July 31, 2014 Pupdate

Hmmm, what happened today?  It’s always better if I take notes or write the post throughout the day.  Obviously, I did not do that today or we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

               The pupsters are all still alive and well.  The old dogs are all now clean again.  They usually get a LOT more baths than while we have puppies (and they get more chances to earn those baths by going back on the hill and swimming in the pond.  Since I don’t leave puppies alone, we don’t go play unless there is someone else responsible here to watch them.  I’m hoping the MSU gets home from work in time tonight for me to wash MY hair.

               I took SDB’s stitches out this morning so she got a shower today as well.  I put the puppies in a beverage tote and carried them into the laundry room (shower I use for the dogs is in bathroom in there) so she wouldn’t have to worry about them. I also did it right after she had fed everyone so I knew they were ok and she knew they were as well.  I got her nice and clean and used the force dryer to get a lot of the water off.  A few minutes outside helped with the wet feet (those feet sure hold a lot of water, I suspect we need to trim between her pads) but she was in a hurry to have the puppies back where they belonged.  She topped them off when I put them back.  Then I suffered through the afternoon without a/c so they wouldn’t be chilled from her being damp. And I changed their bedding again so it wouldn’t be damp.  I think eventually we all were too warm and the a/c is running again.

               The little ones MAY be getting a tad bit spoiled.  I was sitting on the couch and didn’t have an appendage in the box with them (usually my hand/arm but occasionally they get a foot) and there was some fussing.  I went to feel them to see which one was unhappy (it was different puppies at different times) and they would stop while I petted them.  At one point I was petting Chipmunk and Turtle as they piled on top of Kodiak.  All 3 seemed to want to be petted.  Turtle actually crawled across my forearm and heaved the dramatic sigh and went to sleep.  TJJ and Tootsie were the first soothed and fastest to sleep.    It’s very endearing but do not worry future owners, I will eventually teach them to self soothe.  They will likely still be loving puppies though.

               Puppy yoga is going easier up until the put them on a wet cloth part.  They are strong enough that they can get up and move off now. Fortunately, they don’t have to be on there long and I’ll just use a bigger one.  At least at this point, I am still smarter than they are.

               They are wishing their Uncle Rowdy a happy tail and good luck in his inaugural conformation show tomorrow.  I am as well.

               There should be new pictures this weekend.   In the meantime, here is a little gratuitous cuteness:

              

 

 

July 30, 2014 Pupdate

               Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, Portie puppies in the pool are nine days old.

               Sammie spent a little more time out of the whelping pool last night.  The puppies were sleeping soundly while she was gone so apparently they were ok.  And she was right beside it (as was I and JillyBean was right behind me) so I guess we had it covered.

               The little ones are very very cute and growing and getting stronger all of the time.  They ate while SammieDoodlebug was sitting up today.  That seems a little advanced to me but it happened this evening.

               To my knowledge, eyes are not yet opening but the pupsters are sporting the flying nun ears so I think they are opening up.  I hope they are little ears and not all hairy inside but that will remain to be seen.

               I heard and interesting article about how babies (and mice, so I assume also puppies) learn fear only from their mother at this age (and apparently in utero.)  Makes me happy that SDB isn’t afraid of storms since we had another big one tonight.  Not the sustained air to ground lightning so it didn’t bother anyone but me.  I was hoping we’d get to mow the dog yard tonight.  It is too wet in the mornings (it takes a while for the sun to come over the trees on the hill enough to dry off the dew) and it’s been raining every day.  The Bermuda out there is nice and lush at least ;-)

               I am considering setting and alarm for the MamaBug’s midnight feeding  and going to sleep until then.  I slept fairly well (just frequent awakenings to do my puppy countdown) but not anything close to (my) long enough and I didn’t get a nap again today.  I started to take one a couple of times but they phone rang.  I’m going to have to forward the phone to Iffen and turn on do not disturb so I don’t have to explain to people that I neither have nor desire a timeshare.

               I’m planning to bathe the old dogs tomorrow, including the Mama. I’ll have to time it right so they don’t go hungry or get chilled.  Puppies may get baths this weekend if their mama’s food keeps ending up on them.  I can’t imagine that is going to smell very good and I’ve never had stinky puppies. (I’ve met stinky puppies but I’ve never had stinky puppies.)  The Villagers will be prevailed upon to cuddle freshly bathed puppies in towels until they dry.  It’s rough to be part of the Village (or as my sister insists, the Cult of the PWD) but I think they’ll rise to the occasion.  Somebody may have to hold 2 puppies (last time we were all holding multiples.)

               The puppies are eating again.  They have horrible manners but are cute enough to make up for the fact that they sing and smack their lips while they drink.  They are cute enough that I really like to hear them do both.  They don’t always all eat at the same time but everyone does eat and Sammie the Tongue keeps them cleaned up (even when she drips cottage cheese on them, she cleans it off.)  My job right now consists of Constant Vigilance; feeding the Mama enough; changing the linens; and doing ENS.  I manage to find some time for puppy cuddles and kisses in the day, too.  Last night, I even slept with my hand in the box on puppies.  JillyBean was pressed against my back and the Mama Dog was breathing in my face.  If only there had been room for Jack (he’s only become a cuddler recently but Jill won’t let him get back on the bed after he has cooled off)… he did put a monkey paw by my pillow in case I felt the need to play a little fetch during the night though. 

               It’s going to be puppy yoga and nighty nappy for me.  Puppy breath sent your way…

July 28, 2014 Pupdate

I’ve had a busy (and somewhat productive day today.)  I slept better last night since I set up the dog bed couches on the floor beside the whelping box so I could check the puppies without getting up.  And I was wedged in between Jill and the whelping pool so I couldn’t fall (not that there would’ve been far to fall.)  I REALLY need to get the bench/bed made so I can do this more comfortably next time.  It seemed like almost 2 years in between litters would’ve been enough but alas…

               For the first time, I got to register a litter online.  So I didn’t have to type up all of the information as it would appear on the form and have someone else fill it in.  Now I have to work hard on settling on a theme.  Since they were born on 7/21/14, I am thinking of either using something about the lucky numbers or moonwalk related.  I have a while to decide yet.

               Our weight watchers meeting was interesting .  They were a little squirmy but the bigger scale announced weights for each one.  All of the puppies have  doubled their birth weights and cumulatively are closing in on my birth weight.

               They (and SammieDoodlebug) were more cooperative at puppy yoga.  It seems to go so quickly with half the puppies as last time.  I’m not sure which I like better but since I can’t control it, it really doesn’t matter which I like.

               The puppies are already quite vocal and they aren’t squalling noises either.  One of them was making haunted house/scary ghost noises today.  It was really cute.  They are also holding their tails up and occasionally even wagging them while they nurse.  As you might expect, that is very cute as well.  So far, they haven’t done anything that isn’t absolutely adorable ;-)

               The MamaBug still spends more time inside the pool than out but she is getting out, getting a cuddle and occasionally even lying down.  Still, if (ok when) I cuddled the puppies, she comes to check on us pretty quickly and gets them all riled up.  They seem to like being cuddled now, if they aren’t trying to get over to the bar.

               I’m hoping for some warmer weather and sunshine tomorrow.  I don’t think the puppies have an opinion about the weather yet ;-)  It’s about time for puppy yoga and nighty nighty nighty.  Puppy breath dreams to you…

July 28, 2014 One week old

               What a difference a week makes.  I’ve gotten significantly less sleep and significantly more puppy breath.  The puppies snuggle up to my face when I nuzzle them and I can often catch them yawning (the better to sneak in some puppy breath.)  Against all odds, they’ve managed to get even more adorable.

               We have had to graduate to the bathroom scale for the weight watcher’s meetings.  The not so little ones are too big/squirmy to effectively weigh on my kitchen scale.

               SammieDoodlebug has started leaving the box for moments at a time.  She uses some of her time to get a cuddle or and some of it seems to be scouting out other locations for puppy keeping.  She doesn’t attempt to move any puppies (I actually think if she found a spot she really wanted to move them, she’d tell me to do it.)  She also spends some time digging in the floor.  She doesn’t go outside long enough to dig there but she has made several test forays under the massage table.  The digging is thankfully limited to when she has puppies, her Mama (will be 12 in November)  will often dig up any textiles on the floor and in the last year has started just digging at the floor several times a day.  I did have to close the crate so SDB couldn’t keep going in there to dig at the crate pan/bedding though.  She doesn’t dig at the bedding in the whelping pool so it’s not a worry.

               The puppies are more and more mobile but so far no one has come out of the pool.  At this age, they really are only a risk for that if they climb over their mother and fall out but I can (and do) worry about everything.

               Collars (that I put on yesterday) had to be loosened today so it’s not just a fig newton of my imagination that they are growing.  In a few more weeks, we will be putting them in little lion trims.

               They and their mother are trustworthy enough that I can theoretically sleep beside them instead of the MSU staying awake with them at night.  Once again, I am searching for a comfortable way to accomplish that.  I don’t really sleep beside them anyway.  I cat nap beside them and do the puppy count numerous times during the night.  If anything happens, it won’t be anything I can prevent.

               I’m ready for some nice summer weather.  It’s cool (not what I prefer) but still too humid to go without the a/c – especially for the MamaBug on the fleece with those little ones so nearby.  I spend a lot of time bundled up like it’s the dead of winter but it’s not about me ;-)  I’d like a few days without a storm, maybe even without rain.  The grass needs cut and JillyBean doesn’t like to get her feet wet just to go out to walk the plank.  I hope we don’t use up all of our stormy weather now and not have any for the babies when they are old enough to get more benefit from it.

               The Mama’s caloric intake goes up today.  She needs 3,841 calories per day now.  Thank goodness for spreadsheets because it is a lot harder than you would think to make sure she gets the right number of calories.  I am pretty accustomed to general feeding, I raise or lower the amounts according to the condition of the dog but our dams can nurse a LOT of weight off really quickly.  At least I can do this amount with not a lot of carbs so her ear situation is ok.  (She gets yeasty ears if she has a lot of carbs and when she is hormonal.  I just need to keep them clean so we don’t have a repeat of the hematoma incident.)

She eats happily – and once today her feeding time didn’t coincide with any of the puppies’ so she ate outside of the pool.  She’s pretty quick about it and I don’t have to coax her like I did with the Allyn TEN puppies and she needed 5, 100 during week 2.  I am, however occasionally having to coax the Mama’s Mama to eat.  She’s always had sort of a habit of waiting until the other dogs have finished before she starts hers.  (I like to think she’s just being polite but it seems more that she likes to hoard hers so she can eat in front of them.)  She seems to feel fine, I think she is just a wee bit spoiled/feeling neglected but I am feeding Jack and Jill every time SDB gets a meal so she may just not be hungry at every meal. Maybe I will just offer her a cookie at a couple of the meals and see if that helps.

               Results of the one week weight watcher’s meeting:

                              Blue (aka Kodiak because he is apparently looking like a little bear) has doubled his birth weight.

                              TJJ (Green) (aka TJ2, and T2J) is now a 2 pounder

                              Pink (aka Chipmunk) and Turtle (Red) weigh 1.2 lbs. each (IF they would hold still it might be more accurate/precise to use the kitchen scale but that isn’t happening)

                              Tootsie Roll (Purple) weighs 1.4 lbs.

                              We have 7.6 lbs. of absolute adorableness now.  At this rate, they’ll reach my birth weight very soon.  I think they’ve already surpassed the MSU’s.

Sending virtual puppy breath to y’all.

July 27, 2014 Happy 97th Birthday MeeMaw!

The puppies’ human great grandmother (my grandmother) celebrated her 97^th birthday today.  They celebrated by drinking themselves into a stupor several times and sleeping it off, only to start again when they awoke.  It was pretty cute.  Several of them even slept on their backs several times.

               We (they) had some visitors today.  Colleen came by and helped me move furniture (she kept the dogs off of the couch so I could move it) and then visited with the puppies.  Then LeAnne and her mom came to visit, too.  That’s one new person on the list.

               We put colors back on the puppies since the MSU and others were having trouble telling them apart. 

               They got to experience some good storms, another one is happening even now.  Maybe they’ll get to experience a power outage but I hope not.

               I can’t believe that they’ve been here almost a week.  Time flies, especially when it’s spent with your face in a pile of puppies.  I’ve been enjoying  the puppy breath though.

July 26, 2014 Pupdate

Today was slightly more eventful.  Dog Cindi came to visit the babies (and brought toys for the babies in addition to my list of necessaries – eggs, yogurt, etc for the Mama) and the dogs were THRILLED to see her.  SammieDoodlebug ran over and jumped up on her and then kept trying to get her to follow her over to look at the babies.  Apparently Cindi wasn’t moving fast enough (she was also being greeted by Jack and Jill) and SDB had to keep going back and forth until she made it to the whelping box.  The cable man didn’t get such a warm reception.

We had the dvr boxes switched out for tivo and that involved a visit from a guy from the cable company.  I moved the whelping box and pen behind the couch so that they wouldn’t actually see him.  And I crated Jill beside us.  They still heard him and warned him to keep his distance but he stayed over by the tv and didn’t bother them.  I wonder if he went home and told his family about the house he went to where the lady was sitting on a footstool behind the couch while he was here.  And where they made him sanitize himself like he was going into surgery (and sanitize his shoes).  He wasn’t coming near the dogs so I didn’t make him put on the clothing cover.

Cindi trimmed toenails – at least on the front toes.  I like to start early with other people doing it too.  (When I go visit other people’s puppies I always trim their toenails.  Even though the breeder has been doing it, I think it’s good for them to have it done by others while they are still safe with their mama and littermates.  Does that cross me over the line to crazy dog lady?  Too bad, it makes life easier for the dog and their people and that’s what this is all about.  And I’ve also been known to do it in puppy class, too.) 

She also cuddled the puppies and took some pictures with her phone.  While throwing Jack’s toy and occasionally petting JillyBean too. (Jilly remained somewhat vigilant that the obviously untrustworthy potential puppy thief, aka the cable guy – or anyone other than dog family – might return.)

The puppies are very mobile, especially when you consider that their eyes and ears aren’t open.  They sleep in various spots in the whelping box and head over to the bar when they feel the need.  SDB leaves the pen on occasion for a minute or two at a time but I’ve still been feeding her in there.  I’m sure she’d come out but when puppies are eating, I don’t ask her to get up.  And puppies are eating a lot of the time.  Smart little things!

They are much less fussy about puppy yoga time.  Except the wet cloth part, they all react to that but fortunately it is the last thing each time.  As long as the mama doesn’t interfere, they are cooperative but she likes to give them a little cleaning when she gets the chance.  She either believes that whenever I am holding them, it is to make it easier for her to clean them or that she’s still going to take advantage of the opportunity.

Wonder if they will manage to be even cuter tomorrow?  Experience says yes but I still don’t know how it is possible.

July 25, 2014 Pupdate

               Yesterday’s post didn’t post until I resent it.  I wonder what email address I ended up using and who may have gotten a weird Pupdate email.  I could go look in sent mail but that’s more trouble than I’m willing to take at the moment. I will be more careful and listen to the FULL address that outlook offers to me in the future though.

               SammieDoodlebug is a little more willing to leave the box to run outside and walk the plank (meaning I only had to invite her but didn’t have to put the leash on to get her to go.)  She still hurries back inside to her babies though.  The MSU said they had a quiet night, too.  She still occasionally asks for service and I comply but she’s getting up to get a drink a few times a day.  This evening, she actually got out of the box and took a little stroll around the room.  She was out about 30 seconds but she was out.  The puppies are also moving around the box better and sleeping in piles not always touching her.  It is rare that they aren’t at least touching each other though.

               We had a real weight watcher’s meeting tonight.  They were not any more cooperative for the MSU than for me but he can see the numbers change on the scale and pick one whereas it waits for it to stabilize before it talks.  It confirmed my suspicion, they are growing.  3 are over a pound (one of them started out over a pound) and the other 2 are closing in fast at 14 and 15 oz.  Tootsie is almost as heavy as her brother Blue.  They are surprisingly strong for such little things, too.

               TJJ was sleeping with his mouth open yesterday and one of the brown ones tails was in his mouth.  I got iffen to take a picture but when I started fiddling with that, SDB got interested in what I was doing  and found a spot of dirty on them that had to be licked off immediately.  Oh well, not sure it would’ve been much of a shot anyway.

               The quest for the perfect setup continued.  I sewed the fleecy pad to the lined that I put inside the box so I don’t have to worry about anyone getting underneath.  I did the first one by hand and was going to do the others on the machine but the fleece gets hung up and broke a needle.  I guess I’ll sew the others by hand, too.  It’s more like tacking it down since I want to be able to take them apart for washing if necessary.

               And speaking of washing, I am SOOO happy I didn’t get a front loading washer.  I can put stuff in to soak and then turn it off and add more until I have a full load.  I KNOW it’s a high efficiency washer but I can’t stand to do a partial load.  (It still uses electricity and the motor even if it is using less water. End of non-puppy related rant.)  I hope it doesn’t decide to die now that I’ve bragged about how much I like it. It’s only 6 years old and is perfect for when I have puppies.  I go through a lot of linens, cloths and white vinegar with puppies.

I don’t understand how the little things get cuter and sweeter each day but they certainly do.  I’ve been trying to limit my puppy breath huffing but it’s very hard.  I’m can quit whenever I want, though ;-)  I guess if I started looking for it on the street, I might have a real addiction, I just binge on it when it’s available.

 

July 24, 2014 Pupdate

I am sending this again (I’m emailing the posts so I don’t have to remember how to post on the site with JAWS again) because it doesn’t seem to have shown up.  If it duplicates, you don’t have to read it again ;-)

We are starting to have nicknames for the puppies.  The big black curly boy with the green collar is currently being called TJJ thanks for Chris (she has the black curly boy from the last litter, he was known as TJ.)

The brown curly girl with the purple collar is Tootsie Roll or Tootsie for short.  She needed a nickname so people didn’t call her Purp like the previous Purple collar puppies.  Hearing that always makes me think of perp as in perpetrator which actually might be a good name for a PWD but it’s one of those things that only I  can say about one of my babies without it bothering me.

The black wavy girl with the red collar has been Turtle or Caly2 pretty much since birth.  Her markings are very similar.

The brown curly boy (first born puppy) and the brown wavy girl with the pink collar don’t have consistent nicknames but anyone familiar with me (or the blogs) realize that even my adult dogs have multiple names so these puppies will probably go through several different names before they ever leave here.  For some reason, it is hard not to call them Blue and Pink (Cindi’s Indy is so named because he was the Indigo Blue boy and we couldn’t get away from calling him that.)

I THINK I have perfected my system for baby bedding thanks to LeAnne.  I use wading pools because the lack of usable vision thing makes me unable to be sure I get a regular whelping box clean.  So I set up the clean pool (and paranoid person that I am, I always start with brand new ones for each litter) with the linens and switch the puppies over to it.  It’s hard to make sure that SDB and the babies don’t waller it up (it’s like wallowing but involves more rearranging) and have the potential for babies to get tangled up or underneath. We were discussing potential ways to secure it (straps, bungees, etc. – none of those are ideal since the sides are tapered toward the bottom) and LeAnne suggested putting the pool inside of another pool with the linens tucked in between.  Worked great today.  Fortunately, I had a spare spare pool. After transferring the puppies, I can wash the bedding and sanitize the pool so it’s ready for the next linen change.

Colleen and Bobby came to take their pictures and start socialization.  (That reminds me, I need to start my list of unduplicated people they’ve met.  It’s more important after they are 4 weeks old but if I don’t keep this list, I might not know who doesn’t get on the second list.)  We’ll try to get the pictures on facebook and picasa (I’ll link the picasa album once the pictures are there and I remember how to do things on the blog other than just posting.)  In my defense, playing with puppies and occasionally sleeping while the MSU watches the puppies takes up a LOT of my time ;-)

Anyway, SammieDoodlebug was pretty happy to see them once she determined who they were.  Jack greeted with the muffler in his mouth, happy bark that there were new people here to let him retrieve.  Jill was sounded the alarm and was prepared to mount a defense if necessary and SammieDoodlebug waited to see if she needed to come out of the box to be the second line of defense.  When she saw it was Colleen, she barked and jumped up on her and then ran over to show her the babies.  She kept making sure Colleen was following her.

Jill alternated between keeping an eye (and a nose) on Bobby to make sure he didn’t try to put one of them in his pocket and peeking over Colleen’s shoulder at the ones still in the box.  During the photo shoot, we had to keep moving Jill’s head out of the way so Bobby could get a picture of the puppies.

Everyone is still eating well (including the MamaBug) and generally being adorable.  It seems to come naturally to them ;-)

 

July 23, 2014 3 days old

You know what that means… puppy yoga!  Every time I started to do the exercises, the puppies and their mama decided that they should eat.  I persevered and won out though ;-)  Some of them were quieter than others about it but the Mama tried to interfere with each one.

SDB is still eating in the box but I don’t have to drag her outside to walk the plank.  I did have to convince her to go big though.  I crated Jack and Jill so she wouldn’t worry that they were eyeballing her puppies in her absence and closed the dog door and told her she had to go.  It was even good poop.  As soon as she finished, she told me she wanted back in with her babies so I complied.  They were still cuddled up asleep (she wasn’t gone 2 minutes total) but she woke them up and fed them again just in case.

               A couple of times today she was yipping and trilling at me.  It turns out she wanted a drink of water and didn’t want to get up (it is just outside the box but still inside the pen. I don’t want her to have to leave but I also don’t want to risk a bucket of spilled water in the whelping box.  I asked her if she wanted a drink and she thumped her tail at me so I held the bucket for her and she took a big drink.  She stood up and drank a few other times but I am still putting a fair amount of liquid in her meals. 

The puppies experienced their first 2 thunderstorms today but I don’t think they noticed.  Hopefully, we will have more in a few weeks.  I can plan for a lot of things but not sure I can arrange a storm ;-)  The big dogs don’t generally react to thunder (a month or so ago, we had a big storm with several extended cloud to ground lightning strikes which bothered Jack.  He’s never cared before and hasn’t been bothered since but he was NOT happy that night) and I like to have the puppies see that it’s nothing to worry about.

They are starting to become more mobile, nothing like they will be later but they can find their way halfway across the whelping box to nurse.  SammieDoodlebug will occasionally nudge them away to clean them up and she lets them find their own way back now.  They occasionally protest during the cleaning but don’t really fuss as they army crawl back to the milk bar.

Although we still spend 24/7 by the whelping box, I realized again today how spoiled we are by Jill and Sammie.  If a puppy is squalling and neither of them is reacting, it isn’t an emergency situation ;-)  That comes in even more handy later when they are becoming little monsters (I can’t wait until they start turning into little monsters, that’s another fun part of having puppies.)

I brought the stool in today to make it easier to hover over the whelping box all day. I still end up sitting on the floor a lot of the time but I can straighten out my leg when I sit on the stool.  I’m sure it’s really graceful but nobody ever said breeding puppies was glamorous.  Well, at least not anyone who has a clue about what we do for the puppies ;-) Theoretically, I could sit on the couch beside the box but I can only reach Doodlebug and I have to get up to play Duck Duck Goose (also known as 5 4 3 2 1 currently) so I might as well stay down there.  The MSU can see them from the couch so he doesn’t have to touch them every time.

All 3 girls are streaking.  I took the Red girl’s ribbon off because she kept getting her leg through it.  The pink girl’s was a little tight and after I retied it, it came untied.  Not sure how the Purple Girl got out of hers but I haven’t put any of them back yet.  I’ll probably put them back on for their photo shoot tomorrow night.  I had to loosen both boys’ today so I am pretty sure they are doing ok in the weight department.  I still prefer to have weights for my spreadsheet though so if they are too wriggly tomorrow, I will enlist sighted assistance for the weight watcher’s meeting.  (They have to hold still for my talking kitchen scale to announce the weight.)

I’m going to go sniff a little more puppy breath before it’s time for nighty, nighty, nighty

7/22/2014 Day 2

The puppies appear to have had a good day.  SammieDoodlebug still doesn’t want to leave the whelping box but she is willing to eat what I bring to her there.  Since she is feeding them where they are, it seems reasonable that I bring her meals to her.  She was a little reluctant to drink last night and this morning so I added water to her food.  She’s gotten a few big drinks from her bucket today in addition to the water in the food.

JillyBean, aka Mama’s Mama considers herself ‘on call’ at every moment.  She’d like to help but is respectful of Doodlebug’s dominion as THE Mama of these puppies.  So she spends a lot of time lying right outside of the ex pen around the whelping box.  And sometimes, when I am on the room side (as opposed to the wall side) she peeks over my shoulder or under my arm.

Jack shows a little interest but more often drops his toy over the ex pen for me to throw.  The Mama finds this behavior more tolerable than the Mama’sMama.  I figure if dogs have memories of puppyhood, having Jack’s toy dropped into the whelping box/pen to be thrown by the Lady sitting in there has to be in her earliest memories ;-)  Jill had a life before Jack (just not here) plus she’s always been ‘assertive’ about appropriate behavior.

I am trying to remember to count down when I am playing my version of Duck, Duck, Goose a hundred times a day in hopes that when they start leaving, it won’t be as hard.  I suspect I am kidding myself that anything will make it easier but I’m giving it a go.  It’s really strange only having 5 puppies after having 10 the last time.  It doesn’t seem to be bothering  the MamaBug, she just wants all of these with her now.  It’s even stranger that more than half of them are brown.  (Neither parent is brown but they both carry it.)

Our second weight watcher’s meeting was not very successful.  The first one was shortly after birth and we had a total combined weight of 4.15 lbs.  They were too wriggly to cooperate today and SDB wasn’t thrilled with me attempting to weigh them.  And then Jill was going to intervene as well so I gave up.  Those girls have been really good puppy raisers in the past so I wisely rely on their decisions about such things.  The puppies are all nursing, squalling, singing and moving (in addition to pottying when their Mama stimulates them) so I’m not worried.

SDB may be a little spoiled.  She is whining because I am typing on the couch beside her instead of touching her so I guess that will be out entry for today.  I’ll try to update the cast of characters when she is willing to spare a hand.

For now, we’ll say Nighty, Nighty, Nighty.

Happy Birthday New Puppies

And it begins again!
SammieDoodlebug had 5 puppies today. She was very considerate by not having them either very late at night or very early in the am. Somehow, I am still tired so this is a quick test posting and I'll try to do a better, real post tomorrow.
Nighty, nighty, nighty