Happy Birthday to us. Once again, I don’t know how they keep getting cuter but they do. This morning, Tootsie put her head back and howled! I don’t’ think we’ve had anybody howl that young but the old dogs had howled a little earlier because I went into the pool room to feed the fish and instead of following me through the open door, they howled for me. Perhaps they had gotten a little spoiled because I slept beside the puppies Thursday – Saturday because the MSU wasn’t home. I stand a better chance of getting some sleep beside them than I do listening for the monitor and coming to check on them every little bit. And it’s pretty sweet to wake up next to puppies. I slept in the bed last night though and the puppies didn’t throw a fit. Neither did the big dogs.
More puppies have teeth although I swann that several of them keep breaking through and then their gums swell back up around them. I can feel a lot of them just below the surface and I’m sure if they just gnawed on me a little more, they’d all pop on through ;-)
Doodlebug is still feeding them and taking care of cleanup. They can potty on their own and they usually go over to the pad I have in there for that purpose. She cleans up after them anyway and if she notices they are getting ready to potty, she goes ahead and helps. She also cleans their faces (and tonsils if they happen to open their mouths. There’s a good reason we call her Sammie the Tongue sometimes.) and anything that has gotten in the formula. I’ve been letting them lap up a little each afternoon until they are ready to start having mush on a regular basis. They don’t exactly need it but I didn’t want it to go to waste and it gives the Bug diarrhea.
I spent most of the afternoon and evening (between puppy duties and sniffing puppy breath) putting ribbons and trophies and rosettes and pins – generally dog show and trial paraphernalia – in the shadow boxes. Last time I did that MeeMaw was here to tell me what looks good where and I missed her help today.
Several of the puppies’ Aunts did well in water trials this weekend, maybe we’ll get to play next summer since we shouldn’t be having puppies. Hopefully, some of these puppies will get to play in the water a lot next summer whether they are ready to trial or not. They should get to swim in the pond here but I’m not sure how long it will be warm enough in their new homes to keep doing it much this year. The rest of their family doesn’t care if it’s cold, they like to swim. The Mama will swim if there isn’t ice (she might be willing to try to break the ice but I don’t allow that kind of behavior.)
We need to meet at least 40 NEW people before they are ready to go home. We are still in the be careful – shoes off; wash hands really well; and wear the cover I provide stage because I don’t want anybody to catch any dread diseases. I also need to make sure they are on a variety of surfaces (dry and wet). Don’t worry, I keep a spreadsheet ;-)
I’m also thinking about when we should start taking little forays outside. We’ll start on the carpeted deck (after puppies leave we will be taking off the carpet and painting it with some anti-slip deck paint. We carpeted it almost 2 years ago when Doodlebug slid and caught a toe between the boards and broke it. Took FOREVER to figure out what she had hurt because she barely seems to register pain. The vet had to take our word for it and xray to find the break). It rained the vast majority of the day (but no thunder for the puppies to experience).
I’d like to know if anyone could access the new pictures so if you could let me know, I’d appreciate it. I’m going to do a little more cuddling and sing Happy Birthday again before I sing the 3 songs to them. I may sniff a little more puppy breath and give a kiss or two but probably not ;-) Nighty, nighty, nighty…
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