Annie gets new people
Today I confirmed with Annie’s new home that she is indeed going home to them in a couple weeks. It was a bittersweet phone call for me. In this short time I have become very attached to her. She would definitely be easy for me to adopt myself if I had room in my heart. Still, I know it is best for her to go. I know that she needs and deserves a family of her own that has more time and love to give her.
In these past few weeks she has really calmed down. She rests more easily and cuddles with me on the couch every night. She loves getting tummy rubs and she will (more…)
Pups Get Some Fresh Air
We took the puppies outside today for the first time! The weather was warmish (temps in the 50’s!) and wet but they all took to exploring immediately! They loved it and I felt proud of my instinct to wait until now to introduce them to outside. Their noses took over and everyone of them explored the snow. A couple pooped immediately (yeah!) and most ate snow and ran around. It was fun but short lived. They were all wet and shivery within 10 minutes so we went back inside and they promptly fell asleep.
Puppy Socialization
pups at play
With the holidays there has been a lot of opportunity for the pups to play with many different people – kids and adults alike. This has been really good for them. The first time they met others outside our family they were shy and subdued. But now that they get the idea of how much fun people can be they are digging it! So, if you know who we are and want to come by to help with this socialization project, please do not hesitate to call us up!
For the past 24 hours they had a super marathon of play with our cousin Kendall. She and Ryan played for hours with them and were convinced that they had taught them many things including how to give their paw (both front AND back paws!), how to go down the Little Tikes slide (LOVE Little Tikes toys- great for kids, great for puppies!) and how to dance. I’m not sure how much of those lessons the puppies retained but I do know that the puppies learned that playing with kids is WAY fun and interesting. (more…)
Heavy Workload
Bless this mess.
It feels like I am constantly going now. Once I feed the pups then I have to take care of Annie’s food. Then I have to clean up the food bowls and let Annie out. Then I play with the pups to give them some stimulation and get them used to being handled and of course Annie’s right there needing some attention too. Then I have to clean up the wet papers, mop the floors and put down new papers. Hopefully at this point the pups are starting to fall asleep. Before they do I have to change their bedding, put the soiled bedding into the washer after taking out the wet bedding and putting it into the dryer after taking out the cleaned and dried bedding and folding it. Once the bedding is laid one pup invariably walks on it and pees. I try to pretend that it doesn’t happen. You can’t ever get the room cleaned – you just try to keep (more…)
Fat and Happy
Weaning is going well, Annie’s milk production seems to be going down and the pups are eating well on their own more and more frequently. They are fat and happy. When I walk into the room they gather around me and bite (hard) on my legs, ankles and feet. I have to really control myself so I don’t kick out reflexively and send one of the sailing! Today I imagined their first time outside in the snow and got really excited. Of course that will have to wait until they are a bit older and hopefully the weather will cooperate. In the summer I’d have had them outside by now, but they are just too small and it is just too cold and so my instinct is to wait.
Read on for more photos! (more…)
Puppies everywhere
Puppies puppies everywhere! They all walk around the room now, exploring, playing and peeing. Every time I enter the room I have to laugh as they all stop and look, just like little kids you burst in on and startle. They look like they’ve been caught doing something wrong.
They are well into the solid food now and are taking more and more from me, and less from Annie. This is good as she wants less and less to do with them. Tonight, for an hour during feeding time, they had a babysitter! My friend, Maria, came by and played, fussed, and held them all. When I came down to clean up the meal mess they were all zonked out. They continue to enjoy human contact, wagging and crawling over one another to get to the people who visit them. There are going to be a lot of visitors soon. We plan to post their pictures on Petfinder next week. Look for them either by going directly to Petfinder or through the HELP website . They will be named after Santa’s eight reindeer – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comit, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen. The brown one is Blitzen.
