It's been another big day in the puppy pen (and outside). They aren't quite as excited to eat the goat milk kefir soaked food as they are to nurse while their Mama cleans up after it but they are all getting the hang of eating from the communal dish. I still sit there and make certain everyone eats and give each of them some from my fingers (because I SO enjoy having that on my hands). Invarioably some feet find their way into the dish as well but at least they aren't mine.
This morning, in the pen, they played with the Totofit balance disk. They have no problem with it so I think we will start pairing it with th other equipment on occasion. We also played with the roller individually. And the stool continues to be a big hit whether it is upright or upside down ;-)
We went outside for a while this afternoon. It was warm and sunny so I had to make sure there were enough cool places for puppies. I wet a towel and put it in the shade for them. I put the blanket over the top/shading the window on the play house and sprayed it with the hose to help cool down. Eventually, they all went under the grill anyway (but they were cool). We were out there until the MSU gave a 20 minute storm warning at which point, I brought them inside and secured their equipment in case of big wind (there wasn't any). We did get to hear some really good thunder and heavy rain though. I took the PVC mobile (I need a good name for that thing - any suggestions?) out on the deck with us and the puppies and the wind helped it make a lot of ambient noise ;-). Plus it make a lot of noise when I carried it outside and then when I took it into the laundry room (there is getting to be a lot of paraphernalia in the rubber room. I put the furniture on casters so I can easily move everything to vacuum, I'm going to limit things that are mostly outside toys being in there now that they are going outside.
I need to bring an ez up where we can sit out in reasonable rain (a downpour or high wind will destroy an ez up) with them. I also need to mow the dog yard if it ever dries out enough. I was waiting for Tamara to get here this afternoon so she could carry puppies out while I mowed.
After I prepped for the impending storm, I fed the pupsters lunch. And then Mila gave them a long drink while she cleaned up. Tamara fed the bigs dogs after that. Since we are feeding the puppies a chunk of hteir requirements now, Mila doesn't have quite as much drain on her system. (But they can drain her much more quickly now, even after eating.)
Afternoon/evening, in the pen, I added the small lazy susan. It was immediately a big hit. The point is them getting used to things shifting under their feet. So far, they are fine with it. I'll eventually add the larger one but it's a little easier for another puppy to spin someone trying to navigate through the pen and I like to work up to that. (I KNOW! big surprise, right , to find out that I have a system for something?).
I've been playing the dog show noise at various times but often when I am in and out of the room doing laundry/ working on that Kefir (I think the refrigerated part is still curing but much more slowly. FIngers crossed that it works because they other half with 3 cups of milk finished in under 24 hours. I found larger, wide mouth jars - pays to keep everything - that will hopefully be less messy. And if necessary, I can feed it a lot more goat milk to maybe slow it down a little. I froze a lot yesterday and there is still almost a gallon of it in the refrigerator. Not to mention the 9 cups of it in process now). They take it in strde but it drives me batty. They also don't acknowledge the daily vacuuming. I played a variety of sounds on my phone last night while setting an alarm, too. They are also exposed to to variety of computerized voices - the scales, the thermometer, my computer, iphone and ipad all talk plus I listen to recorded books on the BARD app (digital recordings for blind/people with print disabilites) when no one else is around. We have other noisy things, too.
This evening, one of the puppies actually got in the toy bin. It always happens, and it will happen more and more but I always find it cute when they get in there to shop for the right toy and sometimes end up taking a nap. On occasion, they will get in there to take a nap. Have I mentioned that these are awfully cute little pupsters. Even if some of them like to sleep in the potty pan.
I did not get a chance to work on toenails today (no idea where the whole day went but it certainly did go), so we will make certain we take care of that tomorrow. Probably on the big dogs, too.
Weight watcher's meeting eventually came off tonight. I had the MSU come to 'troubleshoot' the scale. It was not on an appropriate surface. Once that was corrected, we were pretty successful. Weights, in lbs in birth order, are 5.2, 5.4. 6, 6.2, 6, and 5.6. I knew they were growing (Tamara said they were bigger since she left yesterday morning, too). That's pretty much pure cuteness, too.
I need to get ready to feed everyone their last meal for the day. I'm going to cut out the middle of the night feeding for MamaMila tonight to see how that goes. She wasn't interested in much breakfast for quite a while today so maybe we can all sleep through the night (she'll go in and feed the babies oncem I suspect but I won't have to do anything with that.). Puppy breath to all! Nighty, ngihty, nighty
