Welcome to Tiga's Blog!

For those of you who do not know us, Tiga is a three year old Golden Retriever. She is a breeding dog for Helping Paws, a non-profit organization in Minnesota that trains and places services dogs with individuals with physical disabilities. Tiga lives with me, Judy, my husband Steve, and our three kids, Mike, Jack and Katie. We are Tiga's caretaker home. We have volunteered to have Tiga live with us and raise up to three litters of puppies for Helping Paws. Believe me, this is no hardship. Tiga is an absolute joy and what could be more fun than a houseful of puppies? Last spring Tiga had her first litter of puppies. It was also the first litter of puppies for us and we all learned together. I will save the details of last year's litter for another blog but here is a picture of the pups.

Now Tiga is once again pregnant and we are anxiously awaiting the whelping. Tiga's boyfriend was not local so rather than travel to him he was shipped to her. As the box says "Don't ship the bitch, ship the semen."

Poor Tiga never even got to meet him. The semen was surgically implanted so she just went to sleep and woke up pregnant. I wonder if this is somewhat confusing to her. Her boyfriend, Tommy, is beautiful - quite the stud. I will have more information on him in the days to come. The empty box traveled in the back of my car for several days after her surgery. Every time I picked my daughter up at school she would open the trunk to throw her backpack in and there would be this box for everyone to see with Canine Semen printed in big letters. Let's just say it amused me a lot more than it did a 13 year old girl.

Yesterday, Tiga had an x-ray to find out how many puppies she is carrying.

There are 8 and I am really happy - a nice manageable number. She is due to deliver on Wed. April 25th.