The Puppies Turn 4!
Weeks, that is
The pups turned four weeks this week (9/22) and they got their color coding on Saturday. All but one of the pups got a collar, so we, the uninitiated, can start telling them apart; Marian, Gayle and Nancy didn't seem to have any problem, but they all looked perfect and nearly identical to me. Anyhow.
So we can try to start associating personality and appearance with pup, I'm going to try to organize the photos by puppy as much as possible. It isn't going to be perfect because there are "multi-puppy" shots that I couldn't resist, and I took a few photos before they got collared. Also, I guess some pups just crawled into the lens view more often, because some of them have way more pictures than others. I've probably fouled up the sexes that go with the collars, but there were very few photographic clues, so I'm hoping Marian will help.
Also, people might be developing interest in one specific dog/pup by now, so I've put in links direct to those pictures. I think. When you click on a link, your browser should position the section of the page about that pup at the very top of your viewing page. Here goes.
Tommy the Tank, Arnold . . .Flare's Big Boy
Ms. Pink
Mr. Fuschia
Mr. Aqua
Ms. No Collar and Mad
Ms. Hot Pink
Mr. Blue
Mr. Black
Mr. Red
Mr. Tan
Mr. Green
Unidentified puppy pictures
Pictures of multiple, collared pups
The Creation of a Puppy Pile
Siren
Sparkles
Cowboy
Sava
The first row of pictures are of Flare and her crew, birth and adopted. As you can see, they're still good doers, as my father used to say. Also, they've developed some interest in playing - look at that guy on the end attacking. We came late in the pups day, but Flare's pups generally seem quieter than Leia's.
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Shortly after we arrived, Marian started collaring them. Tommy the Tank or Arnold or Huey - whatever you call The Vast One - was first with a tasteful and manly brown. Marian left the long ends on the collars in hopes that the other pups would pull on the nylon collar-end rather than shredding their littermates ears. Figure them odds.
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Next to get tamed was Maroon Boy, who seemed unphased by the experience.
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Pink girl was next. She got her collar and immediately attempted to lord it over her undifferentiated buddies.
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I guess it's tough to get 10 different puppy collar colors that are all masculine, but Fuschia Boy appears to be really rebelling. I think potential owners should assess the possibility of psychic damage due to early anger.
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Mr. Aqua doesn't have any problems, though.
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The girl pup didn't get a collar because the latch on hers was broken. This experience may also stick with her - is she woebegone looking, or what?
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We then moved into Leia's area and tagged Ms. Hot Pink, followed by Mr. Blue, Mr. Black, Mr. Red, Mr. Tan, and Mr. Green.
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There were a bunch of pictues that I took before the pups got tagged, so I can't identify them, but I couldn't force myself to get rid of the photos, so here they are:
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These are a bunch of "mixed bag" photos, where you can tell what pups are involved, but no single pup is stealing the spotlight.
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I call this The Origin of a Puppy Pile. When we all trooped into the room, most of the pups left their corner to check us out. Mr. Tan stuck with his fans for awhile, but soon headed for the comfort of the pile. Ms. Hot Pink followed, and pretty soon there wasn't room for Mr. Green. Mr. Red was a hold out.
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After we oohed and ahed over the puppies, we went out to play with the Big Dogs. In addition to Marian's Siren and Sparkles, Marian's friends Gayle and Nancy had brought over their boys, Cowboy and Sava (that's probably misspelled), the fathers of Leia's and Flare's litters, respectively. As we're coming to expect with Vizlas, they all behaved in a reserved and dignified manner.
Siren may have been a slight exception.
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Sparkles, as usual, was the perfect hostess, chasing balls even though she would have much preferred lounging in her kennel. The people in the photo came up from LA to see the litter. Santa Cruz doesn't seem so far now. They were knowledgeable dog people, unlike us, and it was gratifying to see that they seemed impressed with the pups. (As opposed to us, who aren't impressed, just willing to take them *all* home.)
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Cowboy also participated in the activities. He looks like he's gained some weight over the two weeks since we saw him. At that point, he had just returned from boot camp with a field trials (I think) trainer. Nancy said that he now weighs 47 pounds. In any case, he was interested and active!
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Sava also came out to play, although I didn't get any good shots of him moving. On our way out, though, we stopped to chat with Nancy, who was attempting to have some alone time with her dog. Sava seemed pretty relaxed until Nancy started talking about a cookie. The last six pictures are Sava trying to figure out exactly what he's going to have to do to get that damned cookie. He's game for anything, but Nancy's got to tell him what she has in mind! Check out the large picture on the second from the left, bottom row - I think that's probably as goofy as a dog like Sava can look.
I had to fool with the color on these to make Sava and Nancy's features come out - and that's one more thing I'm not good at, so sorry about any misrepresentation due to color inaccuracies.
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All in all, another perfect learning day with the pups.
