Saturday, May 24, 2008
Visitors
Friday, May 23, 2008
more May 22 pics
Frankly, this is how Tom ALWAYS ends up with his nose bitten when the pups have teeth! He just loves holding and cuddling with the puppies. Their ears are open and the I can see little peepers emerging, as their eyes open. From all the talking we do with them, they will soon discover who the voices belong to!
The boy on the right is #6. He is a big 'un, and you can see that he is a different shade than the pup next to him. He is noticeably more chestnut than liver.
roan and plated pups
The puppies did get their nails trimmed after this photo, so forgive the long nails. At this age, I can just prop them in my lap and trim using a human toenail clipper. I'm sure that soon enough I will long for these days! The wigglier ones Tom holds while I trim. The puppy who complained the most was the almost all-white male puppy.
In these photos, you can see the differences in the changing colors of the plated and roan puppies. Here is a plated puppy and his pink, pink pads:
and here is a roan puppy:
A closer view of the pink feet:
and closer view of the roan feet:
Before these guys were born, we had only had plated puppies and I wondered how and how soon the differences would develop. Now I know and have photographic evidence should anyone ask what to look for in the future!
New location and new surface on May 22
It's getting hard to have the pups hold still for photos; they are moving around quite abit now and either crawl out of the container or remove themselves from the frame entirely! Several days after birth, we place rugs in the puppy box so that they can get traction and this really seems to speed up the process of motor development. These guys are already practicing a wobbly walk, not just pulling themselves around. It is rather like watching a baby rock itself into forward motion, with a little stagger and there it goes!
The pups all had a trip to a new location last night-- our living room! I thought they might appreciate sharing the season finale of "Grey's Anatomy" with me, and they also needed a nail trim, so in 3's and 4's they experienced their first new location, and a new surface, as well. I placed a sheet on the hardwood floor, so they could move more easily and I could clean up any little accidents. They were also recently fed and ready for a nap, so I could snap a few pictures.
This is Kia, one of our Siamese cats. She kept laying down next to the pups, and one crawled over and started searching for a nipple. I wasn't convinced that would end well, so I tried to shoo Kia away. Apparently she thought the puppies needed to be introduced to a kitty, though.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Over Easy?
On our near-40 acre property we are blessed to have an assortment of wildlife. Since moving here, I have added books on wild plants, birds and mammals to the library. There are some who are annual guests, such as the killdeer.
The killdeer lays its eggs in gravel, and every year we spend a number of weeks avoiding the road to the kennel or flagging off the area of nests so visitors don't drive over them. This year, I discovered a nest when a client was loading up his dog and we watched the momma bird put on a tremendous display to distract us before we stepped on the eggs!
But I was lucky enough to see another nest, one I've never seen before! During turkey season, my brother in law told about a sandhill crane approaching his decoys in a territorial manner, extending it's wings and tossing pieces of grass at the decoy. Sure enough, there is a nest near the pond, with a single egg. So cool!
Monday, May 19, 2008
9th born, female 9 days old
And here is our girl who, depending on your view and attitude, has a star OR mickey mouse ears on her back!
6th born, male 9 days old
This is the chunky monkey boy. He is a lighter shade of brown than the other pups and will be roan. He is the largest pup at the moment and has been a big boy since birth.
3rd born pup, male 9 days old
This boy has a smaller white cape around his neck than #11 boy. He will be plated.
Males 3 and 11
When we took the last pictures, it appeared that these two boys were identical. They are pretty darned close, but one has a bigger cape of white.
dirty feet
This is boy #6. You can see his "dirty" front feet, indicating he will be roan. In doing the feet examination, the results are the same; it appears that ALL the females will be roan, and males #3,4,8, and 11 will be plated. #8 is the only one that I still note as "probably" plated. All the other plated pups have pink, pink pads.
New puppy pictures!
You'll be happy to find new photos of the pups! If you count this pile o pups you find one is missing. It is because as we posed them for photos, we would place them back into the whelping box. Look how big they've gotten in just over a week!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Babes
What an interesting pattern in this pile o pups! At this age, their life consists of sleeping (ALOT), eating (OFTEN) and pottying. Confetti is a good momma and takes care of that duty for now. The pups get handled for weighing and are snuggled and breathed on, and talked to. The bio-dog stimulations occur as part of our normal handling for the most part. Tiny stressors that help to boost their resistance to change in the future. I always enjoy it when their little personalities emerge. The eyes are the windows to even puppy souls and when those little peepers open, their expressions are apparent. But here I am, already wishing they were older when too soon they will be toddling about and then gone...