Two weeks down, six to go

The pups are two weeks old. One of them is huge. One of them is small. And the rest are in between. Several are climbing right out of the whelping box. Some are barking, and one is even snapping and growling at me when I try to stop him sucking on his brothers or to put him back in the box after he has crawled out. He is going to be a handful, that one.

Lucy is no longer the good mother - she does NOT want to be with the pups any more, even when they are crying for her. When I force her to stay in the xpen with the babies, she stands up in the whelping box as the babies attach themselves to her - and then tries to follow me out, dragging the babies across the wooden edge of the box - Yikes!

Lucy standing up as pups clamour to be fed

Checking back on her later, I have often found her curled up by the x-pen door, on the newspaper, rather than lying in the box with the babes. The pups seem to get enough milk in the morning, but by late afternoon they are almost panicky with hunger - crying and wandering about and sucking on one another endlessly. So I use a combination of trying to coax Lucy in to feed them, bottle feeding them, and this evening offered little dishes of the puppy formula to the three most troublesome (ie who wouldn't leave their brothers alone). They immediately lapped it up like they'd been doing it all their short lives. In another week or so, I will be able to add puppy mash (pablum type solids)into the mix, I think.

Attempts to switch Lucy back to kibble have failed - six hours after getting 1/8 cup presoaked kibble mixed in with her oatmeal, she was back to having the liquid poops. So we continue to homecook for her. I will try again, one kibble at a time.

Lucy has decided she wants to reclaim her youth. In the backyard today, she tried to get Sadie to play - body slamming poor Sadie right off her feet. Fortunately, Sadie is patient and engaged in a game of kissy face, chase, and fight-ya-fer-the-frisbee. Charley doesn't know what to make of the new Leapin' Lucy, and thinks I should return her to the shelter.

I took some awesome puppy videos for the blog today - and discovered there is no way to transfer them from my camera to my computer. When I bought the camera, no one told me you have to have the latest in technology to view the videos on anything other than the camera. With my old camera, the videos just downloaded with the still images. So even though I bought the camera just three months after the computer, my computer is obsolete for all intents and purposes. If you want to see the videos, you will have to come visit me. Be prepared to feed puppies and clean up puppy poops, to do puppy laundry and to cook puppy food.

Meanwhile, here are a few still images I captured of the puppies today:

Puppy nose

Puppy eyes

Tellin' mom a secret

Looking for food

Cutey puppy 1

Cutey puppy 2

Cutey puppy 3