Remember how I said I was done rearranging the puppies castle? Did everyone laugh? You probably should’ve ;-). It was a long night for me having to let MarmieCarmie in and out because the pupsters were not the slightest bit daunted by the gates.
After I fed them at 7am, we all went back to sleep for a while (not long enough but a while). It is at least getting light a little earlier than it was so I can start workiing toward getting them on a slightly earlier schedule. I re-awakened to a message from their Aunt Cindi about her and LeAnne coming for a midday visit with the pupsters.
When they arrived, the puppies were still in the big crate and they were not particularly pleased. They were ready to do something FUN outside of the old castle, not be expected to nap in an even smaller area! I had their area and was trying to remember how to re-arrange it. (One of) the problems with waiting 4 years in between litters is that it’s hard to remember how everything was arranged last time. Add in that we’ve added more stuff in the rubber room and that I can’t just look at the pictures/videos from last time to being sleep deprived (I am fully cognizant that I am the one that deprives myself of the sleep because I have puppy growing FOMO) then and now, and it’s hard to get it perfect.
It was still pretty chilly outside when they arrived (and all day but not as bad as it has been!) so we set up another ex pen in front of the couch on the other side of the room and the aunties puppy sat there. We put the adventure frame in there with a few toys and they were much happier. The old puppies took turns helping them and helping me and eventually the new puppies all went to sleep and I completed their castle renovations. I hope this one with be sufficient to get us through with minor tweaks.
I did add another gate by the ottobenbed and I increased the potty area. Unfortunatly, this pan (it is for underneath a washing machine) doesn’t have any grating on top so they can easily eat the alflalfa pellets (they are edible - we use the kind that are for horse food as opposed to bedding - but they aren’t exactly balance nutrition for puppies); especially after their MarmieCarmie went in and dug up the paper to have some herself ;-). I may try putting the grating from the smaller one over the pellets in the pan. The idea is more that they get used to pottying to the scent of grass like stuff so they don’t have to go directly on it. I’ve put it in old pillow covers for litters before and it seemed to work as well so I can always do that, too.
The puppies were asleep and I’d pretty much finished when the aunties left. I thought I might as well leave them in their to finish their naps but within a few minutes, some of them were waking. Since we took the other piece of g-flooring outside to use on the deck a few years ago, that section of rubber flooring doesn’t have anything over the cracks (they are 4 ft rubber tiles and the edges are interlocking puzzle piece shapes. If liquid gets between them, I have to clean between and underneath) so I put the pupsters back into the newly renovated castle. They were quite happy with that turn of events and enjoyed the crate a whole lot more as an open area than they enjoyed being closed into it.
Almost immediately after puppy relocation, I realized I hadn’t covered the end of the crate. It’s a 3 door crate and I take off/open the 2 end doors much of the time so I always worry about getting crossed as they race through. The pupsters were quite happy to help me do that - especially since I do the potty area end from inside the crate (it’s a BIG crate, I think it’s the Great Dane size) and they can climb all over me and gnaw on my feet, toes, arms,etc. while I work.
It was lunch time not too long after that so I put one of the pools in castle to add some additional enrichment. It’s not quite warm enough to have it as a picnic yet so we improvised. For some reason, they ran into the crate first so they had to come out and climb into the pool to get to the food. It didn’t take long for them to find their ways in and, of course, I made certain everyone had a good share. It was harder to get the pool out than it was to put it in because I’d no sooner dip a puppy out before another puppy was back in it. Eventually, I managed to put it on its side sans puppy and then take it out.
They had a big rest and some more pretty big playtimes with lots of carrying, tugging, play bows (with tail and sometimes butt wags, too), and even actual running. They sound like a herd of something much bigger when they are all descending on the same thing (frequently their MarmieCarmie but also us). It’s awfully adorable. So far, we haven’t found anything that isn’t adorable about them. Even climbing out of the pen throughout the night is cute (but I THINK I’ve put paid to that. I guess we’ll see after a few more minutes of cuddling. Nighty, nighty, nighty Puppy breath to all
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