The Pups are Three Weeks Old
We went up to see the puppies again today, Sept 14. This time there were only 8 people and no extra dogs - dull, dull, dull. The pups are starting to show signs of dogness; as Marian says, they can stagger a few steps off their rug to piddle, then they collapse and cry because they're wet. In any case, any of these red pups are way cuter than the proverbial "speckled pup in a red wagon!"
As usual, double click on the thumbnails to see larger views of the pictures.
When I saw the litters, I was unable to restrain myself; I just took a zillion pictures. Fortunately, they sort of arranged themselves into several categories. When we came in the front door, we were at Flare's box, where her two pups were hanging out with four of Leia's. You can really see the difference a week makes - the two monsters at the top of the pictures above are Flare's, who were born only two days before Leia's pups, but Marian thinks were conceived a week before. The two litters were born so close in time because, with only two pups, there was damned little pressure on Flare to give them up - so her pups are functionally a week older AND the week was spent at The Mom Spa, an extremely nurturing environment.
After that, we mostly saw puppy piles, as can be seen above. However, there were a few interactions that just cracked me up. The sequence below looks like a politician buttonholing a brother (probably not sexist in this case, since there are about the same proportion of girl pups to boy pups as there are women in the US Senate) pork-barreller:
Step 1: Get in his face and talk to him.
Step 2: Bite his nose to make him listen.
Step 3: Put a paw on his arm to establish your sincerity.
Step 4: Follow him if he moves away.
Step 5: Back him up against a wall and stay nose-to-nose until he surrenders.
There were also some explorer dogs and pups that just looked lonely. I'm pretty sure they aren't, but it sure made us want to take them home! The one in the bottom row looked like he was going to trek out over the arctic tundra, but was called back and welcomed by his brothers.
After that, the pups activities divided themselves into (row 1) chewing on each other and (row 2) yawning:
Leia left the pups with us for awhile, but when dinner time rolled around, she returned, playing the part of the buffet. She had trouble getting everybody rounded up, though: we couldn't keep our hands off the pups.
Marian also got to get in her licks. She's started trimming their toe nails early, sympathizing with Leia and Flare - those little nails are sharp!
As the pups drifted off, the people drifted out to the yard to play with the Real Dogs, Sparkles and Siren. We all took turns throwing the ball for them, but Brendan seemed to be their favorite.
