lifeinflux

Puppy Steps Forward – Days 7 and 8 (Tuesday and Wednesday)

// January 27th, 2011 // Featured Post

Drue’s face says it all. We love, love, LOVE our puppies (and Sunny, too)!!! Tuesday dawned clear with perfect weather and Sunny took full advantage on her morning stroll around the front yard. Yes, that’s right. Our sweet girl has stopped rushing out, pottying and heading straight back in. She’s actually taking her time, smelling around the yard and using the bathroom out in the yard (as opposed to hiding behind bushes, scared). That was really our only big win on Tuesday as Sunny and the babies spent most of the day sleeping and recovering from Monday’s vet trip. Even when the puppies were up and playing, they were a little sluggish most of the day and Sunny took advantage of it to sleep most of the day away. We finally got them up around 2 and encouraged everyone to eat, Sunny included. However, only five of the puppies ate a good amount; the three smalls (Panda, Carter and Butch) nursed as opposed to eating the mushy puppy food. According to the research, this is perfectly normal so we’re not worrying for now. When Sunny had her evening meal, the puppies were up after sleeping all day and wired for sound. I had my hands full with end of day to-do’s and Jason was out running errands (and buying a new, even bigger and better steam cleaner for the floors – go OCD!) so Drue helped me out by going in the kitchen and playing with the puppies. At one point, when I glanced in, she had puppies pulling at her pants’ legs, puppies pulling on her shirt, puppies piling in her lap and everyone was yipping and barking. Oh yes, didn’t I mention that? The puppies have found their voices and each one has a distinctive bark, yip, whine or call. And boy do they love to use their voices! They even make little yips, groans and grunts in their sleep! If a few of them are “talking” I can tell who is who. When all eight get going, it’s just a whole lot of puppy noise but oh, it’s so cute! All of their “I’m hurt” squeals sound the same but as they get bigger – and rougher – Sunny steps in from time to time if the action moves from playing to all out brawl. Wednesday was a better day for the puppies in that all eight were active and playing during much of the day. They played so hard Wednesday as if to make up for Tuesday and all slept well. I’ve seen all eight kick, flex and yip in their sleep which is fantastic and shows neurological and muscular growth. Some move more than others. Rascal, Smokey, Butch, Carter and Bella are definitely the five who have grown the most physically and mentally. Duncan, Panda and Shadow still nurse and rely on Sunny or me to give them the stimulus the other puppies find from each other. Right now, my assumption is that they are just our late bloomers and if they don’t show marked improvement by our vet appointment on the 14th, we’ll discuss it then and figure out our next steps. Wednesday night, between running errands, taking Drue to volleyball AND then going to Drue’s Science Fair (well Jays and Drue did… I ran more errands), I left the dogs in the pen and did not unlatch the gate. Sunny figured out how to get out but boy did we have some angry puppies when we finally got home. On Wednesday, Jason took Sunny out twice while Bear was in the house. Bear is showing mild curiosity towards Sunny but the aggression has died off as best we can see. Still, we are both trying to reclaim some of our lives and got a little careless in doing so. We’ll have to watch that more closely in the future. However, so far, so good and we’re going to try adding in workouts a couple of days next week. We’ve also gone from takeout for two meals a day down to takeout for one meal a day. I’ve even been able to get in the kitchen and make Drue breakfast most mornings. So while our errors on Wednesday felt like a small step back for Jays and I, we recognize that we, like the puppies, are allowed those backward steps from time to time.

Also, on Wednesday, after trying to impose a feeding schedule on the puppies, we realized that, right now, we just need to make sure that there is food available to Sunny and the puppies in order to give Sunny a break from nursing AND to ensure the puppies are getting their nutritional needs met. I’ve been charting their eating times, play times and sleeping times again now that all eight are eating the mushy puppy food and nursing occasionally. I still think we will settle on a 6:30 AM; 2:00 PM and 10:00 PM eating schedule once all eight puppies are eating more than they are nursing simply because it is an even feeding cycle AND it allows us to meet our work, school, activity and social obligations and needs. But until our three holdouts – Duncan, Panda and Shadow – transition over where they are eating as much as they are nursing, it is better to free feed to keep everyone growing and healthy. Sunny is regulating her own food intake which is very UN-lab of her. However, she has more of a cattle dog body and look/feel (except for her eyes and eyebrows – that is ALL lab). As the puppies nurse less, she eats less. Her water intake is high and the puppies are starting to drink water as well. Nature and nurture are both running their proper course and we are confident that all eight will be weaned by week eight with no problems. Sunny is no longer skin and bones, either. All the good food, occasional treats and TLC have finally started making a difference. You can no longer see her hip bones and she has a nice layer of padding over her ribs. I figure another five pounds and she’ll be perfect. Then we will start addressing the sad condition of her coat, although, that has made a bit of a comeback as well. The puppies are starting to play harder and faster now and have discovered each others paws, tails and personal bits. The occasional fight breaks out (I’m looking at you, Carter) as the puppies try to figure out who is dominant and they occasionally hurt each other. Sunny occasionally has to step in and is desperate for time away from them. Unfortunately, until her parasites clear up and she gets her shots, she cannot be out in the house or back yard. So we’ve started penning up the puppies for a little while each day to give Sunny a needed break. As she continues to show interest in the outside world – and continues to trust us – the plan is to encourage her to take small walks with us. So far, she has been resistant to leaving the front yard. We’re hoping with time – and as she continues to look for ways to get breaks from her eight babies – we’ll be able to convince her that fresh air and exercise are just what the doctor ordered!

As the puppies start eating more solid food, and now that all eight have been dewormed, they are transitioning from soft mushy poops to small solid poops. It took until Wednesday night for all eight to reach that point but now that they are here, Sunny has stopped cleaning up after them. To start them on the right foot for house training – and to ensure they don’t soil their bedding – we’re taking up the training pads as soon as we see them soiled and replace them with clean pads. This ensures they don’t step in, play in or try to eat their poop and keeps the bedding and kitchen cleaner overall. All puppies get pets and praises for using their papers and we’re slowly leaving small areas uncovered and moving puppies to the papers for them to do their business. This Sunday, I’m going to try to designate a play/food area vs a pooping area and spend Sunday afternoon in the kitchen gently teaching the puppies where to go vs. where to play. Nature’s Orange cleaner has been a lifesaver budget-wise, sanity wise and has enabled me to continue using my kitchen to prepare food in. And thanks to the lack of chemicals, it does not tear up the skin on my hands since I scrub the kitchen floor, cabinets, appliances and counters down several times a day.

The puppies are 4 weeks as of Wednesday which means we only have four weeks to go. To be perfectly honest, I want the puppies to go to people I know and trust. The thought of just sending them out there into the ether with no updates or contact much less the knowledge that they will be well cared for is something I’m not prepared to face. I recognize logically that I may not be able to adopt them out to people I know… but the hope is still there nonetheless. I don’t know how people who foster ongoing or run rescues can manage not to get attached and just hope and trust that the people they allow to adopt – because really, background checks only get you so far – are going to care for these dogs and love them as much as you do. And that part, more than anything else, is the one thing that holds me back from saying we’ll foster again. At this point we love all nine of these dogs so much. And while we recognize there is no way we can care for all nine of them ongoing, letting them go is going to be very hard for all of us. Well okay… maybe it won’t be hard for Kodi Bear and Mimir but for Jays, Drue and I, it feels unimaginably difficult to let these babies go. Logically we accept what will happen in a few weeks. Getting our hearts to align with our minds is going to take longer than that, I think.