A few weeks ago, our neighbor called (the one whose cattle they so proudly protect) to tell us he saw Shy and thought she was pregnant or perhaps just gave birth. Sure enough, she started hanging around during the day and it was obvious that she, umm, had a large quantity of milk production going on. We started following her to see if we could find out where she hid the pups. After a couple of days of recon, Dan found that she stashed them in a hollowed out brush pile to keep them safe and warm. We left them with Shy, in the brush pile, for another two weeks or so. By that time, we figured they would be old enough to be moved and start to be weaned. We didn't want to try sooner in case Shy wanted nothing to do with them after the move.
Dan built a new pen and a shelter big enough for Shy and her pups. Turns out she had a 7 pups - rather large for her first litter. Unfortunately one died. Looks like Tim fathered 3 of them, so we have 3 white, full-blooded Great Pyrenees. One black pup that we think is from a black lab we see running around and 2 brown pups that look like a boxer we see around some times. We're going to keep the 3 Pyrenees for ourselves (hopefully we can train them to guard the sheep since their parents failed to do this) and we'll give the rest away. In fact, we've already given the black pup to our neighbors - the same neighbor with the cattle. (Perhaps if they train the pup to guard the cattle Shy and Tim will come back to us???) Now we just need to find homes for the brown pups.
Here's a pic of the Pyrenees and the brown Pyrenees/Boxer mix:
These brown pups are ADORABLE! We'd really like to find a home for them soon. If you're in the St. Louis/Potosi area and are interested, leave a comment with a way to contact you!
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