The puppies are slowing the writing down, admittedly, partly because of the work involved with raising a litter, but also partly because they are intrinsically cute and distracting. But! They are also progressing by leaps and bounds, so that’s excellent. Every single puppy is now eating real food out of a dish. Not the kind of food I actually want them to eat, not a long-term food, but it’s food and it’s good for them and getting them to this point was such a struggle that I don’t care about anything beyond that.
They’re eating Royal Canin Starter, by the way. All of them. One hundred percent of puppies surveyed insist that soaked kibble will not do, whether or not you add chicken baby food. I now have five jars of chicken baby food that I guess I will find a use for someday, but evidently this is not that day. They are actually interested in dry kibble, but even broken up, they can’t eat that yet. Their jaw strength is inadequate, I guess, as they certainly have teeth. Sharp teeth.
Anyway: last night for the very first time I did not have to get up at 1:00 AM to make Morgan nurse them, so she and I are both relieved about that. Especially me.
I have also introduced the puppies to the outdoor world!
Going outside means three trips down the steps for me, not to mention three trips back up. Four or five times a day, as I am now actively engaged in the very earliest stages of housetraining; eg, taking them out at strategic moments so that they will develop a preference for doing their business outside. Which they do prefer. Puppies always prefer that if they are allowed to develop their instinct to be clean.
Anyway, they most certainly can’t be out unsupervised. Way too many dangers out there, including hawks. I actually know of a local incident where a hawk picked up a Yorkie and carried it up into a tree before dropping it. The dog survived, but was badly injured — I got this story from my vet, who treated the dog, so I know it really happened. These puppies are all around three pounds — 2 lbs 13.75 oz to 3 lbs 3.5 oz as of this morning — which is smaller than most Yorkies and in fact smaller than a lot of rabbits.
Luckily, I have a reliable babysitter:
That is Naamah, who will not leave puppies alone outside. That’s Tri Girl One climbing on her and … um … I think … yes, Tri Girl Two in the foreground. Anyway, I have an x-pen, so I carry the puppies down and put them in the x-pen with Naamah until they’re all down in the yard. Then I open the x-pen and let them wander about, with Naamah as a major playmate and the other dogs ambling about.
All the puppies are brave about exploring and all of them toddle right to a person and climb in their lap. If I were going to hazard a guess, I’d say Tri Girl One is going to be Little Miss Independent, while Tri Boy is likely to be a lap dog and very affectionate. B/T Boy is spunky. Tri Girl Two and Ruby Girl might turn out to be calm and sweet, but on the other hand, maybe not that calm! All of them will benefit from having more visitors this week and then gently going places next week.
Please Feel Free to Share:
They are absolutely adorable, and I for one think you should be absolved of getting any work done at all while they’re in this state!
Thanks, Mary Beth, because that’s pretty close to the amount of work I’m doing these days! But I think I will impose some reasonable minimum word count per day and see if I can make myself move forward at least a little. I do have the odd hour when the puppies are all asleep and out of sight. Just not very many hours!
They are very cute, and what a winderful babysitter!
Got to be careful of the hawks. Local small dog got taken by one here in the suburbs not long ago.
They’re adorable, and love the photo of them with the puppy sitter.
One of my uncles in Alaska used to keep sled dogs, and at some point my aunt decided she wanted a dog of her own – a little lap dog, not a working dog. They called the little guy “obie”, which was OB – short for Owl Bait
In Alaska, I bet the risk for all kinds of predation may be higher. I knew someone whose Lab was attacked by a bear in Alaska. In their backyard.
Oh, definitely – and, they don’t live somewhere relatively populated, like Anchorage or Fairbanks (or even Palmer). They’re in one of the most remote parts of the interior, in a town whose population is in double digits. If you get injured and need stitches, you might get sewn up by someone who learned suture through correspondence courses! (That’s how my aunt and uncle met.)
SarahZ, whoa. That makes my area look positively urban.
I did learn to tube feed puppies by watching a video. Pretty sure I would not want to learn how to stitch up a wound that way…