Follow Hope's Journey

Hope is our sweet baby girl that was born on January 12, 2013 with a cleft lip. Unable to nurse from her mother, we are hand-raising this special puppy that has stolen our hearts and given us an amazing gift – HOPE!

UPDATE – Our Hope is all grown up and beautiful as ever! 

Hope’s First Adventure

Hope’s First Adventure

We took off for our first family camping trip of the year this afternoon, so we packed up Hope and Suri for the adventure. I set up their weekend home in a medium sized Vari Kennel - Giving them both enough room yet still keeping our little waddler contained. IT is...

read more
She Is ALL OVER The Place

She Is ALL OVER The Place

Hope is up and walking and playing and barking and walking and growling and walking - well - you get the picture. She is one happy and active puppy! I sat and watched her gum at her mommy Suri to get her to play and it was the sweetest thing I have ever seen. So much...

read more
What is THIS?

What is THIS?

I gave Hope her first taste of food today - We use Gerber Chicken and Gravy baby food and I fed her using a syringe. She doesn't have the tongue action yet to be able to lap so placing it directly onto her tongue was the next best thing. The look on her face was like...

read more
Greets Me With A Bark

Greets Me With A Bark

Hope now peers her head out of the towel we have draped over the bin in her whelping box and greets me with a bark when I come in the room to feed her. Do you think she has this all figured out? I swear she can hear my footsteps as I walk up the stairs and her waggy...

read more
Hope Is Three Weeks Old!

Hope Is Three Weeks Old!

And what an amazing three weeks it has been! We have spaced our feedings out to every 3.5/4 hours, she is up to 8 1/2 ounces and she is "this" close to crawling her way out of the whelping box. Her opened eyes are still a bit cloudy but I swear I saw her following the...

read more
Suri Caught On

Suri Caught On

Last night, Suri started cleaning up the TOP end instead of the bottom while I was feeding Hope. I swear you could see the "ah-ha" moment lightbulb turn on as she got a taste of the formula straight from the syringe. Up until then, she was cleaning off the remnants...

read more
There They Are

There They Are

Both of Hope's eyes are fully open but her world is still rather blurry. Puppies cannot see very well until they are about 4 weeks old but they can see things that are close up. She has yet to follow my finger but some of the newly opened eye glaze is starting to...

read more
Winky-Doo

Winky-Doo

I woke to a beautiful wink from Hope today - Both of her eyes have finally started to open, with her right eye being more open than the other. When she is nursing, it looks like she is winking at me. And even though she still cannot see, I swear it has increased her...

read more
In One End – Out The Other

In One End – Out The Other

My assistant has really gotten into the swing of things with the whole stimulation thing. As Hope is being fed, Suri is right there, helping her potty and cleaning up the mess as we go. I have increased her feedings to 8cc and spread them out to every 4 hours but...

read more