And then there were... none.

We've come to the end of our first litter with Akita puppies. It's been quite a ride, from Keiko's long labor to the shocking realization as the puppies kept coming and coming and holy smokes... TEN?!?!

After ten weeks, the last puppy left us last night. This morning there were no puppy tails wagging, no tiny... err... quite large... feet pawing for our attention. No adorable little puppy dog kisses. And as sad as it was as each one left our home, we knew they were all going to great homes.

If you, our puppy parents, need a thing, be sure to contact us. Unfortunately, I (Brenda) got a new phone and the Verizon lady didn't move my contacts over correctly, so I've lost all but Brent & Stacey's information. PLEASE continue to send us photos. If we continue to get photos, I can make individual pages for your puppy that can continue to grow and grow as your puppy does. Plus, it would make me feel great to see how beautiful these puppies become as they grow and change.

So now we say good-bye for now... and please give the puppies kisses from us all.

Carly saying goodbye to our first born, her favorite. This photo makes me tear up every time...

One is the loneliest number...

Our little girl is the only puppy of the ten left. This happens to be Rick's favorite, so I'm wondering if he did/said/manipulated something out there somewhere and that's how we HAPPEN to have HIS FAVORITE of the ten to be the last to leave us. So... here are photos I just took to showcase our tiniest girl. To see more photos, scroll down to the post before. She's now 9 weeks old, and she's so playful and dainty and the best at snuggling -- thanks to Rick!

She always has that bottom in the air. She thinks she's very stealthy before pouncing if she strikes that pose!

Spoiled puppy photo taken 3/4/2012

I'm all alone! The last chosen for teams. Poor thang.

Looking at the window to see if her family is on their way...

We guess she will be around 80-85 pounds. She has very dainty features and is incredibly playful. She's fawn and white right now but she almost looks identical to how Raiden looked when we brought him home, and now he's white and blonde. Her black mask is already fading. Raiden had it when he was little and you can see in the photos that it's absolutely gone now. She has a white ring around the base of her tail, but as you can, she's also got a little black ring in the middle of her tail. We called her Racer because of the tail stripes reminded us of race cars. We're dorky like that.

There she is. And I PROMISE she'll make someone a fabulous dog. PROMISE. 

                                                                                                                                  Pinky swear!.

Countdown: Two to Go!

Wow... so few puppies after having 10 for so long. After the first two left, we still had 8 swarming around and playing and tripping us every time we turned around. Then this week, we rehomed two more, and now we just have two left.  Today they are nine weeks old and love love love to play.

This is our 6th born male. We called him Hook when he was born due to the anchor shape on his left shoulder. Thinking back, I could have called him Cap't Jack just because that's really cute. He'll be one of the smaller of the boys -- maybe around 100 lbs instead of the 120 or so. He's also my personal favorite. He's incredibly observant and a lot of times when people would come over to view puppies, he'd sit back and watch more before playing instead of forcing his puppy love on people. He's a beautiful cinnamon color with white and as of right now, he has a black mask, but he may lose it in time.

This photo was taken yesterday, Feb. 29, 2012. 

As you can see, he's largely cinnamon with a bit of white. Tip of his tail, his belly and chest, legs and then that marking on his left shoulder. He's a great, great boy.

And now for our last girl!

This is our fourth born, a little girl. She's definitely our smallest of the 10 puppies. The best word to describe  her is "dainty". We guess she's going to be around 70-80 lbs or so, so definitely a smaller size for a female Akita. She is Rick's favorite, so she's got a lot of SPOILED in her. She is incredibly playful. Just this morning I told Rick that most times I look at her, she's got her bottom up in the air, her tail wagging madly and then pouncing on a toy -- or her brother! She's always been the lightest color of all the puppies and it still holds true. She's light cinnamon brown with white, and has a white circle at the base of her tail. Recently, a black mark has also started on her tail. She has a mask right now, but every day we see it fading away like Raiden's did, so I'm confident she will completely lose her mask. 

See? Hiney in the air again!

So these are our last two. Be sure to look at the adoption page next, because we have several new photos to add. If you'd love to have one of these babies, let us know and we can make it happen!

The Final Three

Two weeks into our first sales of our first litter, we are so bittersweet about having the babies leave our home for their new homes, but we know they have new adventures to experience and new people to love them. This week is a bit rough: aside from the one who left this afternoon, Rick is delivering two tomorrow to Ft. Worth, and then two more we have kept will be going to their new homes. We had ten to begin with, and the first two that sold still stayed with us. Now they're being picked up and suddenly, by Monday, we will have just three of our ten still at the house.

To make it easier for these final three to find their new families, we decided to do a new post showcasing just these angels so people don't have to scroll through all of our photos and past the ones already adopted. As of right now, we have two females and one male still available.

In birth order:

First born, girl. She's a light brown with white, including a white "check mark" on her back. We refer to her as Nike because of her little marking. She is extremely outgoing and very spoiled by our 17 year old daughter. Being the first born, she's been held the longest and likes to remind us of her special "first born" personality.

~*~On hold for the family who adopted our #8 (male) -- they want our first born girl as well! ~*~

Our fourth born, girl. She's very dainty, with petite, sweet little features. She is definitely our smallest puppy. She's very light brown, the lightest of all the puppies, and has a white ring around the base of her tail. She's very snuggly and loves to be held. 

And now, our boys...

Light brown and white, with a black mask (at least for now -- he may lose it)  Sixth born. He's mostly light brown with a white "anchor" pattern on his left shoulder. Personally, he is one of my favorites. He's alert yet playful but the most observant of all the puppies.

Tomorrow, February 23, 2012, these puppies will be exactly 8 weeks old.

And there ya have it. As you can tell, they love to play and run around. We are very anxious to see what special families end up with our last THREE puppies.

Maybe it's you!

Captured!

Ya know, it's no easy task to photograph dogs. Even if they're not running around, their heads are usually moving. I take a ton of photos but rarely get really good ones. Last night was an exception.

Keiko stays out with her puppies at night, and while some were running around being goofy puppies, our second born (girl) just went and laid down next to her mother. The shot is simply perfect. So I thought I'd share it with you:

A Mother and Her Daughter

Photo taken on Valentine's Evening 2/14/2012

The First Litter

Keiko and Raiden's first litter is now almost 7 weeks old and they are ready to go to their new families. We placed an ad on EbayClassifieds and in the Austin Statesman, both printed and online. Although we've received deposits on two of our girls, tonight our first one went to their new home. I am posting photos of all the puppies to show the different colors, markings, etc., and will note if the puppy has a deposit or not. Please note that the puppies are puppy pad trained, and when they're outside, they go in the grass and not on the cement. This should make your training much easier!

I'm not listing in birth order but by gender: boys first, then girls. We started with six girls and four boys. We are now down to three girls and four boys. Above each photo, I'll state the gender, basic colors as well as birth order.

Here we go!

This is a boy, third born. Mostly black with a bit of white. He definitely thinks he's the big guy here.
UPDATE: He just left for his new forever home! Photo to come with his new owner, Matt. 2/17/2012

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This is another male, fifth born. He is mostly dark brown with white and some black.

~*~ DEPOSIT TAKEN ~*~

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Sixth born male, light brown (will most likely turn fawn like his father) with a tad bit of white.

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Eighth born, male, definitely our biggest boy. Has the same personality as his dad. He's a medium brown with white. I don't have two photos of him because this one was THE perfect shot.

~*~ ADOPTED -- went to his new forever family 2/22/12 ~*~

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Now for the females!

Our first born, girl, light brown with white -- will most likely turn fawn like her father. We've called her Nike due to the white check mark on her back (see second photo)

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Our second born, female, very cuddly. Light brown with white markings.

~*~ DEPOSIT TAKEN  ~*~

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Fourth born, female, very dainty features. She is the lightest brown of all the puppies, very similar to Raiden when we got him. She has white markings, including a white ring at the base of her tail.

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This is our silver girl, seventh born. 

~*~ DEPOSIT TAKEN ~*~

New owners have named her Ziva Storm

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This is our ninth born, girl. All black and white spotted, with bits of silver mixed in.

~*~ DEPOSIT TAKEN ~*~

New Owner named her Priss

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Our last but not least tenth born, girl. She started out black and white but recently had light brown added to the mix. 

UPDATE: She went to her new forever home tonight (2/12/12).

~*~ New owners named her Naomi ~*~

Our first one to actually leave the house!

Our daughter, Carly, having a last snuggle with her before her new family came to pick her up.

And there are our babies individually. I'll be adding some random photos that I capture of the puppies so check back often! If we can answer any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thanks for looking!

~Brenda & Rick~

A Welcome Post

Welcome to our new blog, B & R Akitas. Please bear with us as we create this page. If you need to reach us immediately for photos or information, contact us at bandrakitas@gmail.com

Please check back as we add more pages and details about our puppies!

Brenda & Rick