scheduled to go until Monday
but they were coming out to visit on Sunday
so I encouraged them to take him then.

Della posed with the puppy thieves and
didn't seem to mind. That's when I knew
she was okay with all this.

Abita went to northern Virginia and she's the farthest away.
Remember Clyde? He's Abita's big brother now.

I'm holding Abita before she left Sunday afternoon.

Carlsberg (now Woody), has several siblings, including two
Danes, one of whom is still a puppy himself.

Carlsberg on his way home.

Della and Zeus out in the pasture.

Della, Zeus, Max, Serena, and Theo

Della and Serena sharing a crate.