I’ve been trotting out to that barn every night at 3:00 am to check for babies for some time now. Last night, I made my last check at 11 pm before going to bed. Set the alarm for 3:00 am, and fell asleep. The alarm rang, and I thought, “too tired zzzzz”. I got out to the barn at 9:00 am, and dang it if L&R Cookie didn’t deliver 5 kits a day early. Popsicles. @#$% Ahhhh. Every single time. Life cuts you no slack, I swear. Poor Cookie.
On a brighter note though!
Sometime between my finding Cookie’s poor babies and 11:00 am, Quicksilver delivered her first ever litter, also a day early. Five toasty kits. It’s so nice to have a doe, bred for the first time, to have a live, healthy litter right off the bat. Two light-colored, and 3 darker. One is a peanut (top). Quicksilver took over in my breeding program for her dam, Plank’s Aqualena.

Less then 2 hours old (thf Saynora's Zorion x GBF's Quicksilver).
So, now of course, I’m curious about what we have in this litter. Zorion (tort) carries shaded and could carry dilute. Quicksilver (black) carries shaded or REW and dilute. Most likely outcome would be Blacks and Torts. Possibly Siamese Sable, Seals, Sable Points, something dilute…
Three more does due tomorrow. None of them are making any motions in that direction yet. Although, each time I go out to check, Jonica is cuddled up in her nestbox.
2:30 pm
Well, I take that last comment back. Two more does due tomorrow. I walked out at 2:00 to check for babies again, and surprise, surprise…. Hughette had fur all over her cage and three fatty’s in the box. What’s up with these does all going a day early?! Today seems to be THE day.

Family of ARR's CV Soul x GBF's Hughette.
The dark broken kit, is a broken chestnut. You can tell he is Chestnut and NOT black by looking at his ears. See that they are light-colored on the inside? That means Chestnut. Dark on the inside of the ears would mean a Black kit. The kit on the right must have had a rough delivery… his entire back leg is bruised and he is a bit scratched up. Kit on upper left looks to be an Orange today (1-22-2010).
CV Soul is a Chocolate Agouti (A_bbC_DdE_) and Hugh is an Orange (AaB_C_D_ee). I specifically did this breeding to create some Agouti chocolate carriers. Why? To work on Lynx on down the road. Plus, Chocolate Agouti’s, in and of themselves, are very pretty.