Tuesdays With Tag - Puppy News Flash (and Photos)...

Brynwood Needleworks - Regal Tag

 

Hi, Everybody!

 

Now it's time for the post you've been waitin' for...Bella had her puppies- and I've got pictures!!!

 

Actually, when I wrote my post last week, the puppies were already born, but we didn't find out until Wednesday, because Uncle Mike wanted to make sure everybody was healthy. Mom actually wrote about that last week...but hey, it's my turn now, so apologies for maybe repeatin' some of the news flash! Mom didn't have pictures to share with you, but guess what? I DO!!

 

Brynwood Needleworks - Bella and Her Puppies

 

Here's our first pictures of Mama Bella with her beautiful babies. She had seven of 'em...three girls and four boys. The first puppy born was that cute, little yellow boy. After him, all the rest of the puppies were black.  

 

Bella looks tired in the picture, but that partly because she is...and partly because her kennel is probably warm between the Florida heat and a heat lamp that Uncle Mike has to make sure the puppies are warm enough. They look pretty comfy, don't they?

Brynwood Needleworks - Bella's Puppies

Don't they look like little black seals? Soft, shiny black coats can look like that. Now, some people might be wonderin' how there could be a yellow puppy when both Mom and Dad are black Labs. Mom explained it to me so I could tell you.

Yellow coats are a recessive gene in Labradors (and so is Chocolate). Two black Labradors can have a litter of all black puppies, or a litter of black and yellow puppies. A yellow and black Labrador breeding can have either black or yellow puppies, but two yellow parents can only have yellow puppies, and two chocolate Labs can only have chocolate puppies. Whew! Got that?

So, although it's possible that two black Labradors (Bella and Rigby) could technically have yellow puppies, that first, little yellow guy was a surprise. Uncle Mike went back and checked out pedigrees (which list the colors of each dog in the lineage) and found that there were no yellow Labs on Bella's side, but there were on Rigby's side...so, Rigby gets all the credit for his yellow son.

Brynwood Needleworks - Look At That Puppy Tongue!

On the other paw, Bella gets all the credit for that cute, pink tongue stickin' out! hee hee Their eyes won't open until they're two weeks old (and as of today, they're one day past one week old), so that won't happen until next week. Then, they'll start gettin' around and will really be fun. 

They're all deaf right now, too. The hearin' part comes later, so they're totally dependent on Mama Bella to take care of them, and she's doin' a bang up job. Uncle Mike says she's really protective of them, and she picks 'em up in her mouth to position them at her milk buffet. You can see that she's doin' a great job of makin' sure they're all gettin' fed.

Brynwood Needleworks - Taggart In The Garden

 

I can tell you right now that Mom and Dad are just dyin' because they're not snugglin' puppies these days. They'll just have to settle for me until we get to Florida in June. Between now and then, we'll be watchin' for more pictures to share with you, too.

 

The weather is gettin' nicer here by the day, so Mom and I are passin' time in the garden, weedin' and plantin'. It helps the time pass quicker. 

 

Mom will be back tomorrow, and well, you know what to expect from me, right?

 

I'll see you again in seven. 'til then...

"Just Do It...but not on the rug."