Day 9: Kotofusa x Tochimitsuhime

I left for Poland on day 2 of the life of the 5 pups out of Koto and Hime. Pup number 5, a male, passed away at around 48hours. He was almost the same size as his siblings, and though I did have to give him a hand to nurse after he was born, he seemed to be doing well. My friend Mark was taking care of the dogs for me, and while we tried everything to keep him alive, he had stopped nursing, and Hime was pushing him away. It was sad, but I understand that death comes to all living things, and if I can't deal with this happening to my dogs (who have a much shorter life cycle than I), I'd be better off not owning/breeding them.

When I arrived back at home on the 13th, I went straight to the pups to see how they were doing. Female 2 (sesame) caught my eye. I picked her  as the front runner, even though none of the pups have any obvious flaws just yet. She's got a nice head shape and balance all around. That night we had a BBQ at my house and I invited Mr.Iwahori. We took a look at the pups together, and he was pleased to see that the pups have excellent hue in their coats (even if they don't have quite the tight structure seen in the pups from his kennel). I was pleased that he also picked female 2 as the best of the litter (for now anyway). One thing we noticed is that the pups look to have shallow stops, which is something that comes from Hime's side. The red female is the exception, and female 2's stop is fairly pronounced. It will be fun to watch these pups mature. I can't wait till their eyes open.

Female 1 was the first pup born, but she's lagging in size now at 510g. Since I'm really interested in her potential due to her red coloration and good stop. I've been sneaking in extra nursing time for her.



Female 2 is the monster now at 647grams. She's the lighter of the sesame females. But overall head size, shape, and balance have me picking her first of the pups for now.



Female 3 is weighing in at 610 grams. She's got the most shallow stop, but really nice hue.



Male 1 is weighing in at 614grams, and is the same color as female 3. They both have black fur coming up on the front of their legs, which means they'll probably end up having nice dark sesame coats. Of course just how dark is up for speculation.



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