Birthday - 11/27/06

Docie and Gane's puppies have arrived right on time - Monday, November 27, 2006.   We have 7 pups, 5 boys and 2 girls.    4 are black nosed, 2 are livernose and one is sort of in between so we will call him a 'bliver' for now!!!    4 have ridges suitable to be called a Rhodesian Ridgeback, 3 are "Zimbabwe Flatbacks"!!!    All are little fatties weighing between 16 oz and 20 oz at birth.   No excessive whites, no dermoids so far, no kinked tails, no cleft palates - a great little brood!!!!

Docie is a first time momma, so it took her ALL day to have 6 of the pups.   I could tell that she was not done, my vet said to bring her in, x-rays showed the last little girl was stuck, so a c-section was necessary to get her out!!!!   All are all doing GREAT!!!    Docie is a GREAT momma.   She has plenty of milk and is totally obscessive about taking care of her little darlin's.   Her c-section has not slowed her down at all.

All is well.   I need sleep!!!  :)


Little Scholars  - 1 Week

If you question whether it is possible to double in size in one week - DON"T!!!!     These little guys look more like beached walrus's than puppies!!!  Talk about feed conversion!!!

Besides eating, the little scholars (Can you guess what the litter "THEME" is going to be??!!)  have had a pretty full and exciting week.  At three days old, they had their first veterinary checkup and their dew claws removed - OUCH!!!   At 6 days, they had their toenails trimmed - Momma REALLY appreciates the removal of all those little daggers!!  They have begun moving around in their whelping box - not a walk really - more of a GI Joe crawl!  Their little ears are starting to flip down instead of being pinned open to the sides of their heads.   They don't make much noise except whining and crying if they are not being fed constantly!!!   Still don't have their eyes open, but I think only a few more days.

Tomorrow, they get another check up by the vet and Docie gets the staples taken out of her c-section - Ouch for her!!!

I don't usually get too many livernose puppies, so I am sorry to say I am not 100% sure what color some of the livernose or blivernose actually are!!!    I just know they are NOT blacknose, black masked like what I am used to seeing!!!   I think one of the ridged males IS a livernose, I think the ridged female may be too!!   I guess we will have to watch them change color together!!!  3 males are ridged and 1 female.  2 males and 1 female are not.   Still no dermoids detected, belly buttons have healed up beautifully, no other faults so far!!!!


Scholars Hit the Books and Study, Study, Study! - 2 Weeks

The learning curve for the Scholars was HUGE this week!!!   

Their eyes are OPEN and they are learning to focus them and actually SEE!!!   At this age, all eyes are blue and will stay that way for quite some time yet.  Eventually, the black nose pups will have dark gold to dark brown eyes and the livernose will turn a little hazel and then amber gold to match their noses.  

No more GI Joe crawling!!!  They are up on all fours - briefly and shaky with lots of spontaneous tipping over!!!   They are trying to sit up but aren't too good at that yet and take lots of diggers onto their noses!!!     They are learning to play and do lots of chewing on each others ears, noses and feet.   Yesterday, I actually heard a very pathetic attempt at a bark!!!   Then they all looked at each other like "Did that come out of MEEEEE?"!!!!!   I expect that they will keep practicing on the barking and they will start to growl soon too.   Their play will turn to downright rough housing with lots of vocalizing practice!!!

This week their hair turned fuzzey like it always does for about a week or two so the ridge sortof blends in!  By 4 weeks their ridge will be easy to see again - the flatbacks STILL won't have one!!!!   Not sure on those livernoses?????   Might just be black noses with no mask?????   Still no dermoids or kinked tails or cleft palates.   Belly buttons and dewclaws almost completely healed up - no outee belly buttons!!!   They are not quite as butterball fat this week- more like stuffed sausages!!!   All is well!!!

Because I plan to continue to make our name transition to Kina Kabambe (pronounced Kee nah Kah bomb bay and means “Great Family” in Swahili) from Kollege Kennels, I have decided that this will be the "COLLEGE" litter!!!   Time will tell which little scholar will be:  Berkeley, Juilliard, Purdue, Loyola, Tulane, Baylor, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Rutgers, Stanford, Duke, etc.....   Lots of studying to do!!!!


ART 101 Finger Painting Puppy Style - 3 Weeks

The Scholars have morphed from little rats into PUPPIES this week!!  They can walk, sit, bark, growl and cry with the best of them!!!  The actually bark and growl a lot now just 'CAUSE' they can and it is fun!!!   They play with each other frequently with lots of unexpected tipping over and rolling around !!!   They see very well and hear very well.  Their eyes are still quite blue and will stay that way for another few weeks.   Got another toe nail trim!  Dew claw  removal sites are  all healed.

Each pup is very much an individual already and they are easy to tell apart - at least  for me!!   They have different markings on their chests, varying amounts of white on their toes, and are different  shades of red.   That combined with rather easy differences such  as gender  and ridged or not  ridged makes them as I say EASY to tell apart!!

New this week:   They have figured out  how to nurse even when momma is standing up.   I can't even imagine how uncomfortable that has GOT to be for Docie!!!  Yikes!!! 

I think the novelty of puppies is wearing a little thin for Miss Docie as she is beginning to appreciate spending more and more time ALONE!!    Their baby fuzz has gone away  so I can clearly see their ridges again - or lack thereof !!!   I discovered that the ridgeless female actually DOES have a ridge - however  it is only about 1/2 inch long and on the top or her head!!!!   Now that IS a new one!!!

Hope you like the Puppy paw paintings!     They had a great time and made a big mess which was fun!!  Each pup will be coming home with their own piece of ARTWORK that they did just for their new family!!


PE 101 -   We are the Champions!!   We ARE the Champions!!!  -  4 Weeks

Another BIG week!!!   Our little College Bound Scholars had their first meal of puppy mush- they sort of went 'snorkeling' in it!!!!  Thank goodness Momma is there to clean them all up!!   They eat puppy mush twice a day now, and Docie has begun to spend less time with them and is clearly quite relieved to do so!!!   Not even ANOTHER toenail clipping helped!!!   They are right on schedule to begin the weaning process, once they are eating real well, they will nurse less and less and Docie will wean them gradually herself.   We aim to have them completely weaned by 6 weeks when they begin to get teeth and seriously know how to use them !!!

Litterbox training has begun!  Kindof goes hand in hand with the puppy mush thing!!!  :-)  I use the wood pellets you buy for your wood burning stoves.  They smell good, absorb very well and the puppies just seem to like them and know what they are supposed to use them for.   I'd say they are using their litterbox at least half of the time so I think they will get almost completely used to using their box within a week or two.   Hopefully, this will really help the housetraining when they go to their new homes.

WE HAVE NAMES!!!!  Meet the Kollege Kennels Collegiates:

Berkeley -  female, flatback with strange crown on TOP of head!, golden red with medium black mask, big spot on chest, minimal white on toes
Juilliard - female, gorgeous ridge, dark red with medium black mask, minimal white anywhere

Cornell - male, flatback, golden red with medium mask, tiny spot on chest, no white on toes
Baylor - male, flatback, dark red with medium mask,  "anchor" on chest, minimal white on toes

Rutgers - male, nice ridge, slightly offset crowns, deep red, medium mask, wild squiggles on chest, little bit of white on all four feet
Yale - male, perfect ridge, dark red with heavy black mask, small amount of white on chest and toes
Tulane - male, nice ridge, slightly offset crowns, light golden red, minimal mask, tiny spot on chest, no white on toes

I LOVE this age!!!  They growl, bark, hop, sort of run & play a lot with each other now.  They love to bounce around being snoopey and looking for ways to ESCAPE!!  Doesn't matter where they are playing, they just want to get OUT!!!   It's amazing!   I can see their little personalities starting to come, but for the most part right now they are all just sweet and innocent and snuggley and like to lick my chin and chew on my ears!!!   It's GREAT!!!!


Christmas Vacation - 5 & 6 Weeks

WOW!!!  The College Bound Scholars had lots of adventures thru the Holidays!!    All the kids were home from College from all corners of the country so huge amounts of attention and play were heaped upon the pups which REALLY helped them make the huge adjustment to being totally weaned.   Slowly, but surely, Momma Docie spends less and less time with them and she is CLEARLY not interested in nursing them any longer.   Even another toe nail trim doesn't help anymore!!!   Their teeth are WORSE!!!  Our whole family got together out of state too, so the Scholars were babysat for a week by the neighbor's youngsters so they REALLY had fun playing with younger children.  Children and teenagers play better and are WAY more fun!!!!   It's been a go, go, go Holiday!!!

The Scholars got wormed for the second time (yuk!) and are eating their puppy mush very very well.   They have lots more room to play in their new expanded 'puppy play pen'.    Their teeth are coming in and they are doing a GREAT job of learning how to use them!!!   Their toys are suffering rather badly however!!

They use their litterbox almost all the time which sure helps to keep them clean and smelling nice.    Now that Momma is not sleeping with them anymore, they sleep in their lidless crate underneath a heat lamp so that they still stay nice and toasty warm.

They are puppies in every way  - they run, climb, jump, bark, growl, bite, slip, slide and fall!!!! and BEST of all they cuddle in my lap and fall asleep!!    All have their own personalities and are unique little individuals.     They are very outgoing, happy go lucky little GALOOTS!!!     Grandma can't keep up with them!!!!


I Got the MUSIC in Me - 7 Weeks

What fun we had taking pictures this week!!!   We took the Scholars to the Music Room of our local High School for their "musical education" and let them "pick" an instrument to play.   They had sooo much fun running wild, running free in that great big room.   It  took 4 of us to ride herd on them!!!!   Enjoy the pictures, I know we sure had fun taking them!!!

The pups are completely weaned, but still know who momma is and enjoy chasing her around a couple times a day.   They are growing like weeds and have full sets of teeth and know how to use them!!!     They are typical puppies - 1/2 hour bursts of wild activity, then 2 hours of snuggle in a pile sleep and then another burst of high activity!!!   New toys are a daily neccessity!!!   They get puppy Kong's filled with a mixture of frozen peanut butter and puppy chow, rope toys, rawhide, and pig ears to fight over and chew on all the time.   When I am watching, I like to use things gathered out of the garbage!!!  - lids to butter or whipped cream make great Frisbees and fun things to carry around, plastic soda bottles filled with puppy kibble roll with a great noise and spill out TREATS, old socks and gloves are good for tug of war, and their all time favorite - the leg of an old nylon with a soup can knotted into the middle and more knots down each end - they roll well and those stretchy knots are GREAT for pulling on!!!!    The garbage toys are NOT appropriate for unsupervised play as they could eat them and consume the parts but they are great toys for the 1/2 hour wild child play time!!!

This week they will get their final vet check, puppy shots (ouch), microchipped (BIG OUCH!), their final worming (yuk) and about the 6th toenail trim!!!   Next week they will start going to their new families!!!!   The Agony and the Ecstasy for me!!!

Graduation Day - 8 Weeks

The caps, the gowns, the bright eyes and happy faces!!!  Our little College Scholars are grown up, ready for their new life and next adventure in far away places.  We have taught them everything we could, socialized them well, passed health checks, given immunizations, gotten them their permanent identification, obtained the necessary traveling papers, the pictures are taken, the "wild life" party is over!!!!   They are GRADUATES!!!!

At last all our College Scholars have gone to their new homes to start a whole new educational experience!!!   What a learning curve they and their new families will ALL be on!!!   The FIRST thing most will learn about is WARM weather and GRASS !!!    The last 3 weeks of record setting cold in South Dakota made it VERY challenging to get the little darlings homeI

I chose "College Scholars" as the theme for this litter to end an era and a decade of loving, enjoying, and raising ridgebacks as "Kollege Kennels Rhodesians" or KKR.    Kollege Kennels Rhodesians, the name and the dream, has fulfilled a promise made - that the puppies three children raised, loved, and let go would someday see them off to college!!   My human children are all off to college and out on their own, so it seems fitting that we move forward as well.   The College Scholars are the last litter from Kollege Kennels.   deep sigh.

In the coming years and generations we are Kina Kabambe (pronounced Kee nah Kah bomb bay) Rhodesians at Kollege Kennels.   Kina Kabambe means “Great Family” (Family Great to be exact) in Swahili.   I can't wait to see what the next decade is going to bring with our canine family, but I hope it will include many more opportunities to continue to learn and explore all the many facets of this incredible breed.   Our human family is growing with weddings and perhaps even HUMAN GRANDCHILDREN on the horizon - our own expanding Kina Kabambe!!!    Still the same Rhodesian Ridgebacks, the same family, the same philosophy, the same commitment to excellence, still “KKR”.

Kollege Scholars Graduates:

The time has come,
For closing books and long last looks must end,
And as I leave,
I know that I am leaving my best friend,
A friend who taught me right from wrong,
And weak from strong,
That's a lot to learn,
What, what can I give you in return?

How do you thank someone,
Who has taken you from crayons to bassoons?!!
It isn't easy, but I'll try,
If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high,
To "Mom", with Love

Goodbye Kollege Scholars!
~From both Moms with Love.

Also, be sure to take a look at the "out takes" to see more puppy pictures that didn't quite make it onto the website.

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