September 21, 2012

               The pupsters are One Week Old today.  It’s also the last full day of summer but for Allyn Tense and Porpoises, it’s already fall.  The sun doesn’t come over the hill until late morning (it’s daylight, just not the bright, hot sunshine I prefer) and it gets dark earlier.  Fall is my least favorite season, I’m hoping that I will be distracted enough by puppies not to notice for a long time.  Of course, they will begin leaving in November and that will make that time even worse.  But there’s plenty of time to be unhappy later, I’ll just take another lit hit of puppy breath now.  Ahhh!!!! Much better.  If they could make scratch and sniff computers, I’d figure out how to put gadget for that on the blog.

               Aunt Colleen came by and took pictures last night.  SammieDoodlebug was happy to see them but eventually decided she didn’t like the way Bobby (Colleen’s husband) was leaning over her puppy in a box with a weird thing in his hand.  You never know, that could be some device designed to steal puppies.  Anyway, she stayed in the pool but got stiff and gave a growl so we put the puppy back and changed the setup before we started back up so she was happy again.  They also helped with the weight watchers meeting and ENS.  Did I mention that dog people are great help?  If she just didn’t keep calling the girls ‘out of name’ ;-)  It is hard to remember which one is Jill and which one is Sammie and harder still to get the right name out of your mouth (Bruce often replies “the black one” when I ask a question about which dog did something.)

               A couple of the pictures happened when the puppies were yawning.  I really like puppies yawning (and stretching and sleeping and eating and – hmmm, is there a theme here?) and it’s nice to have pictures of it.  It’s a great time to sneak some puppy breath.

               Cumulative weight gain since birth is just barley under 4 lbs.  Nobody has doubled their body weight yet but Camo appears to be closest.  That doesn’t mean he will get there first either.  Some of it depends on the timing of the weigh ins (who has been eating, etc.) so I really just worry about their gain over a couple of days, how they are acting and if they get nice little rounded tummies several times a day.  Having to readjust their collars is also a good indicator.  I am getting better at striking the right balance between too tight and so loose they get a front leg in it.  I’ve only had one foot incident in the last few days.

               I think I am going to give some of them a little supplementation now and then, not enough to replace nursing but I made the formula earlier this week and I don’t want it to go bad.  I am going to throw away the rest of the “mother’s pudding” I made for SammieDoodlebug.  I gave her some again yesterday and again it gave her awful runny poop and horrible gas (hey this is a puppy blog, dog people are worse than new parents to talk about poop.  It’s a huge gauge of how things are going) and she seems to have plenty of milk production without it. 

               The BabyMama’s caloric intake goes up to 5,136 today.  I think we will start adding peanut butter as snacks and to some of her meals.  2 tablespoons is 190 calories, a good deal when you consider the protein and fat content.  Even with the increased carbs, her ears have cleared up completely.  SammieDoodlebug has a tendency to get some ick in her ears if she has too many carbs.  It’s not hard to keep from happening unless I forget to reduce her carbs in her meals when we are doing water training (Her jackpot for that is Meat in a Metal Bowl!  Otherwise, her favorite training treat for that is milk bones.  They float, don’t disintegrate quickly in a wet lifejacket pocket and are easy to throw so we use them even if they are junk food.)  Anyway, when she was pregnant, I had to increase them and she got the telltale ear so I was cleaning it with white vinegar each day and that kept it under control.  Now, though, her ears are clear again without the vinegar.  Interesting (to me at least and I’m the one writing this so it’s in here) how her body uses her food.  Her mother, Jill, wouldn’t even eat carbs unless she was pregnant or nursing unless you really snuck them into her food (she’d turn her head from French fries, or take it politely and then spit it out) but she doesn’t follow that diet since she was spayed.

               Thanks to Chris, SammieDoodlebug has yet another nickname.  She is now also known as (the) MamBug.

               MamaBug and I actually got a little sleep last night.  For a little while in the middle of the night, she slept beside me and the box.  I think she is pretty hot with those puppies all over her and nobody was eating at that moment so she took a little nap.  When she got back in around 2, they set up quite the cacophony for a few minutes clambering to eat.  It quieted down quickly and then we just had the grunting, slurping, singing sounds of puppies at the bar.  Maybe I should play drinking songs for them today.  They are starting to drop off and lurch around like drunken sailors to sleep it off where they fall so midmorning break must be over.  It’s about time to feed the Bug again, now so back to your regularly scheduled life.