Summer 2020 Litter: They're Here!

  Hey everyone, we have some super exciting new for y'all! Our Summer 2020 Litter has finally made its grand debut! And what a perfect litter it is. But first, by way of introduction, meet the parents of this beautiful litter.

   As you may have already guessed, our girl A'lexus Raven, who we call Lexi, is the proud mother to these babies. This is her fourth litter and she's doing a fantastic job as always. We regret to inform  you that this will be her final litter before retiring. Due to an unexpected emergency, Lexi needed a c-section to deliver these precious little pups. We are so blessed and excited that all the puppies were delivered and are doing great, and Lexi is recovering well also! Such a miracle litter. 

  Lexi is a stellar dog and the whole family loves her. Her happy place is wherever the people are! She enjoys swimming, fetching, and walks, and does very well with children. Lexi is from a mixture of English and American lines, so she has the influence of English good looks, without compromising the American hunting and retrieving drive. Lexi is OFA certified "good" for hips and "normal" for elbows, and has a great pedigree including several hunters and champions. She weighs around 75 pounds.

The handsome face on the title photo of this post is the stunning sire of this litter. Meet Zions March Nostalgic Natural Star Power, who goes by the call name of Daniel. Daniel is a 95-pound English yellow lab, and definitely a head-turner. When I met him, the words I thought of to describe his personality are friendly, outgoing, and happy. But then, what lab wouldn't be happy to see new people and other dogs! At any rate, he's quite a nice chap.

Daniel's father was a Grand Champion, and his pedigree also boasts another GCH and 8 Champions. He has OFA hip and elbow clearances, plus clearances for heart, PRA (eyes), EIC, CNM, and HNPK. This is our first litter sired by Daniel, and we are ever so thrilled with this pair!

A little more on the birth story. After Lexi had experienced a few hours of hard labor on June 2, Tuesday morning, and no puppies born, we realized something was seriously wrong. We dropped everything and took Lexi to our local vet. They did an x-ray and confirmed that she would need a C-section in order to deliver them. However, the doctor who could have performed the surgery was home sick. So we rushed off to the nearest animal emergency clinic. We waited for several more hours while diagnostics were run and waited on the ER surgical team to be available. We finally headed home, weary, exhausted and stressed, leaving Lexi in the clinic's care.  Finally we got the call that Lexi had been admitted for surgery. They had no guarantee that any of the puppies were still alive at this point. So we said a prayer and tried to rest while we waited for the post-surgery phone call. About 2 hours later, it came!

 

The puppies were born late Tuesday night (June 2), around 11:00 pm. We learned then that there had been a uterine tear, so this would be Lexi's last litter. There were 8 puppies. ALL of them were alive and breathing! Lexi was in recovery and seemed to be doing well. We were absolutely thrilled and were in disbelief at the good news! God is good, y'all. We brought them home the following morning and got everyone comfortable in the whelping box in our garage for a quiet place where we can easily keep a close eye on them and check on the babies during the night. These are some quick shots from the first day.

Mama and her little ones! Seriously, little milk-drunk babies are the cutest thing. (Excuse the red glow: the heat lamp is on.) That's all for now! Follow along for more on this summer adventure with Daniel + Lexi's clan! Welcome to the world little labbies.