Week 4

10/21/01- This week has been full of activity. Five of our puppy buyers made the trek to see the babies and all went well. All the puppies were easily handled and snuggled and/or kissed whoever was holding them at the moment. Phoebe was great too with all the strangers in the house around her babies. Their play sessions last longer and they sleep more soundly now. They bark, growl, stretch and play. We joke sometimes that we should set up a puppy cam because they are just so mesmerizing to watch.

We continue to have individual play sessions and snuggle sessions with each puppy. These have moved out into the den so they can explore some on their own hopefully without peeing on the carpet. They are also paying attention to who is at the side of the whelping box. Most of the time, white, black, blue, orange, silver and rainbow are the first to greet us. White is getting so big she made her way over the rail a few nights ago and woke us up howling to get back in with her brothers and sisters.

They are eating the puppy gruel on their own three times a day with intermittent nursing as much as Phoebe can stand. During the lunch meal we add a little raw chicken which they devour like mad. Their teeth are really coming in now and I am sure it doesn't feel great for Phoebe. When she gets into the whelping box they are all tall enough now to nurse on her standing up. Poor Phoebe can't catch a break. However, she does slack on the cleaning up after them as she is more interested in finishing their leftovers than her motherly duties. We remedy the situation by having a wet cloth ready to wipe off their messy faces. They have also started to drink water in addition to their meals and are relatively paper trained.

Midget (Pink) is doing well and now weighs one ounce more than Yellow girl. Maybe yellow girl will end up being the smallest! After they eat and we wipe them off, they have a tendency to get cold faster than the others so we put them by the warm spot in the box and they curl up and go right to bed. Both are very sweet and like to cuddle and lick your nose.

It is getting hard to weigh them as some have surpassed the 6 lb. mark and don't have much room in the basket. White is still the biggest girl and Green is the biggest boy.

This was our first attempt at taking individual pictures so hopefully by next time we will get better at it. Some of them had just woken up and were a little groggy. Rob and I have various nicknames for all the colors....

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