The great escape....

There has been criticism of this blog on my FB profile. Not enough pics apparently, according to Liz. Well, this should help a little. Now, we know FL are bright, forward pups, but this is what I came down to this morning:

So this is the way out

This is a premium DogHealth bolt together puppy pen for vigorous litters. The bolts are held together with nuts and tightened with a key. I had noticed them chewing away at the fixings but thought nothing of it. Luckily the large pile of papers prevented more exiting with ease. Brulee was found in the middle of the sitting room floor with a fir cone (safer than the computer leads I suppose).  Now all the bolts have been turned around, and will be checked daily....moments later all was calm  and much later on in the morning when more visitors arrived, they were still crashed out after all the excitement:

I'm an angel really, this halo has just slipped a tad

Lots and lots of visitors!

Its really hard to imagine that we are more than halfway through the first stage of this litter's life. In four more weeks they will have all four paws firmly situated in their new homes. With that in mind - the pups met some of their potential new owners this weekend: the remainder will be visiting them during the course of this week. I can say they enjoyed the attention and fuss as they have cranked up the volume and activity today! Although tired from answering questions/offering advice, I thoroughly enjoyed the visits - and hope you did too :-)
I am on semi-permanent bluebottle alert, which involves regular application of disinfectant, shutting doors repeatedly and pacing up and down for much of the day with a tennis racquet shaped electric fly swat. Roll on OCD, all the ingredients are there already.
Ilo is slowly weaning the pups quite naturally and I am stepping in to substitute with meals that are guzzled in seconds. Their teeth are getting sharper by the moment and jaw pressure is increasing, won't be long before we try some raw carrots and runner beans. Some real play fights going on now, the girls get their own back by biting the boys' equipment while they sleep and they have started to dance backwards - love it!
I have been poor with photos this week but once again, one of my visitors brought a super machine so head to Muohta page for shots and weights....thank you David Greenfield :-)

Bye-bye whelping box, hello world!

What a wonderful week...the pups have continued on their rapid developmental journey and I have finally made it to a half-century...there is no nicer way to mark such a milestone than with puppy watching!

Weaning introduction has continued this week with salmon mousse, raw lamb and beef mince and scrambled egg...all eaten with gusto, if not finesse. There is a good deal of stomping around and dancing backwards through the food, plus Tipps and Blaze have found out they can bark!

The litter have had plenty of visitors this week and handling has begun, and all have enjoyed their first experience of the real wide world.

Mock wrestling and exploring everything in sight is all part of the experience as this short video shows:

They are all moving so fast now that photography is proving harder by the minute,  but luckily Susanne visited for the day on Saturday and helped with the official week 3 photies...the results and the weights are as ever, on the Muohta page.

Eyes, teeth, sitting up and worming

Its all happening this week at a rate of knots. The first to open her eyes at 9 days was the little cream girl (AKA Brûlée) and the first to sit up and demand seconds was the first born male (AKA Tips). It has been a battle between Tips and the fourth born girl (AKA Blaze) as to who would try to pile on the weight fastest.  The third born girl (AKA Sox) and the second boy (AKA Stripe) seem to love having their nails clipped - everyone else put up a fair old battle so I had to resort to mummification in a handy towel,  just as is frequently required when giving a cat a pill. The nails are tiny and my goodness its hard not to get it wrong and clip the quick. 

All tolerated the Panacur worming treatment well.  The first born girl (AKA V) is the most adept by far at eating the salmon mousse and soaked puppy kibble  - something we tried today for the first time as the pups are hungry in between feed sessions, especially in the mornings. What a mess, and most wound up eating more from each other than the plate...Ilo continues to be a fab Mum, and has, after a slow start, realised the joy of salmon mousse-impregnated puppy fur.

They are beginning to mouth and play bite with tiny emerging puppy teeth this week, although they are not too serious about it yet and still appear slightly inebriated.

The markings are really coming out now and I have put some 2 week headshots (huge thanks to Rob and Karen Goldthorpe) with weights and names at last(!) on the Muohta page  - enjoy.