We live to make life exciting for our humans. There were 8 of us. Now most of us have different humans to excite. There also is our momma, CoCo, and an "aunt", Biddy, that make life exciting for the humans along with 4 felines. (They are fun to chew on.)
Our entry into this world was a bit rocky, but we all survived with the help of our humans and their friends.
Let us tell you the story...
The beginning....
Our human poppa, Andy, with Bean a few days old.
Our human momma, Kathie, watching us when we were just hours old. That's our momma CoCo, she was pretty tired.
It was November 26, 2005. When we went in to be taken out of momma, the humans were under the impression there was only 4 or 5 of us from an xray that was taken a week or so before....SURPRISE!!! Our first exciting event!
We just kept coming! Poppa Andy and momma Kathie were very busy with the vet techs getting us dry and breathing on our own. At some point, momma Kathie looked up and saw more than two other people with us and asked.."How many are there?". Voices from the other room said five, no six, ahhhhh seven and a surprised yell said EIGHT!
They were stunned. The vets and the techs were too. They hadn't ever seen such a large litter of bulldogs. We were all doing pretty well, but one of us was what humans call a preemie. That was Bean. (Our human aunt, Rita, named him that cause he wasn't any bigger than a bean.) We all weighed in at 11 to 14 oz, but Bean, he only weighed 7 oz.
Our humans were worried about us because momma CoCo didn't have a lot of milk for us (we took up a lot of production space!) and our color was a bit bright. She called our aunt Rita and decided to stop at her house (although it was a long detour there) before going home. GOOD THING we went!
Momma CoCo was very very tired. Didn't want to eat, just sleep..but we were HUNGRY!We tried to nurse from momma, but there just wasn't enough for us yet. Yes, we know, we wouldn't have starved for a few more hours, but we were HUNGRY! We eat every two hours when we're that young for at least a week or so you know!
As we said, good thing we went to aunt Rita's. She had a momma dog there with some babies too! And momma Mazey didn't mind sharing!! Nummy nummy nummy! So momma CoCo rested and we got to EAT!
We turned that house upside down! Momma Mazey had 5 babies and we were 8 and momma CoCo, and momma Kathie and poppa Andy and Grandpa Reiny and Grandma Lorraine, and other bulldogs in the kennel area (we couldn't count that high).
Momma Mazey with her babies and us. Don't she look happy with all of us?
(Feeding 11 babies, maybe she was sleeping, but pretending to be happy? NAAAAA she was happy!)
Aunt Rita , Grandpa Reiny and Grandma Lorraine are very special humans to our humans. They have been friends for more than 17 years. They have great big hearts for other humans and bulldogs. Our humans told us over and over that if it wasn't for them, we all wouldn't be here to tell you this story.
Bean was the biggest worry. He went from 7 oz in the morning to 5 oz by nightfall. He was pretty weak too. He kept fighting though! He just wouldn't give up! By the next day he was under 4 1/2 oz. But the humans kept after him. Had him nurse every hour as much as he could take. He didn't sleep much.
Poppa Andy and momma Kathie left us and momma CoCo with Aunt Rita and her family overnight so momma Kathie could go get some clothes and supplies for us. (We stayed a whole week!) It was a hard week for all those humans. But they survived. And so did we. We nursed every other time with momma Mazey and momma CoCo. Momma Mazey wasn't happy that we left after a week. She thought we were hers! We left Bean and sister, GeGe (she's called Twiggy now) for another week with Aunt Rita and momma Mazey. GeGe had a large umbilical hernia and was struggling a bit also.
Here's a picture of Bean and GeGe one week old.
Here's Bean one week old in momma Kathie's hand.
They were the smallest of all of us. Aunt Rita tube fed Bean once just before momma Kathie and we all left. His tummy was so full! Aunt Rita said he slept the longest ever after that. Three hours!
Momma Kathie spent a lot of time on the phone buggin Aunt Rita about Bean and GeGe. Not sure how Aunt Rita puts up with momma Kathie sometimes!
We had a good week even though Bean and GeGe weren't at home. (More milk for us!) But then after that week, we all packed into the big red tomato (a surburban) and went to get Bean and GeGe.
Poppa Andy and momma Kathie cried when we got to Aunt Rita's. Guess they were happy and relieved that Bean and GeGe were doing really good and grateful for momma Mazey sharing and Aunt Rita and her family for taking care of Bean and GeGe.
The very first picture in this story is poppa Andy and Bean when we went to get Bean and GeGe. Can you see how happy poppa Andy is? (Some of us thought Bean was being a camera hog though.)
We stayed a long time visiting with Aunt Rita and her family, but then it was time to gather us all up and go home. All the rides in the big red tomato was fun. They had us in our box with a heating pad and hot water bottles. It was COLD outside, but we didn't know it!
