Update: Wow, puppies are distracting

Okay, in order to make up for last weekend, Morgan’s Difficult Puppy once again became Morgan’s Easy Blen Puppy.

After utterly refusing to nurse at all last Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, this Blen puppy suddenly swiveled another 180 degrees and decided that nursing was fine! Not only that, but when I tried him on different foods, he thought everything in the world was delicious and is proving to be the easiest puppy I have ever weaned. His Tri brother, asleep behind him in this picture, is a Normal Puppy, which means he is not very interested in real food. He will take a bit and then spit it out. THAT is normal at this age (four weeks today). Blen puppy will eat little bits as fast as you can hand them to him. I’ve started them on soaked kibble with some formula added for enticement. Generally I have to add something else for further enticement. I’ll try that with the Tri puppy, but obviously, barring further unanticipated weirdness, that’s not going to be necessary with Easy Again Blen Puppy.

That’s Naamah playing with him, by the way.

I am so very tempted to keep this puppy, even though he is a boy. I think he may be really, really nice. He might be the kind of puppy who is highly competitive, a real delight to show, the sort of youngster who has a good chance of winning against practically any competition. I’m telling myself not to get too far ahead of him. It’s really impossible to evaluate structure at this age. But I think his head is going to be really pretty. His bite is good right now. It could go off, of course, but it’s a good sign that it’s correct right now. The Tri looks nice too, but I suspect this Blen dude is going to be better.

I can now lose twenty minutes of my life at any time, just by gazing at these puppies. AND IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE.

Meanwhile!

It’s very difficult to take pictures of super-young puppies. You face their little heads toward the camera and they wobble their little heads away again. Also, as I have mentioned before, the camera on this phone is absolutely terrible. Nevertheless, I managed to get a few decent pictures of Leda’s little ones. They will be three weeks old in two days, but of course they are a full pound smaller than Morgan’s Big Puppies at that age. They’re doing great, but it makes a big difference that there are four rather than two. Leda’s got plenty of milk, but these puppies aren’t going to be fat. Anyway, pictures —

This is, top to bottom, Boy 2, Girl 1, and Girl 2.

Boy 1 is below Girl 2 in the bottom picture, but you can’t see his face, of course.

Their eyes are open, but you can’t tell because they’re asleep or nearly so in all these pictures. They sleep nearly all the time they aren’t nursing. It’s remarkable to think of how fast they’ll change over the next week. They’ll show the very first play gestures any day now; they’ll probably toddle up to their feet in another four days or so. They’ll stay awake longer and start to look like real puppies. In another two weeks, they’ll be hitting ultimate cuteness, like the big puppies. They won’t be able to play with the big ones, not at that point. They will be much too far behind in their physical development. Nine days, ten days, makes an enormous difference right now. By the time the older ones are ten weeks and the little ones about eight weeks, they’ll be better matched. Another month after that and they’ll be practically identical. Wait yet another month and probably the size differences will have evened out.

Boy 2 has the best markings. A little kiss mark, you can’t see it in this picture, but symmetrical markings. Good body markings too. He is the smallest of the four, but that doesn’t mean a lot because this is a very even litter, hardly more than an ounce apart in weight. Girl 1 is not nearly as symmetrical, sigh. I think she will be passable if her structure is particularly good. Girl 2 has the worst markings, but I suspect she may be quite cute. I think she’s rather appealing in this picture. I like how round her head is, too, though heads will change so much over the next month that there’s not a lot of point in thinking about it yet.

Well, we’ll see.

In the meantime: wow, they are interfering with my ability to get work done. Nevertheless, I am getting proofreading comments back on NO FOREIGN SKY and even on TASMAKAT, which is stunningly fast for that monster. Proofing is easy to do in little dabs of time, which is great.

I’m also making progress on the story I want to include in the Tuyo World Companion. Not a lot of progress. It’s laughable compared to how fast TANO was. But given the many little distractions I have right now, that’s probably inevitable. I’m counting any progress at all as adequate at the moment.