Well, as you can see (below), Phoebe was getting pretty big. Ya, I wasn't exaggerating in those updates. She was 25 days pregnant on January 8th, 1998, and I thought she was about ready to explode. I was hoping soooo hard on Thursday (the 8th) night that she would have them by the next morning for two reasons. 1. I didn't want to have to wait through a whole other day of school before seeing the pups and 2. I didn't want her to explode. Well, I watched her carefully all Thursday night, but nothing. I went to bed at 10:40pm with a heavy heart. I slept soundly until my alarm went off at 6:15 (my preliminary, you're-gonna-have-to-get-up-soon-alarm) and I stumbled out of bed and shut it off, and wandered back to sleep. Fifteen minutes later, another alarm. But this time, i shut it off and turned on my lamp. Then I hopped on top of the chest I use as a step stool and peeked into Phoebe's nest. OMIGOSH.

Umm, yeah, just a little big . . .

It seems my estimates of "four, maybe five" were a bit conservative! In total, Phoebe had given birth to SEVEN pups. My jaw hit the floor. "MOM!!!!!" = ) At first I thought there were only six; but another check a few minutes later proved there were seven (a check later in the day confirmed it once again). It was beyond all my expectations!

Wow, SEVEN!

Their names are Caitriona, Ciaran, Ailish, Mairi, Liam, Conor, and Finian. They should be lilac and argente, just like there mom and dad and 5 (living) siblings! It will be so fun watching them grow. With 5 in the tank it's hectic enough, but SEVEN?

	Liam - Liam is a cute male lilac boy, who has some odd eyes! One of them isn't usually open all the way, causing him to have a squint, but I think it just makes him all the cuter. He's living with Mindy Arledge as of 2/28/98
	Finian - the only argente in the litter, and also a male. He, too, is living with Mindy as of 2/28.
	Ciaran jr. - A male lilac, just like his daddy, Junior is living with Katherine Finch along with his brother Conor and one of Katherine's gerbil boys. Here are 2 pics of the boys at 11 months old!
	Conor - Also a male lilac, he's living with Junior.
	Caitriona - Cait is now living with Jennifer Knapp, my sister's friend, who has 2 other female gerbils she's taken good care of for over 2 years. (Don't fret . . the girls aren't living with them!) I now have some pictures of them at Jenn's. Jen also made a page about them.
	Ailish - Aili is now living with her sis, Caitriona, with Jennifer Knapp. They're both female lilacs.

Old news

2/16/98 - WAHOO! New pics = ) Caitriona and Ailish (the fixed wrist girls) left for Jennifer Knapp's house yesterday. She lives down the street, so I'll be able to keep an eye on them = )

2/15/98 - the pups are big siblings as of yesterday! Also, they're weaned and ready for new homes. Please read my Adopt-A-Dani page to see how *you* could take home one of my little ones = )

2/6/98 - Okay, I finally (FINALLY!) got a new pic of the pups. Unfortunately, it's only of 2 of them (hard to keep them in one place for long!) and didn't come out as well as I'd hoped. But, here it is! And happy 4 week birthday pups!

Finian & Liam having a little "battle"

1/27/98 - 17 days old, and all eyes are open! They're all so adorable! I figured out how to tell the girls apart. They both have fixed wrists . . but on different paws!! Caitriona's is fixed on the right, and Ailish's is fixed on the left. Small blessing!

1/19/98 - Now that they're 10 days old, I can tell males from females! I think that I have 3 lilac males, 2 lilac females (the fixed wristers), and 1 argente male. The lilac boys are Ciaran, jr., Liam, and Conor. The lilac girls are Caitriona and Ailish. The argente boy is Finian.

All 6 Pups

1/16/98 - The other day I noticed that one of the pups is suffering from what is known as a "fixed wrist" defect--one of their paws doesn't bend properly at the wrist, so it sticks out straight. Today, I realized that not one, but TWO of the pups have this problem. Poor things! It's a permanent condition, but not life threatening. I just hope someone will still want to adopt them!

1/10/98 - Sadly, I found one of the pups dead this afternoon. However, the other 6 seem to be doing fine.

Pheobe is a proud (and thin) new mommy

Mom & Dad